Theater: New York City Center - Stage II / 131 West 55th Street, New York, NY, 10036
Synopsis:
What's worse than being the only (self-proclaimed) honest man in a world of liars, gossips, and fools? Being head-over-heels in love with the chief offender among them. The Misanthrope follows the hilariously thorny love-life of the irascible Alceste and the coquettish Célimène, who put the concept of "opposites attract" to the ultimate test. Richard Wilbur's masterful translation of Molière's wryly personal comedy begs the question--can love really be this blind?
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January 24, 2011: Molière is one of the greatest comic writers in the theatrical canon, but I have rarely seen actors performing his work who appear to believe it. They often strain and bellow and gesticulate in a way that suggests they suspect they need to make up for the material.
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January 23, 2011: Can you imagine loving a woman who possessed just those flaws that you find reprehensible in others? Would you fight to remedy all the deceit and hypocrisy around you, sparing no one from your mission? Would the ethical decay of your society provoke you to irrational and anti-social behavior?
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January 24, 2011: Throughout the introductory scene to Moliere's caustic comedy The Misanthrope, now being presented by the Pearl Theatre Company at New York City Center-Stage II, misanthropic Alceste (Sean McNall) is outraged at his fellow Parisians' hyper-excessive use of the f-word: flattery. Well, director Joseph Hanreddy shouldn't be concerned about receiving too much flattery for this problematic production.
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January 21, 2011: Using Richard Wilbur’s expert verse translation, Moliere’s Misanthrope has rarely seemed so melancholy as it does in Joseph Hanreddy’s pitch-perfect production for The Pearl Theatre Company.
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January 23, 2011: Because it is a satire on the shallow values of the court of Louis XIV, Molière's "The Misanthrope" is frequently presented with a maximum of style and a minimum of substance. Fortunately, director Joseph Hanreddy emphasizes the human relationships at the core of this classic comedy in his small-scale but effective production for the Pearl Theatre Company. The key connection is between Alceste, a brutally frank critic of the hypocritical fashions of the age, and Célimène, his polar opposite, a recent widow besotted with the glittering, gossipy world of Paris high society. Yet the two are in love, and their push-pull courtship crystallizes the conflict of the piece: Alceste's ultrahigh standards for human conduct versus Célimène's unrepentant enjoyment of trivial pleasures.
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