---

Inside Iowa State
March 19, 1999

Modern twist to Moliere

Moliere goes Hollywood in ISU Theatre's latest production, The Misanthrope, which will be presented next weekend in Fisher Theater.

"Satire is corrective," said director Gregg Henry. "We haven't done Moliere for a while and the time has come."

Moliere (the stage name for Jean Baptiste Popquelin) wrote The Misanthrope in 1666. The play satirizes universal human failings, with protagonist Alceste opposing his world's superficiality and hypocrisy.

Without sacrificing Moliere's comic verse or genius, playwright Neil Bartlett reset the play in contemporary Hollywood, complete with self-centered gossip-mongers, power brokers and divas.

Henry calls the play "a tough comedy. People are portrayed as comic monsters whom we laugh at, but we stop short when we realize that we are laughing at ourselves."

The play will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 26 and 27, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 28. Tickets are $9 and available at the Iowa State Center box office (233-1888) and TicketMaster outlets.

Iowa State homepage

Inside Iowa State, inside@iastate.edu, University Relations
Copyright © 1999, Iowa State University, all rights reserved
URL: http://www.inside.iastate.edu/1999/0319/isutheatre.html
Revised 03/18/99