By Bart Greenberg***Director Michael Gardner has written a stage version of Jean Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles, now running at East Village Basement. The source material, originally a 1929 novel, presents a complicated but straightforward tale of a teenage brother and sister 
caught up in a sado-masochistic, semi-sexual, relationship—and the two innocents they draw into their world.
Gardner has chosen to make the story much more abstract than the novel, and therefore confusing as to what is reality and what is fantasy in the sibling’s lives. This approach lessened the emotional involvement for the audience, even when the actors were pandering to them for candy and sitting in their laps.
What can’t be dismissed is the fine acting by the quartet of actors , including facing the often violent physical actions required. Maysie Jane as Elisabeth, the older teenager and master manipulator, brought a mesmerizing intensity and desperate need to her 
performance. The handsome Rutger Scott as Paul, her brother/lover/victim, possessed an indolent quality and a masochistic fatalistic desire with great clarity. Victor Gao and Caroline (Lina) DeFrazio as their somewhat more innocent, though damaged personas, held their own in the often hectic action.
A word of warning: the production does issue a “trigger” warning in regard to the gun (and knife) violence, and the often offensive language (antisemetic, homophobic and misogynistic), appropriate for these troubled characters. BUT, there is no mention of the highly-claustrophobic nature of the theater. It is literally a small basement room with not much air circulation. The constant moments of total darkness exacerbated the issue.
Les Enfants Terribles plays at East Village Basement, 321 E. 9th St., NYC, through Sunday, October 4, 2026. For tickets, visit enfantsplay.com.
Photos by Kent Meister
