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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:rgb(204,0,0)"><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">THE MISANTHROPE is delightfully performed by the CWRU/CPH MFA
students</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Palatino;color:black">(Member, American
Theatre Critics Association)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Jean Baptiste Poquein, better known to the
theatre world as Moliére, was the seventeenth master writer of dark comedy and
satire.<span style> </span>He, like such other noted
scribes as George Bernard Shaw, skewered that which they thought was
ridiculous. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Moliére’s subjects include hits on religion, the
Catholic church in particular, and upper class society, especially the
two-faced way in which they told one tale when a person was present, but
another story behind the person’s back.<span style>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">An<span style>
</span>attack on the two-faced nature of friendships and conversations is the
topic of THE MISANTHROPE, which is now being produced by the Case Western
Reserve/Cleveland Play House Master of Fine Arts students.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">THE MISANTHROPE centers on Alceste, a so-called
idealist who believes people are inherently dishonest hypocrites.<span style> </span>Alceste says what he believes, no
matter the consequences, which include lawsuits for slander, conflicts with his
lady love, and his decision to retire into seclusion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Moliére is the master of satire.<span style> </span>This comes through clearly in Richard
Wilbur’s English verse translation of THE MISANTHROPE.<span style> </span>The lines are filled with clever bon mots,
sly comic innuendoes, and delightful verbal attacks.<span style> </span>One of the major challenges of the script is to stay true to
the writing style while being sure to stress meaning within the poetic style. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Though written centuries ago, the ideas are
still relevant. Moliére challenges each viewer to ask, “What is truth?”<span style> </span>“What is your truth?”<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">He preaches that we each have to negotiate
through lives filled with potential verbal land mines.<span style> </span>The question is how do we negotiate
around them, or do we wage war by hurling blunt truths in the form of verbal
hand grenades.<span style> </span>Do we tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?<span style> </span>Or, tell little white lies?<span style> </span>Or, speak “diplomatically?”<span style> </span>Or, ignore confrontations with the hope
that they will go unnoticed and have little effect?<span style> </span>Whatever the choice, what are the consequences?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Case Western Reserve professor Donald Carrier’s
direction of THE MISANTHROPE is generally on course.<span style> </span>He finely walks the tightrope between satirical farce and
slapstick, except in one instance.<span style>
</span>Why he decided to add a shtick of a man carrying too many suitcase, who
stumbles and trips and throws them hither and yon, is beyond
comprehension.<span style> </span>Did it get a
laugh?<span style> </span>Sure, prat falls usually
do, but what was the purpose regarding the story line and the expertly
controlled farce elements of the rest of the production?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">The cast is universally strong.<span style> </span>Stephen Spencer is correctly
outrageously hyper as the moralistic Alceste.<span style> </span>He never goes over the line.<span style> </span>We laugh with him, not at him.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Bernard Bygott is character correct as Alceste’s
friend, Philinte.<span style> </span>TJ Gainley is
fey-correct as the sonnet writing Oronte.<span style>
</span>Though she sometimes stresses the rhythm and rhyme pattern of the
writing, thus putting form before substance, lovely Therese Anderberg is
acceptable as Célimène, Alceste’s love interest.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Sarah Kinsey is wonderful as Eliante, Célimène's
cousin.<span style> </span>The scene at the end of
the play where she rejects Alceste’s advances was a show highlight and garnered
just applause.<span style> </span>Christa Hinkley is
bitch-perfect as the aloof Arsinoé.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Cameron Caley Michalak’s set design and Michael
Boll’s lighting add to the visual elements of the production. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino">CAPSULE
JUDGMENT: CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Programs’,<span style>
</span>THE MISANTHROPE, is a delightful production of a historic classic.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">THE MISANTHROPE runs through November 3 at the Helen
Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre (The Helen) on the lower level of CPH’s
Allen Theatre.<span style> </span>For tickets call
216-241-6000 or go to <a href="http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com">www.clevelandplayhouse.com</a>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-family:Palatino"><span style="color:rgb(204,0,0)">•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino"><span style="color:rgb(204,0,0)"></span><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>