Théâtre français de Toronto has opened its 45th season with one of Molière’s greatest farces, Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671). Molière wrote Scapin to prove to audiences and the authorities that he could write a pure, non-controversial comedy after all the censure that that dogged his portrait of religious hypocrisy in Tartuffe, first produced in 1664, censored and not produced in its final form until 1669. Scapin is free of any specific satire except for the ancient notion that the narrow-mindedness of the older characters can’t restrain the vigour of youth.
Director Guy Mignault and designer Marie-Ève Cormier have followed Molière’s instructions and set the action in Naples but moved the period from the 1670s to the 1950s. French and Italian songs of the period greet you as you enter the auditorium and gaze on Cormier’s wonderfully whimsical set with its raised boardwalk, a sandy beach and a little house tilted to one side and squeezed around the middle by a huge rope that disappears diagonally above as if some immense ship had mistaken the house for a bollard and tied its hawser round it.
The plot is so symmetrical that Molière seems to be taunting his audience’s taste for non-controversial comedy with a self-consciously artificial example of farce. Molière gives us two sons, their two fathers, the sons’ two valets and the two women of unknown origins whom the two sons have fallen in love with against their fathers’ wishes. Both young men – Octave (Philippe Van de Maele Martin) son of Argante (Robert Godin) and Léandre (Lindsay Owen Pierre) son of Géronte (René Lemieux) – turn to Léandre’s famous valet Scapin (Nicolas Van Burek) to help ward off the coming punishment they expect from their fathers. Scapin, a character derived from the wily servant Scapino of the commedia dell’arte and ultimately from wily servants like Pseudolus in the Roman comedies of Plautus, is renowned for getting himself and others out of sticky situations. As soon as Octave and Léandre have described their problem, Scapin has already started thinking of the solution.
The single image of Scapin imprinted in most people’s minds is the archetypal scene of Scapin beating the hapless Géronte who has hidden in a sack. That tends to make people think of the play as primarily slapstick, when, in fact, as Mignault’s direction makes clear, the primary source of comedy is verbal and psychological. To trick the two fathers into handing over the money that the two sons need for their beloveds, Scapin creates false scenarios and forces the fathers reluctantly to forsake their inherent miserliness for fear of retribution from others. Scapin knows that appealing to the fathers’ love for their sons is useless. While Molière may have writing farce, his satire of the older generation is devastating.
At the same time, Scapin’s technique of involving the fathers and sometimes Octave’s valet Silvestre (Sébastien Bertrand) in invented scenarios means that the play itself consists of a series of plays-with-the play with Scapin as the author and principal actor, not unlike Molière’s role in his company. Thus, Molière manages to give this farce a larger meaning about the nature of play-writing and the ability of playwrights to make their audience believe in and enjoy what is false.
Mignault is working with a high calibre cast. Van Burek is an ideal Scapin, mingling humour, astuteness, and disdain with a love of risk for its own sake. Van Burek’s demonstrates an impressive linguistic facility in the scene with the sack when has to impersonate the multitude of villains he claims are seeking Géronte – Gascons, Basques and a whole militia. It is a virtuoso performance that imbues the whole production with energy.
Lindsay Owen Pierre and Philippe Van de Maele Martin are the interchangeably smitten sons one finds everywhere in Molière. Mignault has made them more prominent by highlighting their musical abilities. Pierre sings and spiritedly accompanies himself and others on the guitar, while Martin frequently breaks into song when impassioned, most notably in a fine rendition of “O Sole Mio”.
TfT audiences have loved the work of Lemieux and Godin for years and they have the roles of Molière’s fussy old fathers down pat. It’s a delight to watch such expects of their craft in action.
Meilie Ng and Noa May Dorn are both making their TfT débuts as the two objects of affection, Hyacinthe and Zerbinette. Mignault also gives Ng songs to sing, often in duet with Martin, to expand her character along with an amusing high-pitched cry, while Dorn lends a modern sassiness to her gypsy character. Sébastien Bertrand doesn’t have much to do as Scapin’s less clever counterpart Silvestre, but he brings down the house in his big scene impersonating a ferocious, literally sabre-rattling gypsy henchman who will take revenge if Léandre does not marry Zerbinette.
Melanie McNeill has hit upon an ingenious way to update the costumes for the production. Only Géronte and Argante wear wigs, which underlines how their views are centuries away from those of the younger generation. Their clothes have the outline of 17th-century menswear, but are made in colours and from materials that are thoroughly modern. The youth of the play she dresses in brightly coloured outfits from the 1950s, except that all the young people, except for Scapin, have a lock or two of hair dyed in a Day-Glo colour in a style that is popular now. Thus, we look at the play and see the action happening simultaneously in three periods – the 1670s, the 1950s and now.
For classic French farce at its finest you need look no further than this inventive TfT production with its stellar central performance from Van Burek. Don’t worry if your French is a bit rusty. The TfT has English-surtitled performances on October 28, 31, November 2, 3, 7, 9 and 10. Neither Soulpepper nor the Stratford Festival has ever staged Scapin even though it is one of most hilarious of Molière’s works. You owe yourself an escape into this hour and a half of pure fun.
After a hugely successful première season in February this year, Mozart & Salieri returns to the Artscape Opera House by popular demand from 24 August to 1 September 2018. The sumptuous adaptation of Alexander Puskin’s short story, choreographed by Marc Goldberg, will once again be presented by Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB), for only six performances. The two-act production drips with glamour, intrigue and innovation, with ground-breaking digitized set design, exquisite costuming and powerful dancing, all set to Mozart’s celebrated compositions.
Mozart and Salieri, made famous by Sir Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, follows Mozart’s rumoured rivalry between himself and the court composer Antonio Salieri, and his tumultuous relationship with wife Constanze. The ballet is charged with emotion and previous reviews celebrated it as a thrilling, cutting edge spectacle, rarely seen on the South African stage and one that should not be missed.
Guest artist Maxime Quiroga (Mozart), who has danced with the Stuttgart Ballet, Wiener Staatballett and the Royal Ballet of Flanders and was previously seen in CTCB’s Giselle, shares the principal role with Martin Milner, while Daniel Szybkowski and Ivan Boonzaier alternate as Salieri, opposite ballerinas Laura Bosenberg and Mariette Opperman alternate as Constanze.
Goldberg, whose previous work includes The Vortex, spent three years bringing his vision to the stage and the result is a unique modern ballet; one that has captured the attention of dance lovers and new audiences who have praised Mozart and Salieri as a breath of fresh air in its genre.
Lighting design is by Denis Hutchinson, costumes by Jenny Stretch, Henriette Lamprecht and Kathryn Maclachlan, wigs by Barry du Bruin, and animation and projection by Pieter Steyn.