Molière on Stage

Whats So Funny?

By (author) Robert W. Goldsby

Publication date:

01 April 2012

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

229x153mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780857284426

‘Molière on Stage’ takes the reader onstage, backstage and into the audience of Molière’s plays, analyzing the performance of his works in both his own time and in ours. Written by a professional stage director with over fifty years’ experience directing and translating Molière, this text explores how the playwright strove to create a communal experience of shared laughter, and investigates four key topics relating to this achievement: Molière’s early experiences that lead to his later theater experiences; his central great plays of love and lust; his comedic genius and his passion for the stage; and the final words and performances of his life.

Acknowledgments; Chronology of Plays Discussed; List of Illustrations; Act One: The Back Story; I. “ ’Allo, Molière”; II. The First Stages; III. Finding His Light; IV. The Actor Unmasked; Act Two: The Agon; V. Into the Mouth of the Wolf; VI. “Go Saddle Yon Braying Ass!”; VII. Entrances…; VIII. …And Exits; IX. She Loves Me… She Loves Me…; X. …Not!; Act Three: The Comic Relief; XI. Blessèd Laughter; XII. Classic Routines; XIII. Musical Comedy; XIV. The Bones of Farce; Act Four: And Leave ’em Laughin’; XV. The Dancing Skeleton; XVI. The Imaginary Invalid; XVII. Full Circle; Notes; Works Cited and Consulted; Index

“Robert Goldsby has outdone scholarship by perceiving Molière’s plays in multiple dimensions: as the actor prepares, rehearsing them over and over again; in the mind’s eye, with fertile imagination; and in stagings reconstructed, past and present, here and abroad, and in various translations, including his own. It’s hard to conceive of any study of Molière so encompassing, so informed by intimacy with the texts.” —Professor Herbert Blau, University of Washington