…watch a Molière play?

How does one translate a seventeenth century French farce and update it for modern times? Substitute Parisian society for the media-obsessed modern equivalent and include topical references to a Tory politician’s "toxic spray-on brand of fake compassion" to get a few laughs. Crank up the frothy energy, keep up the rhyming couplets, and maintain the metre. Lastly, cast a movie star as (wait for it), a movie star and watch the box office receipts take off as it becomes the hottest ticket in town.

Martin Crimp’s take on Molière’s most well known play, The Misanthrope, took a little getting used to. The rhyming can seem forced at times, the tone smug and too clever, yet it seems to capture the spirit of Molière’s most well known play.

For all the attention on Keira Knightley as Jennifer (Celimene in the original), the American movie star in London, the real star of the play was Damien Lewis as Alceste, the British playwright disillusioned by modern society and the “misanthrope” of the title. I remembered him well as Major Richard Winters in the HBO series Band of Brothers, a role which embodied the real soul of the series and its moral centre. In The Misanthrope, Lewis is far from the restrained character he portrayed previously. As A observed, he has even taken his voice a notch higher to take it from mature mellowness to a high-pitched angst.

Lewis projects the right mix of blustering anger, comic absurdity and frail vulnerability. One cares for Alceste and roots for him, even at the height of one of his hyperbolic speeches denouncing the hypocrisy of society. He remains true to his ideals in believing that one should always speak the truth, even if it exposes the hypocrisy of others and even if you suffer for it. His love for Jennifer can seem jealous and rather oppressive yet when she rejects his proposal to run away and leave the glamorous showbiz life, I genuinely felt sorry for him.

Knightley’s performance was better than I had expected. Adopting a plausible New York accent and an endearing flirty manner, her Jennifer alternates between the bitchy, gossipy movie star and the vulnerable, lonely girl who seeks solace in her love for Alceste and her old friendships. She does look impossibly thin however, in that slinky black playsuit she wears in most of the scenes.

Sadly, the play closes this week but farce appears to be in fashion at the moment, and I am looking forward to catching Noel Coward’s Private Lives sometime over the next few months.

... watch a 6-hour play at the A.R.T?

Some 3+ years ago, when we were both studying in Cambridge, JC alerted me to the awesomeness of the A.R.T. Perhaps it's because I've never been a particularly huge theater fan, or perhaps it's because there are always more ballets I want to go to (and both time AND money are limited), I have never gone to watch a play at A.R.T. all these years.

Yesterday, I finally did. At the brilliant suggestion of a friend, a huge group of us went to watch Elevator Repair Service's production of Gatz-- a 6-hour long verbatim reading of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Gatz is staged in 2 parts, and one can choose to watch it on 2 separate days, but we decided to watch it in a single day, with a 1 hour dinner break in between. There are honestly no bad seats at the Loeb Drama Center but we had ridiculously good seats-- dead center, five rows from the front. In spite of the glowing reviews Gatz had received, I was prepared to be at least a little bored. After all, it was 6 hours long, A.R.T.'s Gatz website can't possibly be perfectly unbiased, and like I said earlier, I've never been much of a theater person.

As it turns out, I cannot be more wrong. Gatz is innovative, clever and an absolute masterpiece. From the creative use of sound, lighting and props, to the expert timing of the 13 actors, everything was flawless. The play begins with an office scene but by the end of the play, we were completely transported into Nick and Gatsby's Long Island of the roaring 20s. Scott Shepard, as Nick Carraway, was amazing-- how did he manage to read 80% of the book with that perfect intonation and rhythm from the beginning to the end?

One thing I know for sure-- I'll be revisiting the A.R.T. very soon.