While still in verse, the dialogue is much easier to comprehend-most of the time. The actors often become too bogged down in the rhyme schemas and natural cadence of sound. However, when the actors make sense of the lines and speak with honesty, the play is just breathtaking.
Theater and Dance Professor Emeritus Michael Birtwistle directed this emotionally infused play. Set in a funky art gallery, "The Misanthrope" revolves around Alceste, played by Hampshire student Brookes Reeves. Alceste's one major character trait (or flaw, depending on how you look at it) is his insistence to always tell the truth, despite what others may want to hear. This trait gets him into a lot of trouble, as one can imagine.
Alceste constantly insults those close to him, tears apart artists and poets who seek his advice and obsesses over his lover, the beautiful Célimène. Played by the sultry Honora Talbott '07, Célimène is first and foremost a seductress. Though Alceste claims to honor virue and reject hypocrisy, the center of his world is Célimène, who seems to represent everything to which he is opposed. Throughout the play, Alceste begs Célimène to reject the material trappings of the world and run away with him to seek the meaning of life. The independent Célimène refuses to renounce her lifestyle and struggles to find her own fulfillment.
The music and scenery are sparse, though the costumes are wickedly fun. Célimène's dress is artsy-fartsy Park Avenue and contrasts quite wonderfully with Alceste's all-black, starving artist get-up. Due to the simplicity of the background, the actors' performances are able to receive the limelight. Reeves' astounding grasp of good acting brings the flavor out in the characters around him. His anger and desperation are emotionally evocative, while Talbott's intuitive sense of sarcastic wit plays off the romantic drama intrinsic to the play.
Through a series of brilliant scenes, the main characters develop the plot and the supporting actors' personality quirks enrich it. Emma Jasper '07 played Célimène's assistant Eliante, and is somehow both loveable and insipidly romantic. Her love interest Philinte, is played by up-and-coming actor William Cranch '08, who was somewhat inconsistent, though his aggravation with his friend Alceste was well-portrayed.
Will Havemenn '07 (Acaste) and UMass student Michael Marceline (Clitandre) portray the two evil schemers and close friends of Celimene. Clitandre was absolutely hilarious as the stereotypical gay man and Havemenn's arrogance was vomit-inducing. The two were able to play off each other like a modern day Rosencratz and Guildenstern.
Olivia D'Ambrosio '06E (Arsinöe) was quite noteworthy as a rival art gallery owner who hates Celimene almost as much as she loves Alceste. A catty scene between D'Ambrosio and Talbott left the audience in hysterics.
Jonathan Wemette '05 played Oronte, a poet rejected by Alceste and a lover rejected by Célimène, and his performance truly stole the show. Wemette made the character his own, and the result was positively refreshing.
The play was altogether quite satisfactory. In his fast-paced acts, Molière draws out the hypocrisy inherent in high society but also explores the consequences of strictly speaking the truth. The final scene features Célimène alone on stage, abandoned by Alceste. It is depressing, but it is also just the way it should be.