After weeks of preparation, a performance of Jean Cocteau’s “Les Parents Terribles” will open this weekend. Sponsored by the French Department and MacPlayers, the play explores the comedic and bizarre plights of a dysfunctional Parisian family.

Director Ben Sachs ’05 was drawn to the play because of Cocteau’s attempt to find where the genres of farce and melodrama overlap. To quote a line from the play, “It’s hard to tell whether this is a tragedy or a farce, but it is a masterpiece.”

The entire cast consists of just five characters, including self-centered parents Georges (Jesse Ruuttila ’05) and Yvonne-Sophie (Susan Stroupe ’05), their son Michel (David Jacobs ’07), his Aunt Lao (Maggie Sanford ’05), and the 25-year old Madeleine (Anne Zander ’07) who becomes entwined in this family.

The play focuses on the hell that breaks loose with the discovery that father and son are both involved with the same woman. The result is a hilarious performance that brings to life five very out of the ordinary characters.

Sachs says that the play is full of many surprises and funny moments, along with beautiful characterization. “This will be the best acting people will see on campus all year,” Sachs said.

The production of the play started with no money, Sachs said. The actors put a lot of trust into joining the production. Together, they worked to find funding through MacPlayers and the French Department, which has allowed the production to acquire lights, a platform, and rent antiques and costumes for the production.

Cocteau (1889-1963) wrote the play “Les Parents Terribles” in 1938. Cocteau was a French artist and writer of poetry, fiction, film, ballet, painting and opera. His works were influenced by surrealism, psychoanalysis, cubism, the Catholic Religion—and occasionally opium. He is generally considered one of the great early masters of French cinema. He is best known for four works incorporating magical elements: “La Belle et la BÍte (1946) and the three components of the so-called “Orphic trilogy” that virtually span Cocteau’s career—“The Blood of a Poet” (1930), “Orpheus” (1949) and “Testament of Orpheus” (1959). Yet Cocteau, himself, considered “Les Parents Terribles,” which he produced as a film in 1948, his greatest work.

So, check out 10K this weekend or next to enjoy the “thrill ride” offered by this production of “Les Parents Terribles” which is certain to bring a smile to your face. Actor Ruuttila says the play is appropriate to the current political climate, and hopes that everyone will leave the production saying, “I had so much fun I forgot that Bush had won the election.”

“Les Parents Terribles”will play in Dupre 10K Nov. 12, 19, and 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 13 at 2 p.m.