La Colonie

This article has an unclear citation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation and footnoting. (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

La Colonie is a comedy by French playwright Pierre de Marivaux, published in 1750 in the journal Mercure de France. When it was first performed at the Comédie-Italienne on June 18, 1729, La Nouvelle Colonie did not gather success and was only staged once. Marivaux cancelled all the shows and did not publish, but he rewrote the play and reduced it to a single act composed of 18 scenes. This new version was performed and published under the title La Colonie. It is more than a baroque play, a satire of society denouncing the institutions of Marivaux's time. On an island in the middle of nowhere, women have decided to seize power. Behind the utopy, La Colonie foreshadows the feminist movements that will agitate Europe two centuries later, despite its politically and sexually conservative ending. This ironic and rich comedy raises many modern issues, and made Marivaux into a forerunner of female liberation.