![[Photo from The Misanthrope]](images/misanthr.gif)
The Misanthrope
Molière
1994
UMBC Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland
"When I heard that The Maryland Stage Company, the professional
troupe created at UMBC (University of
Maryland Baltimore County) seven years ago by the brilliantly imaginative,
Indian-born director Xerxes Mehta, was staging
Molière's Misanthrope, I headed straight to Baltimore. From
my previous acquaintance with Mehta's work, always based on a thorough
rethinking of the text, I knew I would not be seeing a museum piece.
Indeed, never have I witnessed a more thought-provoking blend of Grand
Siècle elegance, commedia dell'arte slapstick, and
comedy of character. This production does nothing less than resurrect the
experimental Molière, the creator able to combine the most
traditional elements of farce with a subtle probing of the human psyche.
Not only do I recommend that it be invited to New York, but it ought to be
exported to one of the great European festivals. Mehta's investigation of
the multi-layered protagonist makes him the worthy heir of Copeau and
Jouvet."
--TheaterWeek
Photo credit: Terry Cobb
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