alexander vlahos as philippe, duke of orléans [monsieur], evan williams as chevalier de lorraine
When asked to explain the crux of the series, VERSAILLES
LOVE, PASSION, INTRIGUE AND EXCESS
EVER-RECURRING THEMES
A MODERN RETELLING OF HISTORY’S
by joel martens
Alex took the reins first, “The brother relationship is the heart, the skeleton of the show. It’s where everything comes from and what everything sort of feeds off of. If Philippe [Monsieur] and Louis are at loggerhead and are not getting on, things follow suit, It’s like the ripple effect.” An authenticity that comes through powerfully and is also represented in many of the other relationships that play out on screen. He continues, “I think too, that the show has a very modern, very relevant style through the writ- ing and directing, all of the scenes have a currency and they’re not dated. Very quickly you are thrown into the sibling rivalry and as a sister or brother you can say, ‘I get that.’ We’re a young cast and pull our own experiences of modern day 21st Century life and then apply it to 17th Century France. The love, treachery, political intrigue and sexual politics are all things in our world right now, too.” That interplay is also apparent in the relationship between Alex [Monsieur/Philippe] and Evan [Evan Williams who plays Chevalier de Lorraine, Philippe’s lover]. Alex explained their commitment to the story line this way, “I’ve said it a couple times before and don’t mind saying it again, because I believe it to be true. Louis has five different relationships with five different women all for different reasons: Political, power, for religious reasons or for lust. The one true relationship throughout the whole series is between Philippe and Chevalier. When Evan and I first met, we both said listen, ‘We need to commit to this.’ We saw in the first script that the relationship was a true, brilliant, three-dimensional one and we wanted to make sure to do it justice.” Evan agreed and explained more, “It used to be
that if there was a gay relationship, it was often demonized because it was gay, either that or it was a “gay show,”Queer As Folk or TheL Word, shows like that. I think we’ve moved on from there to a love story that is legitimate and can just exist as a love story. The world of Louis XIV had a problem with it, but the gaze of the camera does not. I think that distinction is one of the things that makes the show truly modern and is what has caught the imagination from so many of the fans. Housewives and school kids are into it, there all sorts of people from different walks of life…There is just something about it.” Evan continues, “By not making a big deal of it, we’ve given people permis- sion to identify with them. If there is one viewer, who might have said they were not interested in
OCTOBER 2016 | RAGE monthly 23
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