Odyssey Theatre brings taste of French Culture to L.A. with West Coast premiere of ‘Clôture de l’amour’ (‘Love’s End’)

French director Maurice Attias, in residence at the Odyssey Theatre, brings a slice of French culture to L.A. with the West Coast premiere of Clôture de l’amour (Love’s End) by celebrated French playwright Pascal Rambert. Performances, in an English translation by Jim Fletcher and Kate Moran, run May 10 through June 15 at the Odyssey’s three-theater venue in West Los Angeles, with two low-priced previews May 8 and May 9.

Award-winning Australian actor Beejan Land, a member of France’s Theatre du Soleil who appeared on Broadway in The Kite Runner, and Ann Sonneville, recently seen in Last Summer at Bluefish Cove at the Fountain Theatre, star in Rambert’s riveting and bitingly funny look at the dissolution of a marriage. The audience is immediately hooked, drawn irrevocably into the world of a husband and wife whose deep love for one another has somehow, inexplicably come to an end. The language is violent, cutting and darkly comic, a torrential outpouring that offers a deeply insightful examination of love, life and letting go.

“The trap in Love’s End is that love story of the title,” Rambert suggested in an interview. “The play does not pit one lover against the other. That would be too easy. I’m trying rather to draw two trajectories that, at a certain point, find a form of freedom after an impossible suffering. That story is not the same as the story of a couple splitting up.”

“It’s a highly theatrical battle of words, a tragic-comic Beatrice and Benedick,” explains Attias. “What happens when the chemistry is gone?”

Originally written for the 2011 Festival d'Avignon in France, Cloture De L'Amour was an immediate international success, winning the prize for best new French-language play from the Syndicat de la Critique (Critics’ Union); and the Grand Prize for dramatic literature from the French Centre national du théâtre (National Theater Center). It has since been performed more than 180 times in France and translated into 23 languages. It received its U.S. premiere in New York City at the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line Festival, and has been produced in Spain, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Croatia, Japan, Argentina, Egypt, Thailand and China.

Maurice Attias’s directing career goes back 50 years, and includes productions at the Théâtre Marie Stuart, Théâtre du Lierre, Théâtre de l’Athénée and Théâtre de la Main d’or in Paris; Théâtre du Huitième and Théâtre des Célestins in Lyon; Théâtre de Limoges; and Théâtre du Chêne Noir in Avignon, just to name a few. He has directed plays by Paul Claudel, George Bataille, Eugene Ionesco, Luigi Pirandello, Bertolt Brecht, Shakespeare, and a production, in Spanish, of Les Nègres by Jean Genêt at the National Theater of Chile in Santiago. He directed a production of Bizet’s Carmen for the Seoul Opera in South Korea. He wrote and directed La Manifestie: 100 Ans… et c'est pas fini!, an outdoor spectacle featuring over 180 actors and musicians that performed for over 4500 spectators in celebration of the CTG labor union in Limoges. Attias’s relationship with L.A.’s Odyssey Theatre Ensemble goes back to 1984, when he was honored with the “Villa Médicis Hors les Murs” scholarship that enabled a four-month stay in Los Angeles and an observership with Odyssey artistic director Ron Sossi, who was directing David Mamet’s Edmond for the Olympic Arts Festival. In 1987, Attias returned to the Odyssey to direct a critically-acclaimed production of Hunger and Thirst by Ionesco. In 1998, Attias was tapped to head the Theater Department of the Conservatoire à Rayonnement in Rouen, where he remained as Director until 2020 while continuing to direct professionally at both the Théâtre des 2 Rives and the Chapelle Saint Louis in Rouen.

Pascal Rambert is a French writer, choreographer, and stage and screen director. In 2016, he received the Theater Prize from the Académie Française for his entire body of work. His writings including, theater, stories and poetry, are published in France and staged and translated into more than 20 languages around the world. His dance pieces such as Memento Mori, created with lighting designer Yves Godin, have been performed at major festivals and contemporary dance festivals in Europe as well as New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles. In addition to Clôture de l’amour, he is best known for his play Répétition (Rehearsal), which was first presented as part of the Festival d’Automne in Paris and garnered the 2015 annual prize for literature and philosophy at the Académie Française. Other acclaimed works over the past decade include Avignon à vie (Avignon for Life), De mes propres mains (With My Own Hands), Argument, Une vie (A Life), Actrice (Actress), Reconstitution, Nos Parents (Our Parents), Christine and Soeurs (Sisters).

Performances of Love’s End take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. from May 10 through June 15. Two previews, on Thursday, May 8 and Friday, May 9, also begin at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $25 to $43. Odyssey Theatre “Wine Nights” on the first and fourth Friday of each month (May 23 and June 6 for Love’s End) feature complimentary wine and snacks after the show as well as Pay-What-You-Want admission to the performance.

TICKET PRICES: $20 - $43
General Admission $43
Students $23
30 & Under? $33
(All prices include fees when purchasing with a credit card)

Friday, May 23 and Friday, June 6: Odyssey Theatre “Wine Nights” feature complimentary wine and snacks after the show as well as Pay-What-You-Want admission to the performance.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call 310- 477-2055 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com.