Les Amants Terribles - Cocteau & Maris

Text: Carole Giacobbi and Stéphane Vauthier

Direction: Carole Giacobbi

With: Julien Honoré - Louka Malieva - Eugène Derouand

Can one go on loving each other when everything seems to set you against one another? In Occupation-era Paris, Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais live a love story as passionate as it is tormented. While one fascinates all of Paris and keeps ambiguous relations with the authorities in power, the other dreams of joining the Resistance. Between admiration, jealousy, creation and heartbreak, their couple lives through one of the most troubled periods in French history. Around them move mythical figures such as Édith Piaf, Coco Chanel or even Mila Parély, witnesses and at times actors in this extraordinary human and artistic adventure. It is within this constant tension that one of the greatest masterpieces of French cinema will be born: La Belle et la Bête. Les Amants Terribles offers a fresh look at two legends of the 20th century, exploring their intimacy as much as the contradictions of an era in which love, art and political choices collide. Written by Carole Giacobbi and Stéphane Vauthier, the play will be published by L'Avant-Scène Théâtre in the autumn of 2026.