@ Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 11 Jun 2016
For many years Scots playwrights have translated the work of Molière, because there’s no Scotsman that compares to his comedic genius. Although it has been said that his wit is untranslatable, this doesn’t stop the likes of Liz Lochhead, who 30 years ago first translated Tartuffe, the masterpiece that Molière struggles with in Thon Man Molière. Directed by Tony Cownie, this tale is as hilarious as one of his own works; he would positively adore Lochhead’s telling of his tale.
After translating Molière’s great trio of masterpieces it came as no surprise that Scotland’s former national poet, Liz Lochhead, master of the Scots language, would write this imaginative work based on the life and work of her hero – French playwright Poquelin Molière. Inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Life of Monsieur de Molière, her original play, subtitled “Whit got him intae aw that bother”, welcomes Lochhead back to her theatrical home – the Royal Lyceum.
Travel back to Paris at time of Louis XIV. Poqeulin, one of the world’s greatest comic playwrights, was married to the theatre. Theatre was his life and his life was theatre, and we are welcomed backstage to envisage all of it – the rumours, the gossip and the accusations. Based on some facts, this make-believe tragi-comedy is dark and shocking, just like the life of Molière and his company. The lines are blurred between his work and what’s happening in his life, or at least what he thinks is happening…
What’s interesting is how his life is being told mainly through the female characters’ perspective. We see his all-too-public private life through the eyes of his on-off lover Madeleine Bejart (Siobhan Redmond), his could-be daughter Menou (Sarah Miele) and the gossiping Therese Du Parc (Nicola Roy). The play looks at the small part women play in theatre, but a large part in his life. He’s insane, paranoid, intense and self-destructive, which is captured in an impeccable performance from Jimmy Chisholm. The acclaimed actors Chisholm and Redmond have a real chemistry that drives the tension of the play as well as the comedy. Lochhead gives us the gift of the cheeky, honest maid Toinette (Molly Innes). She’ll no say it but she kens she’s hilarious. Reflective of Molière’s work – it’s a working class character that brings the play to life, and gets the most laughs from the audience.
With a greyish set design by Neil Murray, contrasted against the colourful exquisite costumes, the stage looks like the artwork on the cover of his play, which holds inside the story of a self-destructive man trying to tell the truth. However, the fantasies on stage are all too human and we know there’s no happy endings.