About the Play:
The Liar is a full-length comedy by David Ives,
adapted from Le Menteur by Pierre Corneille. Hours
after arriving in Paris, the charismatic Dorante is smitten by a pair
of comely young ladies and confounded by a case of mistaken identity.
Not to worry, this scoundrel is handsome, charming – and a
pathological liar. He wins admirers wherever he goes… so long as he
never has to tell the truth!
The Liar turns 17th century France on its ear in this
non-stop linguistic masterpiece. Paris, 1643. Dorante is a charming
young man newly arrived in the capital, and he has but a single flaw:
He cannot tell the truth. In quick succession he meets Cliton, a
manservant who cannot tell a lie, and falls in love with Clarice, a
charming young woman whom he unfortunately mistakes for her friend
Lucrece. What our hero regrettably does not know is that Clarice is
secretly engaged to his best friend, Alcippe. Nor is he aware that
his father is trying to get him married to Clarice, whom he thinks is
Lucrece, who actually is in love with him. From all these
misunderstandings and a series of breathtakingly intricate lies
springs one of the Western world's greatest comedies, a sparkling
urban romance as fresh as the day Pierre Corneille wrote it,
in this delightfully ingenious and irreverent update of a classic
French romp.
This translation and adaptation of The Liar premiered in
2010 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Since
then, the play has
enjoyed
widespread acceptance among leading regional theatres, and has become
a popular choice for school and community theatre productions.
Cast: 3 female, 5 male (doubling)
What people say:
"What's the funniest play ever
written? I used to think it was Noises Off, but now that I've seen
The Liar, David Ives'
English-language adaptation of Pierre Corneille's 1644 comedy about a
compulsive liar, I'm not so sure…I laughed so hard that I was sore
the next day… By wedding [Ives'] verbal prestidigitation to
Corneille's mistaken-identity plot, Mr. Ives has come up with a play
in which the laughs flow freely and joyously." — Wall
Street Journal
"The Liar and
its mischievous adapter, David Ives, want you to
savor every meticulously groomed conceit, every stylishly turned-out
couplet, every assiduously manicured joke…Ives is an inveterate
jester, a trait that serves him well on an evening that is all jest."
— Washington Post
"If there's anything half as
entertaining as The Liar onstage hereabouts, I'd
be obliged if someone would let me know about it." —
Washington City Paper
"For Ives, one of America's
better dramatic humorists, translating the fun of Pierre
Corneille's 1643 French comedy was an act of respectful
reinvention…The result is a scrubbed, vivacious script salted with
hints of cheeky self-awareness." —
DCTheatreScene.com
"Astonishingly fresh, funny,
and totally appealing to modern audiences." — Washington
Examiner
About the Playwright:
David Ives is an American playwright, screenwriter, and
novelist who was born in Chicago and educated at Northwestern
University and Yale School of Drama. He is perhaps best known for his
evenings of comic one-act comedies, a reputation which resulted in
the The New York Times referring to him as the "maestro of the
short form". A former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting, he has
also written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and screenplays. He
lives in New York City.