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Moliere's The Learned Ladies (Thomas)
Moliere's The Learned Ladies (Thomas)
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Author: Freyda Thomas Publisher: Samuel French Format: Softcover # of Pages: 140 Pub. Date: 2015 ISBN-10: 0573704643 ISBN-13: 9780573704642 Cast Size: 6 women, 4 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
and adapted by Freyda Thomas.
Henriette and Clitandre, are
two young people in love
who, in order to marry, must successfully navigate Henriette's
demanding and overeducated family. With the help of Henriette's
father and uncle, along with a host of saucy servants who favour
the marriage, the couple must convince the rest of the family that
the match is a good one. This
zany web of love stories, farcical romps and battle of the sexes
keeps true to Moliere's original while providing a smorgasbord of
modern treats for contemporary audiences.
The Learned Ladies is a hilarious contemporary re-imagining
of Moliere's penultimate play. As the story
unfolds it is evident the household of Chrysale and his wife
Philamente is in absolute disarray. Philamente has decided to
dedicate herself and her home to the "life of the mind",
the pursuit of noble thought and the practice of intellectual rigour
pushing aside her "wifely duties." Chrysale simply wants
his dinner and to assert his place as head of the family. Enter
Trissotin, a mediocre poet with a lot of sex appeal and little
literary talent, who all but seduces the
matronly Philamente, determined to be at
the forefront of the movement. Equally determined to marry him off to
her younger daughter (who just wants to marry her sweetheart Lycandre
and raise children), she bullies her meek husband into tacitly
agreeing, and the machinations that follow between family members,
visiting poets and maids who refuse to learn proper French are
predictably and delightfully Molière. Originally produced in 17th Century
France, this updated translation has
kept Molière's characters' names, French of course, but was
written to be performed in a stylized 20th-century setting. Just
about any time between 1910 and the present will work. The
familiar "Voice of Reason", present in almost every Moliere
play and always a male, is for the first time, Female. The language,
although in verse, is fun and modern rhyming verse and
needs a setting and style conducive to
its tone. Flavouring
her rhymed couplets with contemporary anachronisms, adapter Freyda
Thomas has devised a version that
amalgamates styles and periods entertainingly while maintaining
Molière's
classic wit and wisdom in this rambunctious comedy about upper class
pretension.
Les Femmes Savantes
was first performed in 1672 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in
Paris. Freyda Thomas's
contemporary adaptation of The Learned Ladies premiered
in 1991 by the Classic Stage Company (CSC) at CSC Repertory Theatre
in New York City. Since
then the play was performed
at American
Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco in 1993, with many
productions mounted by high schools, colleges, and community
theatres.
Cast: 6 women, 4 men
What people say:
"The show's most consistently
enlivening presence is that of translator and adapter Freyda Thomas,
who translates the playwright's alexandrine verse of 1672 into vital
musical forms marked by crisp and unexpected rhymes, period echoes
and cheerfully clanging anachronisms….Thomas harmonizes the
classical and the contemporary to make us hear Moliere's wit in an
appealing new key." — San Francisco Chronicle
"Flavoring her rhymed couplets
with contemporary anachronism, adapter Freyda Thomas has devised a
pop version of Moliere that amalgamates styles and periods
entertainingly. As a result, Ms. Thomas serves the ends of the
17th century French classic and the latter day spectator. The outcome
is general satisfaction and general merriment." —
Christian Science Monitor
"Thomas' modernisms smartly
put the satire's emphasis on the pomposity rather than the feminism
of the Precieuse Movement." — Variety
"The show's most consistently
enlivening presence is that of translator and adapter Freyda Thomas,
who translates the playwright's alexandrine verse of 1672 into vital
musical forms marked by crisp and unexpected rhymes, period echoes
and cheerfully clanging anachronisms….Thomas harmonizes the
classical and the contemporary to make us hear Moliere's wit in an
appealing new key." — New York 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.
Freyda Thomas is an American actor, playwright and
translator who has been, at one time or another in her life, a
college professor, a singer, a big band vocalist, and a high school
teacher. |
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