The work program The Queen's Necklace says that “the main ingredients of the conspiracy that had Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI as the biggest victims were the most valuable necklace of all time, a false countess, some scammed jewelers, a cardinal plucked and a party finale with a national scandal included.”
Taking into account what happened to the kings later, when they faced the guillotine, Ricard Farré and Arnau Puig, authors of the piece, consider that this real episode, which is so surreal at times implausible, is one of the sparks who broke out the French Revolution.
On stage, only two performers multiply to represent eleven characters. The Queen's Necklace is “a comedy that begins with the air of vaudeville, becomes entangled like a devilish thriller and ends as a drama of historical consequences,” declare the authors.
King Louis XV ordered a very expensive diamond necklace to give to one of his lovers, but he died two days before he could give it to her. His successor, Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette find themselves with a jewel that they do not want, but which will bring them many headaches.
The background of The Queen's Necklace is a constant in the world we live in: some work to exhaustion to get a few crumbs of bread while others swim in ostentatious opulence, without any decorum to display their riches.
Catalan version, here
