This study aims to clarify the effectiveness and the theatricality of Marivaux’s theatre, especially of his comedies, using a dramaturgical and ideological approach, and posing the essential question: what does the public discover through performance? Starting with the analysis of La Dispute, an emblematic play undergirded by the theme of discovery, my study includes close readings of Marivaux’s plays at the time as well as an examination of contemporary productions of the famous dramatist’s comedies. By using the idea of ‘‘discovery’’ as a critical framework, we can see how his theatre functions in relation to the audience and as a device which reveals the uncertainty of meaning, the problems inherent to identity, issues of desire and the mechanisms that govern society and the comic genre. Marivaux’s theatre, I argue, calls into question the notion of truth and the natural as well as the notion of dramatic character. Marivaux’s comic repertoire brings to the public, in the spirit of the Enlightenment, a dynamic series of events that call into question important themes about humankind, society and the mechanisms of comedy. This research thus illustrates the importance of Marivaux’s comedies as unique examples of living art.