The great philosopher of the 1968 left-wing uprisings was untrustworthy both privately and in his philosophy. His muse Simone de Beauvoir was also victimised.
In almost an hour and a half, theatre company OT Rotterdam unfolds the disenchantment of De Beauvoir in a brilliant role by José Kuipers, opposite Tim Linde as ex-student leader Benny Lévy and confidant of Sartre.
Kabbalah
Piece by piece should De Beauvoir becoming aware that her great 'essential love' Sartre was under the tutelage of Benny Lévy (not to be confused with later kindred spirit BHL) in his last years of life his feathers from the existentialism has more or less shaken off, in exchange for religiously inspired views from Messianic Jewish thought and the kabbalah.
Lévy published the transcript of their conversations in Le Nouvel Observateur three weeks before Sartre's death in April 1980. Initially, disbelief prevailed and Lévy was accused of deception from his own views, but Sartre confirmed the content and tenor. The dialogue was published under the title 'L'espoir maintenant, ou le mythe d'une rupture', translated into Dutch as 'What remains is the hope - the 1980 talks'.
Mao
It seemed that Sartre, the great philosopher of post-war atheism and Marxism, was more or less converted. Like many a-religious Jews, he had become interested in the religious sides of Judaism later in life, prompted by fellow fighter and later secretary Benny Lévy who had previously abandoned his Maoist thinking and would later become an Orthodox rabbi. Lévy read Sartre's 'Difficile Liberte - Essais Sur Le Judaisme' by the also French Emmanuel Levinas for.
Levinas - who gained recognition in the Netherlands rather than in his own country France ! - promotes the ethic that the encounter unfolds in the form of religiously inspired acts of responsibility for others. In a nutshell: that other determines your actions. In contrast, Sartre was pre-eminently the philosopher of personal responsibility for creating your life, of the free, relentless choice to chart your own path. Levinas's family in Lithuania was largely exterminated by the Nazis. This shaped his thinking, although he initially tried to separate his philosophical and religious views.
Furious
Sartre's 'conversion' naturally led to reactions of utter disbelief among his followers, De Beauvoir foremost among them. She was furious with Lévy. He had brainwashed the severely weakened, blind, Sartre living under heavy pills. With this reproach, De Beauvoir visits Lévy in this play. She demands the "purple notebooks in which his dialogues with Sartre are written down. She throws falsity and abuse of Sartre in his face, but Lévy does not budge a millimetre.
Next, we see Simone de Beauvoir reflecting on her own life: for whom had she actually given herself? Not only was their 'open relationship' mainly exploited by Sartre, the influence of him on her work as a philosopher was initially mostly restrictive. She settled into her role of what she herself called "midwife" of the great Sartre's big ideas. His misunderstanding of her own work even led to its destruction. Until she caused a furore with 'The Second Sex' as a founder of feminism. And no less as a novelist, where it gradually became clear that she also edited Sartre's work.
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