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Post by Jan on Jan 19, 2022 8:18:15 GMT
Michael Billington points out that this year is the 400th anniversary of Moliere's birth but that this is being ignored in UK. It's a fair point. You might have thought the RSC and NT and others would have programmed something, but they are quite parochial when it comes to European drama. I've seen half a dozen of his plays (he wrote around 30) but they are staged infrequently - around two a decade. He wrote a few short one-act plays that I don't think have been staged here in modern times at all - surprised one of the smaller fringe theatres like the White Bear or Finborough hasn't done them.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 19, 2022 9:33:10 GMT
The recent productions of Tartuffe were a bit underwhelming, but I saw an excellent Miser and Imaginary Invalid in Milan. Hope some theatre will remember the anniversary and do something about it.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 19, 2022 9:58:37 GMT
He is one of the playwrights I'd like to see more of. Perhaps Noris will stage a musical about him.
Perhaps we'll get something in the next lot of season announcements at Barbican & Old Vic but I'm expecting nothing from RSC and Nash.
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Post by Jan on Jan 19, 2022 10:07:29 GMT
Perhaps we'll get something in the next lot of season announcements at Barbican & Old Vic but I'm expecting nothing from RSC and Nash. It has always surprised me that the Comedie Francaise don't transfer productions to London occasionally, you'd have thought the Barbican would be interested. I've only ever seen one of their Moliere productions (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) and that was when it was in Australia. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 19, 2022 10:16:41 GMT
Moliere needs a really good translation to work for anglophone audiences and there don't appear to be many working in that field at the moment.
I don't mean someone who adapts it (and thus tends to impose an agenda on the text rather than letting it speak for itself)
But if someone could deliver a translation that has the verve and vitality of the originals then audiences would react well. But it will probably only be a niche audience as there is too often a negative reaction to translated plays.
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Post by Jan on Jan 19, 2022 10:40:18 GMT
Moliere needs a really good translation to work for anglophone audiences and there don't appear to be many working in that field at the moment. Just use the old ones then - Jeremy Sams' were good, and the Tony Harrison "Misanthrope" I believe (though I haven't seen it). |
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Post by lynette on Jan 19, 2022 20:37:52 GMT
They’ve done it with the Italians, One Man Two Guvnors for example. Was that Italian , def inspired by a classical piece, anyone?
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 19, 2022 20:46:12 GMT
They’ve done it with the Italians, One Man Two Guvnors for example. Was that Italian , def inspired by a classical piece, anyone? Yes, Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters |
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Post by orchidman on Jan 19, 2022 23:15:58 GMT
The reality is that very little writing stands the test of time of 100 years, let alone 400, let alone 400 in translation from verse.
For the Guardian to publish an article calling it shameful that we are indifferent to Moliere is absolutely laughable and embarrassing. But par for the course.
Particularly so given Billington comes close to admitting that the work only stands up when heavily adapted.
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Post by Jan on Jan 20, 2022 7:47:21 GMT
For the Guardian to publish an article calling it shameful that we are indifferent to Moliere is absolutely laughable and embarrassing. But par for the course. I'd say if they took the Little Englander line and said let's just ignore France's most revered national playwright, and Racine while we're at it, because he's no good it would be even more embarrassing. It would also be shameful if the Ancient Greek plays were eliminated from the repertoire for exactly the same reasons. Odd to be so incurious about our neighbours in Europe that we would ignore their cultural history. |
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