TFTV Final Year Productions, a group of students in the theatre, film and television department at the University of York, will present Double Take: Les Acteurs and La Dispute from March 5 to 7.

New translations of two of Marivaux’s most flamboyant 18th century French comedies will be presented as a double bill at 7.30pm each night in the 220-seat Scenic Stage Theatre at the Heslington East campus.

In Les Acteurs, a mischievous play is conducted by the valet Merlin, orchestrated by his devious mistress, Madame Amelin.

However, it is the day of his master’s wedding to the beautiful Angelique. As chaos ensues, the line between performance and reality becomes increasingly blurred. Merlin’s planned masterpiece quickly falls into disarray.

Les Acteurs is a play about three couples, two families and a wedding to remember. Confusion and trickery are at the heart of this witty and entertaining translation, where it is time to play your cards and hope you have the winning hand.

In La Dispute, audiences will sit shoulder to shoulder with an aristocratic Prince and his love Hermiane as four orphans become subject to a eccentric social experiment, in order to put to rest an age old quarrel: who is most likely to be unfaithful first – man or woman?

La Dispute engages in the nature versus nurture debate, twisting it with a pinch of fairy-tale nostalgia and creating a concoction of the scientific and the fantastical in its quest to determine the chemistry of attraction.

Through these humorous yet provocative plays, Marivaux explores the social experiments of the time, challenges society conventions and captures the experiences of men and women when faced against trials of marriage, temptation and trickery.

The students have been working in collaboration with three industry professionals: designer Jan Bee Brown, producer Liam Evans-Ford and translator Professor David Johnston.

Tickets can be booked at tinyurl.com/n6wwyj5