The School for Wives: A Rollicking Whitely/Kelly event inspired by Molière.
Set by David Magladry . Photo: David Whitely.
The five actors in 17th Century dress come tripping out on stage , dancing and bowing and acknowledging the audience with great glee and fun just before Chrysalde, a friend of Arnolphe bangs out the Three “coups” which signals the beginning of the show, on the French stage. The lighting suddenly suggests the gas lights of that period, the actors bow, move off stage and the performance begins. Director John P. Kelly proves from the first moments that he understands the stage conventions of French comedy of the 17th century where the extremely playful rhythms, gestures and lighting effects make one almost expect the actors to begin speaking French! “Vous venez , dîtes –vous , pour lui donner la main? “ but then out comes “You’re saying you’ve come here to offer her your hand in marriage ?” and off it goes in English.
Still, the general rhythm of the performance is sustained until the end. The English is in Alexandrines and spoken in a way that sounds extremely natural, the responses fly back and forth, as the windows open and slam shut, the doors open and close, the servants leap in and out, the stage comes alive on that magnificent set by David Magladry, as the trials, tribulations and horrible disappointments of poor Arnolphe , the rich suitor who has “imprisoned” his naïve young ward Agnes in a convent- like existence of ignorance and innocence. He sees his strategy backfire, his intended bride take off with her lover Horace, and there is Arnolphe, humiliated and ultimately alone.
The big question however, is what really happened to Moliêre’s text in this whole process? And what is the role of the English speaking audience of Ottawa in David Whitely’s conception of his play? The answer seems very simple and it has to be explained in several parts. First of all, this is barely what one could call a translation. It is clearly an adaptation and I will not bore you by quoting portions from the original to show you what has happened but I can say that this version has stripped away all the finesse of Molière’s language. His literary parody of Corneille’s tragedy Sertorius, his parodies of religious sermons and catechism, plus his complexe sentence structure, his images, his poetic turns of phrases and magnificent flow of words that were obviously aimed at the refined ears of the Court of France, are gone. The fact he deals with a little “tart” that takes a lover under her ward’s nose right in his own house, did shock some of the more delicate souls of the day. The fact he uses such words as idiot and stupid (exact translations) and tells rather paillarde jokes (street smart or dirty) about naïve Agnes thinking children come out of the ear, are right in keeping with the nasty wits of the period. The fact the play did not obey the rules of Aristotle and Horace (horror!!) as all good theatre was supposed to at that time, sent shock waves into the bosoms of the fops, the Marquis, the Marquises and the Précieuses “ridicules” of the period, whom Moliere loved to taunt in his work. The way he sent jabs of anger towards the church and especially the overly zealous hypocrites of the period, all incarnated in that creature we know as Tartuffe, was an important part of Moliere’s gallery of critiques and it all attracted the fury of those who knew he was after them. Moliere was fearless! He just plunged in and all those people became fodder for his theatrical mill. He dared to say and show what no one else dared to do and we sense that here. However, that does not change the fact that Moliere’s language was still within the norms of the period. People were upset by the moral content of his work not necessarily by his vocabulary nor by his style.
Now, apparently in keeping with the norms our our time in Ottawa, this adaptation by Whitely whittles the text down to the very bones of the story line, tosses in a few spicy words, removes all of Moliere’s linguistic sensibility and turns his text into a simple bawdy, vulgar event that has no particular formal qualities except that it is in alexandrine, a very refined form of theatre which seems like a strange contradiction given the rest of the verbal content. HOWEVER…there is more to this than meets the eye, or the ear. WE cannot separate Whitely’s text from the performance. IT is written to be performed. This is not a piece of literature and it makes no impact at all when one reads it. It has to be seen and heard in the proper way and John Kelly has understood what Whitely has done, even though Whitely he might not have realized what he really produced. This whole production with that bare bones translation has brought Moliere back to his Commedia roots, back to a form of Commedia that existed many years before Moliere even began writing.
