‘The Triumph of Love.’ Written by Pierre Carlet de Marivaux. Adapted by Stephen Wadsworth. Directed by Loretta Greco. Scenic and Costume Design by Junghyun Georgia Lee. Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design by Tom Watson. Lighting Design by Christopher Akerlind. Composer and Sound Design by Fan Zhang. Presented by The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston through April 6, 2025.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Pierre Carlet de Marivaux’s “The Triumph of Love,” which premiered in 1732 and is at The Huntington through April 6, is like a trifle dessert, with light spongey layers of raucously funny deceptions, disguises and mistaken identities soaked in a sherry-spiked pastoral period set design. Instead of the traditional alternating tiers of sweet jams and custard, however, Marivaux has substituted a bitter concoction of calculated cruelty and manipulation. The end result is a sugar-coated confection that leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth.

Read more “In The Huntington’s ‘The Triumph of Love,’ All’s Fair in the War Between Reason and Romance”

The Huntington Theatre presents ‘The Triumph of Love. Written by Pierre de Marivaux. Adapted by Stephen Wadsworth. Directed by Loretta Greco. Scenic and Costume Design by Junghyun Georgia Lee. Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design by Tom Watson. Lighting Design by Christopher Akerlind. Composer and Sound Design by Fan Zhang. At The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston through April 6, 2025.

By Linda Chin

Much like its 2016 production of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, based on post-impressionist painter George Seurat’s ‘La Grande Jatte’ (1884), the action in playwright Pierre de Marivaux’s 1732 stylized French comedy The Triumph of Love takes place in a natural setting – and gives a nod to another French artist. In bringing Triumph to life, director (and artistic director) Loretta Greco, scenic and costume designer Junghyun Georgia Lee, and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind have created a visual feast that draws inspiration from Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s renowned ‘The Swing’ (1767), transforming the Huntington stage into “the gardens of Hermocrate’s country retreat,” replete with vines of ivy climbing the walls, lemon trees, rhododendrons, roses in bloom, and a luminous backdrop of a kaleidoscopic, cloud-swept sky. Completing the landscape, a stone bench with some ornamentation and a simple swing made of wood and ropes.     

Read more “Swinging Between Thinking and Feeling in Huntington’s ‘Triumph of Love’”