The Misanthrope

Approaching the Age of Enlightenment, the Renaissance was a time of idealism and, if you were a member of the upper classes, a time of idyll. Yet these two conditions are, in many ways, antithetical, as the American and French revolutions demonstrated. So, like many of his contemporaries, Molière was influenced by the noble sentiments of honesty and reason, thus placing himself at odds with the ruling elites of his day, particularly the church, the aristocracy, and the so-called medical profession.

But in The Misanthrope, rather than taking aim at his favorite targets, Molière focuses on the idea of the honest man, and carries the consequences of such a life to their utmost extreme, giving us, underneath his usual exemplary comedy, his most bittersweet work.

In the Denver Center Theatre Company's current production, director Nagle Jackson, who has deftly translated a number of Molière's works for the company, elects to go with Richard Wilbur's exquisite translation into English verse. Delivered in a naturalistic style by the cast, the universality of Molière's wit shines, as fresh as if it were written today.

Ruth Eglsaer as Celimene and Jamie Horton as Alceste Photo: Terry Shapiro

Jackson's casting of Jamie Horton as Alceste is both the obvious and perfect choice. Horton revels in the middle-aged misanthrope's uncompromisingly honest and scathing pronouncements, whether they are skewering his enemies or revealing his own vulnerability towards Celimene, the youthful object of his affections and desires.

Ruth Eglsaer as Celimene and Elizabeth Rainer as Eliante Photo: Terry Shapiro

This May-September romance is completed by Ruth Eglsaer, as Celimene, whose stunningly strong performance belies her fewer than two dozen years. Eglsaer's Celimene summons the stature to stand up on principle to Alceste when necessary without sacrificing any of the superficiality and fleeting commitments of her tender age.

Bill Christ as Oronte, Sam Gregory as Acaste, and Robynn Rodriguez as Arsinoe Photo: Terry Shapiro

The supporting performances are equally fine-tuned and robust. Bill Christ's Oronte is a fun mix of solicitude, social awkwardness, and reckless ardor, while Robynn Rodriguez is a calculating, razor-tongued Arsinoe; Sam Gregory and David Ivers bring the comedy to a feverish pitch as Acaste and Clitandre, Molière's most enduring fops, with Mark Rubald providing classic buffoonery as DuBois; and Steven Cole Hughes and Elizabeth Rainer bring a necessary measure of heartfelt kindness and level-headedness as Philinte and Eliante.

Based on Molière's own marriage to a woman 20 years his junior, The Misanthrope is, like the title character's own conviction, a testament to the playwright's brutal honesty; likewise, it serves to redouble the poignancy of director Jackson's graceful final scene in which we, like the lovers Alceste and Celimene, are left to wonder what might have been.

The Denver Center Theatre Company's production of The Misanthrope runs through November 13th. 303-893-4100.

Bob Bows