The Misanthrope

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Affection I can endure, affectation I abhor. Empty phrases, meaningless gestures of faked good-will. These affable dispensers of embraces make me ill. Disgusted with French society where powdered fops gossip in code and bejewelled coquettes whisper behind fans, poet Alceste embarks on a one-man crusade against fakery, frippery and forked tongues. But could the woman he adores be the worst culprit of them all And in this rarefied world will his revolution prove merely revolting Considered by many to be Molires best work, The Misanthrope was first performed in 1666 in Paris by the Kings Players. Following the huge successes of Tartuffe and The Hypochondriac master wordsmith Roger McGough once again dips his quill into a Molire classic in this mockery of manners and morals set amid seventeenth-century French aristocracy and written in verse.

Reviews

Molire doesn't need email and references to HRT to speak to us what he really needs is a poet who can wring the dryness out of the 12-syllable Alexandrine line while retaining most of the juicy rhyming couplets. McGough's version is a whimsical delight. -- Alfred Hickling * Guardian *
The wit of McGoughs text trembles on the verge of knockabout, which works admirably when the comedy is kept taut ... infused with real emotion ... [a] sparkling tragicomedy -- Jane Shilling * Telegraph *
Witty, insightful ... McGoughs sparky account, set firmly in a period of aristocratic frippery, is chock-full of down-to-earth contemporary lingo with dialogue spoken almost entirely in rhyming couplets ... McGoughs cheeky poetic license ... undoubtedly has audience appeal -- Roger Foss * Stage *
Stuffed with jaunty couplets and cheeky rhymes... darkly delicious * The Times *

Author Bio

Roger McGough, CBE is one of the pre-eminent poets writing today. As one of the Liverpool poets alongside Brian Patten and Adrian Henri, he helped create the art of performance poetry. He is also an accomplished playwright, with two of his previous adaptations of Molire's plays published by Methuen Drama. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004. Molire (1622-1673) was a French playwright and actor-manager who raised the standard of French comedy to a level commensurate with French tragedy.