Commedia dell’Arte is at the origin of Molière’s theatre. At the beginning before he attracted the attention of “Monsieur”, the King’s brother, Molière travelled around Europe putting on plays with his actors in various country fairs and playing to peasants in the market place. Commedia dell’Arte was their Italian model of popular theatre. AS Laurie Stevens Andy Massingham and all the Odyssey people know, Commedia at that early period was barely spoken, they grunted and made weird vulgar sounds, they did explicit sexual things in front of the public, they had their own wild physical language, they were masked and their characters were based on a series of stereotypes that were the crux of all their performances. Well that is what Whitely has done to Moliere, He has turned back the clock, by highlighting that early commedia sensibility , with the verbal and corporeal language (note Alain (David Brown) running after Georgette (Catriona Leger) trying to get his hands on her derriere) as she trips over the stage, giggles and sends out glances all around her. Catriona Leger was perfect in her role. Note too the lovely Tess McManus as Agnes. Her spoken words are sometimes not too audible but her corporeal performance is excellent, pouting, twisting, smiling, whisking about, opening the windows and throwing herself around the house like a bad little good girl and spilling out her innocent logic at the end. Mainly there is Andy Massingham whose face becomes a living mask of that commedia stereotype Pantelone , the old fellow (perhaps a tad too young and handsome here!!) who lusts after young girls in a way that is so very very typical of the Commedia of the popular fair. No holds barred for them at that period however and Massingham showed us how he could barely keep his itchy fingers off her hot little body. ! that is the Commedia spirit. Moliere’s critics found it “obscene”, if you read La Critique de l’École des Femmes but in the logic of early Commedia, it was perfect! And so it was in Ottawa!
Later in Moliere’s time of course, the Commedia was refined. The language was written in verse, the images were beautiful and subtle and even if the stereotypes persisted, they had more complex psychology, there was an evolution in the way Commedia was perceived on the French stage as it was on the later Italian stage..take Goldoni (18th Century) for example. Not so at the Gladstone in Ottawa however, they have brought Moliere back to his mucky roots (for the most part) so we the audience are like those peasants at the popular markets, sloshing about in the mud as we go about our business, watching the Commedia actors doing their thing , not worrying about refined language as long as we see the good stuff on stage and get the plot, and yet, it all happens on a lovely set, the actors are not masked because facial expressions play an important role So this does become a form of hybrid where the rough and the refined do unite. . !! and John Kelley’s direction has made it work. David Whitely is very lucky to have found this director and together, they make a good team. There was something cathartic about this as long as we knew what to expect. A person who has grown up on Moliere’s texts would definitely be horrified but this show is not for that person.
There is just enough physical play to distract us from the lack of subtlety in the text. There is just enough extraordinary acting by Andy Massingham who almost blows his head apart by reacting in the most horrified way, each time he is tortured and destroyed when he discovers a new betrayal by his beloved little Agnes . The performances are over the top. Not as vulgar as the original commedia but they “cover “ the text as it were in a way that the text becomes less important and the physical performances take over, which was the original commedia strategy. Kelly is also an excellent director of actors although one could say that Drew Moore as the persistent young Horace who is madly in love with Agnes , lacks the energy that a drooling, love hungry fellow would have in those circumstances. Catriona Leger was perfectly bawdy, her body langauge and verbal expression were exactly as one would want and I did love the fooling around with those black curly wigs (Oronte and his son Horace) that John must have slipped in from a shampoo add on TV.
All in all, this is Moliere as he is reimagined from his origins, which could be seen as a clever return to the origins of Molière’s stage; a clever and almost brilliant direction of actors that sustained the energy and the movement all the way and the result was a rollicking old evening of a Whitely/Kelly event inspired by Moliere.
The School for Wives adapted from Molière by David Whitely
Directed by John P. Kelly
A SevenThirdy Plosive Theatre coproduction.
Set and Lighting: David Magladry
Sound. Steven lafond
Costumes and props. Patrice-Anne Forbes
Cast.
Andy Massingham Arnolphe
Tess Mc Manus Agnès
Horace Drew Moore
Alain and Oronte David Benedict Brown
Georgette and Enrique Catriona Leger
Chrysalde and the Notary DAvid Whitely
Plays at the Gladstone Theatre until September 27. 613-233-GLAD