Theatre Journal

The Comédie-Française celebrated Molière’s 400^th birthday in 2022 with a season devoted solely to his plays. Acquiring a “Carte Molière” allowed for early purchase of tickets to the Ivo van Hove Tartuffe and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme starring Christian Hecq, which both sold out within minutes of their public offering. I attended those and four other Molière classics between March and June 2022 during this extraordinary theatrical event. A year of classic comedy and a roomful of laughter was the ideal theatrical medicine: a perfectly timed and vital response to the incessant tragedies and hardships of the world today.

The Comédie-Française sits on Paris’s rive droite just steps from the Musée du Louvre. One enters via the Place Colette through a foyer with a marble statue of Molière bearing witness. The main floor lobby houses a glass enclosed leather chair: the infamous set piece from Le Malade Imaginaire that Molière performed in before his tragic death. This theatrical relic sits in a place of honor, paying hauntological homage to the great playwright whose spirit inhabits the institution.

Le Misanthrope, a play that Molière wrote while licking his artistic wounds in 1664 after Tartuffe was banned, reveals his struggles with depression and frustration amid the repressive and hypocritical atmosphere of court society. Eric Ruf designed the mise en scène for the 2022 Misanthrope as an expansive yet run down courtyard of a Hôtel Particulier undergoing renovation. As the curtain rose on this world in flux, a flurry of activity brought the stage to life: a maid entered to raise the elaborate glass chandelier; muslin-covered chairs littering the stage were arranged in new configurations; enormous, shuttered windows were opened; an upright piano tucked against the wall was partially uncovered. Each visual choice was a palimpsestic marriage of old and new. Caroline de Vivaise’s contemporary costumes echoed the somber palette, with men in perfectly tailored suits, juxtaposed with the bright red jewel tone of Célèmine’s exquisitely cut dress and heels. This visual blend of the past with the present is a trademark of the Comédie-Française and highlights their commitment to giving new life to canonical texts.

The acting in The Misanthrope had power, resonance, and assurance. Loïc Corbery’s passionate and dejected Alceste at one point played a soulful tune on the abandoned piano, reflecting his brooding attempt to modify an imperfect society through his relentless honesty. Adeline d’Hermy as Célèmine juggled the weight of multiple suitors’ attention and Molière’s criticism of social pretense with feline allure and polished refinement. Director Clément Hervieu-Léger (who also played Acaste, the egotistical, velvet-clad marquis, as Molière himself did) created striking tableaux that used the totality of the massive stage, simultaneously elaborating on a society trapped by the hypocrisy of its social [End Page 104] rules and conventions. There is no happy marriage at the end of this play as Alceste is abandoned by Célèmine and seeks “un edroit écarté” where he can be a man of honor. The production ended with each character slowly exiting the stage in...