Guy de Maupassant wrote Boule de suif in 1880, although the story is set ten years earlier, during the Franco-Prussian War. It tells the tale of the troubled journey of a group of strangers fleeing occupied Rouen. The story can be read as an allegory of the French responses to defeat and Prussian occupation. The characters are drawn from different social classes, though each displays his or her own bad faith. The only real hero of the story is Boule de suif, the prostitute Elisabeth Rousset, who puts the interests of the collective above her own – and suffers for it.
Charlotte Lowe, a final-year student of Spanish, French and English Literature, took on the lead role and explains how it all worked.
“The French radio play has been an incredible experience this year! I’ve always participated in the Spanish plays, in both first and second year, but was slightly too nervous to join the French play because I started French at beginners level. This year I bit the bullet and decided to take part and it has honestly been one of the best parts of this year! I should have done it sooner!
The French radio play has been an incredible experience this year!
Charlotte Lowe
BA Dual Spanish, French and English Literature
We met every Wednesday evening (via Blackboard VLE of course) to run through the script, and towards the end we individually recorded our voices in order for it to be made into a radio play. My pronunciation in French has come on in leaps and bounds since joining the play, as I was dedicating more time to how the words sounded due to it being only heard and not seen, and we had a French native speaker (the lovely Camélia!) to help guide us.
My vocabulary has also improved as we came across all sorts of words I hadn’t previously seen (the mild 19th-century exclamation “saperlipopette!” comes to mind) as play scripts often have that power of bringing unusual words to light. Even in the circumstances of Covid, it really was the highlight of the week to join the play call at 7pm on a Wednesday, and I can’t thank David and everyone enough for everything we’ve managed to do."
The radio play of Boule de suif was produced in close collaboration with Paul Henderson of the Sheffield-based TheFatCadillac Ranch Studio, to whom we owe many thanks!
In SLC we invest in many language and culture activities to support the curriculum. They are often staff-student collaborations and take the forms of plays, podcasts, discussion groups, guest visits by authors or artists and other practitioners. We also like socialising.
