The Misanthrope is a play about friendship and love in a world of absolute power enforced through surveillance. The play sets itself up as a romantic comedy, and as such it should really end with two or three weddings. But it doesn’t. Alceste has unrealistic expectations of the world in general, and of his beloved Célimène in particular. “The world won’t change because you say it must,” counsels Alceste’s friend Philinte, who argues for a more balanced perspective. Later, Alceste will chastise him: “I’ve had it with your stupid voice of reason!” Célimène seems to want an open relationship in which Alceste is her primary partner, but she is able to play the field. Three other suitors appear in the play, and another is mentioned. Given Alceste’s need for attention, Célimène’s expectations are also unrealistic. As a couple, they revel in tormenting each other.
In the year 2000, I worked on the first production of Constance Congdon’s adaptation of this play, which was directed by eminent Molière scholar Virginia Scott. (I was the Assistant Director and I played Du Bois.) Congdon’s rhyming verse translation differs from the late Richard Wilbur’s; it moves faster and emphasizes characters’ thoughts and objectives more than the rhyme. Congdon also exaggerates for comic effect, rendering Oronte’s sonnet much worse in English than it is in French, and giving Célimène greater scope for impersonating the people she mocks in her verbal portraits.
Alceste is a comic figure, but the play doesn’t work if we have no sympathy for him. Jean-Jacques Rousseau put forward this perspective on the play in 1759, albeit in service of an anti-theatrical treatise. Our production is thus inspired by the eighteenth century, by Rousseau’s valorization of Alceste’s radical honesty. Alceste and Philinte are philosophes in the land of the rococo, but Alceste leans toward Cynicism while Philinte is more Epicurean.
The play is packed with ideas, many of which can be framed as opposites: Truth vs. Lies, Honesty vs. Tact, Private Self vs. Public Self, Litigation vs. Diplomacy, Privilege vs. Justice, Realism vs. Idealism. In working on this production, I find myself drawn into Alceste’s worldview on a day-to-day level. I’m aware of my own “chivalrous white lies” and my own negotiation of power relations. Molière’s critique of courtly politics in 1666 remains resonant today, as we negotiate social media and “fake news.”
Photo Credit: Shelby Antel
