Théâtre à la Chevalerie - La peau de chagrin

Based on Balzac
Literary adaptation. Drama. Fantasy.

One morning in October 1830, a young man goes to gamble his last napoleon. He loses. All he can do is throw himself into the Seine. He wants to wait until nightfall and goes into an antique shop. He is in a state of despair and confusion when an old man appears and, like a Mephistophelean tempter, shows him a skin of sorrow that can bring him fortune. It will grant all his wishes, but with each wish the skin will shrink and so will his life.

There is magic and the supernatural in this skin of sorrow, which questions our desire for wealth: "Wishing burns us and power destroys us.