Yale Bulletin and Calendar

January 28, 2000

Volume 28, Number 18

Molière play balances 'moments
of deep pain' with laughter

A man's love for a woman conflicts with his disdain for the society she represents in Molière's comic classic "The Misanthrope," which will be presented Jan. 31-Feb. 5 at the School of Drama.

The play, which has been translated into English verse by Richard Wilbur, will be directed by Lisa Channer, a third-year student at the drama school.

Set amidst the excesses of Louis XIV's court, "The Misanthrope" tells the story of Alceste, a man who claims to have lost all patience with humanity. Even as he rails against the falseness and pomposity of his age, Alceste finds himself falling in love with Celimène, a social butterfly who embodies everything he abhors.

"The Misanthrope" is Channer's thesis project. "I was attracted to 'The Misanthrope' in part because of what it taught me about Molière," she says. "In the rocky relationship between Alceste and Celimène, I see ghostly traces of Molière and his wife Armande, as if this slippery play were haunted by a long-ago hurt that was never resolved.

"The genius of 'The Misanthrope' is that it reveals moments of deep pain to us, while in the very same instant making us laugh uproariously," she adds.

Before attending Yale, Channer was co-artistic director of Sleeveless Theatre, a company she co-founded in western Massachusetts. There, she created, performed in or directed seven original plays.

Since 1997 Channer has been associate director of "The Meyerhold Project/Revisor," a collaboration between the School of Drama and the Academy of Theatre Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. A bilingual re-staging of the 1926 masterpiece by Vselevod Meyerhold, the ongoing project was performed at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1997 and has since toured to Russia and Amsterdam.

Starring as Alceste and Celimène are drama students Brennan Brown and Kathryn Hahn. The cast also includes Eric Martin Brown, Adriana Gaviria, Regina Hilliard Bain, Rick Bank, Brandon T. Miller, Robert Devaney and Amy Morse.

The design team for "The Misanthrope" includes set designer Stuart Polasky, lighting designer Agnieszka Kunska, costume designer Junghyun Georgia Lee and sound designer Brian MacQueen.

The play will be staged in the University Theatre, 222 York St. Performance times are 7 p.m. on Monday and 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; there will also be a 2 p.m. matinee Saturday. Tickets are $12-$16, with discounts for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more. Seating is limited. There will be a pre-show Preview Happy Hour on Monday, and on Wednesday there will be a pre-show Performance Salon featuring a string quartet from the School of Music. Both events are free with a ticket purchase.For information and reservations, call the Yale Repertory Theatre box office at (203) 432-1234 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

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