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Moliere's The Learned Ladies (Wilbur)
Moliere's The Learned Ladies (Wilbur)
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Author: Molière Translated by: Richard Wilbur Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Format: Softcover # of Pages: 82 Pub. Date: 1977 ISBN-10: 082220648X ISBN-13: 9780822206484 Cast Size: 5 women, 8 men
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About
the Play:
The Learned Ladies (English language version of Les
Femmes Savantes) is a full-length comedy by Molière,
translated into English verse by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard
Wilbur. Two young people are in
love, but to marry they must overcome an obstacle: the attitude of
her family. Her domineering mother
and her cohort of "learned ladies" are taken in by the
slick manipulations of mediocre poet and social climber who hopes to
cash in on the daughter's dowry, even though she has her heart set on
another man. A sparkling version of one of the great comedies of the
French Theater.
The Learned Ladies is a
tale of love, knowledge and the pursuit of both that centers
on a controlling mother and a weak-kneed father with different ideas
about who their daughters should wed. Clitandre seeks the hand of
Henriette, a match heartily approved of by her father, Chrysale.
However, his wife, Philaminte, has other plans for her younger
daughter – namely marriage to Trissotin, a foppish wit who panders
to Philaminte's intellectual pretensions. Further complications are
introduced by Armande, Henriette's older sister, who once rejected
Clitandre but now resents his attentions to Henriette; by Bélise,
Chrysale's sister, who believes (erroneously) that all men are wildly
in love with her; and by Vadius, a scholar jealous of Trissotin's
hold on Philaminte. Needless to say the course of true love does not
run smoothly, as the pseudo-intellectual posturings of Philaminte and
her coterie clash with the struggle between Chrysale and Philaminte
over who shall ordain the disposition of their daughter's hand. But
happily, and thanks to the maneuvering of Chrysale's brother, Ariste,
all is set right in the end, with hypocrisy exposed and true love
made triumphant. Molière's witty examination of intellectual
pretension and the vicissitudes of love is a classic social satire
that mirrors public and private morality as precisely today as in the
1600's.
Les Femmes Savantes
was first performed in 1672 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in
Paris. Richard Wilbur's
celebrated translation The Learned Ladies premiered
in 1977 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts and was
a resounding success in its
first New York staging in 1982 by
the Roundabout Theater Company. Since
then the play has
been produced widely
at professional theatres across the US and has been mounted by high
schools, colleges, and community theatres.
Cast: 5 women, 8 men
What people say:
"…Mr. Wilbur's latest
Moliere, The Learned Ladies (Les Femmes
Savantes), is every bit as well-written as its predecessors…."
— New York Times
"Before the word "repressed"
was invented, Moliere wrote a sparkling satire
of sexually frustrated, bossy women called The Learned
Ladies, first produced in 1672. These women inhabit a
world “where everything is known except what matters” (in Richard
Wilbur's excellent translation), a place where if the meek
inherit the Earth, it will only be because of expert manipulation."
— Los Angeles Times
About the Playwright:
Molière was the stage
name of Jean Baptiste Molière (1622-1673). His plays achieved great
success and elicited enormous controversy with their religious
irreverence.
Richard Wilbur (1921-2017) was an acclaimed American poet
and literary translator. A former chancellor of the Academy of
American Poets and United States Poet Laureate, he is one the 20th
century's most eminent American poets and literary translators. He
won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry – twice – among many other
awards. He also established himself as the finest translator of
Molière's plays and his verse translations have been performed for
audiences throughout the world.
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Molière, translated by Richard Wilbur
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Moliere Translated by Richard Wilbur
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