L’Habit fait le prince, les silences du théâtre

Schehadé’s project for a pantomime, L’Habit fait le prince, put on by Jean-Louis Barrault, never came to fruition. The text deserves, however, to be read for the subtle way in which it transforms the social drama of Keller, Kleider machen Leute, into a parable. In the work of Schehadé, the melodramatic imaginary and gentle irony come together so that the silence is full of emotions and revelations, while in Keller’s original text silence was considered an irreparable error.