Could the classic Alexandre Dumas novel be serialised, using a blend of techniques from TV series and live performance? Could the aesthetics of the story be reinvented to draw out the intensity of the novel’s polyphony? In 2012, Collectif 49 701 decided to make this challenge their own in an exciting site-specific piece. The name of the theatre company comes from the door code for the entrance to the little theatre in Asnières-sur-Seine where the group of actors from the National Academy of Dramatic Arts (CNSAD) in Paris first worked together. “Our dark and passionate interest in this literary blockbuster from our childhood focuses on the genealogy of this explosive, comic, chaotic and bloody state-sponsored violence,” they explain. Their musketeers, Athos, Portos, Aramis and D’Artagnan are brought to life in a high-velocity theatrical world that revels in the many twists and turns in the plot and the unbridled energy of these larger-than-life heroes operating in the grey areas on the edge of the law.

The Three Musketeers first appeared as a single volume in 1844 but had earlier been published in serial form in the newspaper Le Siècle. It is the archetypal swashbuckling novel, the big-selling literary format that was so popular in the 19th century, a forerunner of today’s TV series, which have copied all its codes. The big challenge for Collectif 49 701 was to recreate the soap opera format for the stage. The first job was for the scriptwriters and adapters Clara Hédouin, Jade Herbulot and Romain de Becdelièvre, developing a structure that is currently based around three “seasons” (Apprenticeship, D’Artagnan’s Early Life and Aglets or The Queen’s Honour), each featuring three “episodes” from 1h30 to 2h and an exceptional full performance of 7h. In Rennes, these seasons will be performed separately, with a full reprisal on 2nd june. The staging is adapted each time to its new location (St Vincent School in this case).

With deliberate anachronisms (like the Cardinal’s guards dressed as modern-day police officers to question the apparatus of state control), insolent humour, wild inventiveness, a contagious energy and sense of fun drawing the audience into the drama, Collectif 49 701’s work pays homage to the “brutal and messy energy of these slovenly, boozy, tormented, hot-headed, amoral and lascivious young men who would rather die – all for one and one for all – than lay down their arms”. It all hints at a kind of political rebellion, driven by a magical form of theatre that toys with the codes of popular culture to take it out beyond the walls of conventional theatres.