Misanthrope (tour)

A group of wealthy twenty-somethings gather for a chic costume party in present-day Paris. As they arrive, they change their clothes for the fashions of the France of Louis XIV, but they wear these with a decided 21st-century deportment and demeanour. This production by the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds of Molière’s The Misanthrope brings the superficial style of the 17th century to a resolutely contemporary situation.

The elegant designs of Kit Surrey help establish this delicate balance of old and new, but it’s contemporary poet Tony Harrison‘s brilliant translation which really cements the relationship. His rhyming couplets echo Molière’s original, but his vigorous, sinewy vernacular gives the dialogue an unmistakeably modern roughness and edge. This, aided by the actors’ ability to reduce the verse to the rhythms of everyday speech, makes it abundantly clear that we’re in the world of Hello! magazine, That’s Life and As If.

The Misanthrope is the most subtle of Molière’s plays, the Così fan tutte of his comedies. Alcèste (Jonathan Keeble) reacts against the superficiality of polite society by insisting on always telling the bald truth, unadorned with the civilities of conventional courtesy. His candour and honesty causes friction and rancour, but he takes self-indulgent delight in the problems caused by his railing against the world.

This stands in stark contrast to the humane consideration of his friend Philinte (in a beautifully understated performance by Andrew Whipp), who accepts imperfect humanity as it is. Ironically, Alcèste the truth-teller is in love with Célimène – a shallow and insincere coquette who spends the evening flirting with four men and bad-mouthing each to the others.

Amber Eldin plays Célimène splendidly for 90% of the time, but at the end of the play, when her serial infidelity is exposed, her limitations as an actress are revealed. Standing alone and disgraced, she fails to engage our sympathy and so lift the play into a further dimension. Director Colin Blumenau uses all his skill to conceal this weakness, but it still shows. Otherwise, the acting is good from an energetic young cast. Indeed, the cast is perhaps too uniformly young – a wider range of ages would have brought greater contrast between the characters and their voices.

But these are minor quibbles. This is a good production which establishes beyond doubt that a play written in 1666 is relevant to life in 2002. Most interesting of all is to see a production in which author, actors and director are all upstaged by the translator. The real triumph of the evening is Tony Harrison‘s.

– Robert Hole (reviewed at Exeter’s Northcott Theatre)

The Misanthrope continues on tour to Cambridge, London, Newbury, Hereford, Winchester, Buxton, Huddersfield, Barnstaple, Taunton, Wakefield, Aberystwyth and Newtown.