The Misanthrope

Moliere

Rebecca told me that she would be on the plane tonight on her way to an event and that her only regret was that she would be missing The Misanthrope today from the Comedie Francaise Series from Europe.

 I missed the first show in the series.

And I probably would have missed tonight as well, except that I took on her desire and made it a point to go.

I called ahead to see if there were English sub-titles.

There were.

And someone who sat ahead of me in the theatre told me that when I see an advertisement and it says EST, that means English SubTitles.

That made me laugh.

I am sorry that you missed the show, Rebecca.

For three hours I imagned I was somewhere in France, at the Richelieu Theatre, I think, dedicated to the plays of Moliere and with its own company of Moliere players. 

The pre-theatre chat was with the director. The half time event showed an annual Moliere Party where each of the actors gets to come onstage and give one line from their favourite Moliere text. I was struck by "To live without love is to not really live" (Quotes about Love that come from French #10 by Moliere).

The show was smart, quick, intellectual, and amazing to think it was written 350 years ago, in verse and still relevant. Some claim it contains everything about love that has been written since then.

I had a wonderful time. Am I getting older? I am always having a wonderful time.  At the end of every show lately, I have been wanting to turn to strangers and say to them, "A miracle, a miracle that I can come here and see some of the world's greatest writing."

I missed saying something about the set.  There were no scene changes.  The stage was empty, a couple of times a few planks were brought in to make a table.  There were numerous exists.  A few scenes were staged around tall windows that were so big that you could sit in them.  A set of stairs climbed to a living room / bedroom / museum depending on what the text was talking about.

Arta