Scapin and Misanthrope

As I am currently taking a break from more homework (it really never ends) I thought this would be a good time to catch up on the plays I saw last weekend. Scapin and Misanthrope were part of Columbia University's season--a showcase of sorts for their MFA III actors. I did sit through two Moliere plays in one day, but at $5 a piece, I am not going to complain. The plays were staged at Riverside Church, near Columbia. The theatre was fairly intimate...maybe 200 seats at the most with decent sight lines all around. I made it a point to sit at different locations for both shows.

Scapin was what Rutgers attempted to do with As You Like it, except it was done successfully. The production looked like a modern Commedia troupe right off the cart. I was expecting something a little more substantial and connected, but the show was fun, nonetheless. My biggest complaint was the costumes, they looked cheap, thrown together and unfinished, but not in an intentional way. I personally to not find any appeal to purposefully making a production look half-assed, but there seems to be a rash of that recently. The costumes were suggestions of traditional commedia costumes with suggestions of period clothing using what looked to be cheap fabric and a limited build time. It was a little distracting at times. As a series of quick skits, the show was fabulous, but as a two hour play it began to get a bit tedious. That isn't to say the acting wasn't great (some of the staging and choreography was very impressive), but it is Moliere, and commedia or not, he deserves a little more attention than the slapstick routine.

Misanthrope faired much better. The gentleman playing Alceste played him sincerely and unforgivingly. Despite the character's cinisim, you could buy that he was taken with the female lead. The director set the production in Victorian times--bustle dresses. And they used bustles, not those pissy little bum rolls you often see on stage for a Victorian piece. The set, which was the same set for Scapin, worked much better in this production. The greenish wash that drove me nuts during Scapin worked wonderfully against the costumes in Misanthrope. A few wonderful character parts were played well, without pushing the comedy. That may have worked for Scapin, but I appreciated the restraint in Misanthrope, especially against the background of Victorian decorum. Here again, my biggest complaint is about costumes. But only the leading lady's. Why would you decide to change one character's costumes for every scene, yet leave everyone else untouched? And if you are going to take the time to put her in a different costume for every scene, please make your hems immaculate and make sure someone back stage adjusts her petticoats during the quick change. Few things are as distracting an old petticoat peaking out from under an otherwise beautiful dress.

It was very refreshing to see such a range from the actors between Scapin and Misanthrope. It makes me nervous to see what atrocisty will end up on our stage nest semester when we tackle Scapin.