La Misantrope à la Comedie Francaise

Pushed to their limits by the radicalism of this man, ready to renounce any form of worldliness, the characters unveil for a day the contradictions of the human race subjected to “a heart that reason does not know”. They make up a social microcosm that takes place not in the cozy atmosphere of a living room but in an open space, the landing of a mansion being moved into. The setting is a place in movement, the metaphor of what must be, according to the director, the repertoire “which evolves, completely in its century, but nourished by previous centuries and already turned towards the century to come”.
“I belong to a repertory theatre and I tell myself that if we don’t take a fresh look at the works, then this repertory theatre has no place,” says Clément Hervieu-Léger, the new general administrator of the Comédie-Française. Created in 2014, with 197 performances as of the date of this revival, the show is one of those, timeless, which crosses the years with an acuity that age could not alter.

1665 – the year of writing the “Misanthrope” – was a year of betrayal for Molière: that of Racine, who gave his tragedy “Alexander the Great” to the troupe of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, after the failure of its creation by that of Molière at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. Do autobiographical resonances feed the dark mood of the main character, Alceste, who, to hate one person, decides to hate the whole world?

Matinées certain days