We don't really have that tradition. So one of the things I've done in this translation is de-emphasize the rhyme. But you know, directing is a kind of translation, too. The company is the membrane through which we will get the work out to the audience. When you're talking world class masterpieces, you have to have an angle.
Every production is smaller than the play.
I have a theory that if you tell the story in the simplest possible way, a style will emerge from the heart of the work. The Misanthrope is a problem play, like Much Ado About Nothing or The Merchant of Venice . I think it is a comedy. We're taking a basically amused look at the characters. One of Moliere's contemporaries said it doesn't make you laugh, it makes you smile.