The Misanthrope: A good message for modern times
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Sara Topham as Celemine amd Ben Carlson as Alceste in Molliere's The Misanthrope....
The cast on stage........witty and rapid dialogue....
Ben Carlson as Alceste......unhappy with the ways of the world....
Watching the Misanthrope, the masterpiece by French playwright Molliere, as it is performed by the company of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, one cannot help but be struck by the utter relevance of the piece in today’s world. While the main character, Alceste, struggles with the insincerity of his age, you just know that things are a whole lot more insincere today.
When Molliere wrote the play in the last half of the 17th Cenutry, he was mocking the aristocrats of the French court, but he could just as easily have been mocking the politicians, rich folks or big companies in our own time. Even as Alceste despairs that not an honest man can be found, the modern theatre goer knows it can be equally difficult in the modern age.
This is a wonderful play with great moral overtones and the Stratford cast really do a terrific job executing. The rhyming can be a little difficult to follow at first and the dialogue flows fast and furiously at times, but once you are settled into your seat and esconced in the action, it’s a wonder to behold.
Ben Carlson plays the frustrated Alceste and does an excellent job at it maintaining a good flow to the play and his opposite and the object of his love, Celimene, played by Sara Topham, is equally good. The two play off each other wonderfully and never miss a beat as the action unfolds.
And as the play unfolds, it becomes clear that being honest and frank all the time, as is Alceste’s habit, can leave you in a difficult situation and that’s what his good friend Phillinte, played by Juan Chioran, keeps trying to tell him. The message doesn’t get through and Alceste keeps offending people just be being honest. When he tells another friend – Oronte, the poet, played by Peter Hutt – that his sonnet is absolutely no good, he loses Oronte’s friendship and earns a bitter rival.
Throughout the play, Alceste is trying desperately to woo Celimine, the love of his heart. But he is continually frustrated because the object of his affections refuses to commit to him and continues to flatter his rivals with what he believes are insincere compliments. In the end, things unravel and Celimine ends up with no suitors and Alceste departs from the human race to live like a hermit.
In any case, this a well delivered piece of theatre and I really enjoyed it. However, the program notes said that Molliere mocked the French courtiers without them suspecting they were the objects of his ridicule. It’s my bet that most of the people who watch Misanthrope in this day and age also don’t understand that the play is directed at them and the general insincerity of our times.
You really have to wonder as you watch how the great playwrights of a past age – Shakespeare, Molliere – could have had such excellent insights into the human condition. Great stuff for a troubled planet. Well worth the price of admission….
John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:
- Melancholy Man and Minister's Son
- Reality Check
- Grim Faerie Tale
- Once Upon a Visit
- Toward the End, Oyster Boy
- And It Was Christmas
- From Genesis to Revelations (Chapter 1) - the novel. the rest of the novel follows month by month
