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THE MISANTHROPE by Molière
A new translation by Ranjit Bolt
Venue: Piccadilly 1998
Company: The Peter Hall Company
Directed by Peter Hall




Characters in order of appearance

Alceste   a gentleman in love with Celimene Michael Pennington
Philinte   Alceste's friend in love with Eliante David Yelland
Oronte   a nobleman Peter Bowles
Celimene   a widow Elaine Paige
Basque   Celimene's servant Dickon Tyrrell
Eliante   Celimene's cousin Rebecca Saire
Clitandre   a Marquis and a fop Crispin Bonham-Carter
Acaste   another Marquis and a fop John Elmes
An Officer of the Marshalls of France Stephen Noonan
Arsinoe   a noble lady Anna Carteret
Du Bois   Alceste's servant Stephen Noonan

Review
First to premiere in the West End repertory season, this is the second of Ranjit Bolt's breezy Molière translations that Peter Hall has staged in costume at the Piccadllly. A year ago it was School for Wives, a rustic romp with the cast ripping through the rhyming couplets to get at the comedy. But Michael Pennington's intense Alceste is no buffoon. An earnest enemy of hypocrisy with a mission for blunt truth no matter the cost, he is aptly described by his best friend Philinte as an overly fastidious rat who hates the rat race. And with the director urging his actors to respect the verse form, the first half is bogged down in metric monotony, static save for a rude prologue with Louis XIV baring rouged buttocks under an emblematic Sun King motif.

This production's special interest is the much-loved Elaine Paige, making an impressive non-singing debut as the coquettish widow, Celimene, the object of Alceste’s affections.  She gives a roguish performance, delivering the lines with style and clarity, although her ornate costume constricts the emotional response. But wait for the second half and the showdown between Pennington and Paige, and we have a heart-touching letter scene as the pains of love and jealousy finally crack her social veneer. An admirable supporting cast is led by David Yelland’s long-suffering Philinte and a gracefully demure Eliante from Rebecca Saire. Peter Bowles, splendidly over the top, is the malicious poetaster Oronte. And Anna Carteret as the false friend Arsinoe has a splendid verbal ding-dong with Paige before going off, full of vain hope, hand-in-hand with the bemused Pennington.