Camille
by Charles Ludlam
9th September 2023
London Performance Studios
“The drawing rooms of Marguerite Gautier. Somewhere in Paris. Sometime in the year 1848. Varville is pacing up and down with a bouquet of flowers.”
After a period of ill-health, the legendary courtesan Marguerite Gautier has returned to nineteenth century Parisian society to take her pick of the city's finest eligible bachelors. But her appetite for luxury is soon tested by the arrival of a handsome, penniless young man named Armand Duval.
This queer melodrama draws on Hollywood cinema and classic French literature to dramatise Marguerite’s tragic downfall in a deliberately ridiculous theatrical style.
The playwright Charles Ludlam wrote, directed and performed in 29 plays for the Ridiculous Theatre Company before his AIDS-related death in 1987. ‘Camille’, which premiered in New York in 1973, is regarded by many as one of his best.
Charles Ludlam (1943-1987)
Video: Elijah Horne
To learn more about Charles Ludlam and Ridiculous Theatre, visit his author page.
Cast
Sue Gives A Fuck
Holly James Johnston/Orlando Jeanie Crystal Florence Dobson Melissa Saint
Alistair Hall Lauren John Joseph
Director
Alastair Curtis
Costume and Set
Max Allen & Elliott Adcock
Sound
Helen Noir
Producer
Izzy Parriss
Creative Production
KIND
Photography
Henry Mills
Commissioned by
London Performance Studios