No Trifling with Love: Musset’s classic at the Théâtre de Poche

When love becomes a game of pride, feelings quickly go awry... No Trifling with Love, a play by Alfred de Musset, directed by Stéphane Douret, is being staged at the Théâtre de Poche-Montparnasse in Paris’s 6th arrondissement, starring Mateo Autret Vasquez, Jeanne Zuccarelli and Missou Salmon-Sans, from November 13 to December 10, 2026. The show runs on Fridays and Saturdays at 9 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m., with three additional performances on December 8, 9 and 10.

In this cornerstone of French theatre, Camille and Perdican reunite after ten years apart, even though they have been destined to marry since childhood. He returns with a carefree, self-assured youth; she bears the moral training she received at the convent. Between them, dialogue tightens, certainties clash, and love becomes a proving ground. The presence of Rosette, Camille’s nurse-sister, introduces jealousy, desire, and the involuntary cruelties of the lovers’ games.

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Stéphane Douret’s production brings together a cast around this trio that includes Mateo Autret Vasquez as Perdican, Jeanne Zuccarelli as Camille, Missou Salmon-Sans as Rosette, along with Peio Carrere, Fabien Saez, Femi Adjibi, Jean Segura, Stéphane Douret and Manon Sauvage.

Presented in a co-production by the Compagnie Dékaïros and the Theatre de Poche-Montparnasse, this rendition of On ne badine pas avec l’amour prolongs the dialogue between Musset’s language and a contemporary staging. In the intimacy of the stage, the play lets surface what is at stake behind the words: pride, silence, unease, and that irreparable edge that theater still renders perceptible.

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