Question: Is 17th-century French comedy still pertinent to our society?
Answer: You betcha.
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere’s play “The Misanthrope” is a social commentary about conflict between the desire to be sincere and the occasional need to lie. The test subject for Moliere’s study is Alceste, a man who has become disenchanted with the insincere pleasantries that humans display toward one another in the pursuit of being polite and sociable. He has concluded that it is better to be honest to every man and woman and receive scorn for it than to be two-faced and loved by all.
Moliere’s irony is that Adrienne, the woman Alceste loves, is more false to people than any other. Although she loves Alceste, she will go to great lengths to win favor from people in powerful positions.
The conflict of the play stems from Alceste’s desire to be true and Adrienne’s need to be false. As one could guess, it gets them both in a hefty amount of trouble.
Maximillian McCal, director of this weekend’s Pocket Playhouse production, has taken Moliere’s commentary and set out to prove that society hasn’t changed much in the last four centuries. Instead of a French mansion, the action unfolds in a current-day sorority house. Some of the character names have been altered to have a more modern ring, but the script’s rhyme remains.
One of the biggest problems when changing the setting of a script is dealing with the baggage that the script carries. The two options for working with the rhyme in a modern context are to blow it so out of proportion that it’s funny, or to make it so subtle that it is justified. McCal chose the latter, which was wise, but there are times when the actors stray from this goal.
Although the theme of the show is wonderful, it is difficult to sit through. Moliere was a master of language and enjoyed using it to the point of excess. Jarvis, Alceste’s modern name, carries the bulk of the play’s dialogue and can become annoying in his many misanthropic rants.
This is not the fault of the actor; rather, it is what Moliere wants to provoke in the audience. Many of his plays revolve around a detestable protagonist. It must be a French thing.
Conclusion: Go see this play if you know Moliere and enjoy his work, or if you feel like hearing a different opinion on how it is best to live in society. But though the theme spreads over all areas of society, the manner in which the play presents it doesn’t hold much general appeal.