Le Misanthrope
Moliere's Le Misanthrope is a classic French Comedy of Manners, taking inspiration from the Commedia Dell'Arte: Italian street theatre and puppet shows which can be traced back to the 16th century: it features archetypes like the foolish old man, the braggart soldier, and the mischievous servant. The stylistic parallels are clear, and defined inspiration for this redesign. The play is populated by archetypal characters that are dressed in bright colours and playful costumes. The characters such as Alceste, the titular misanthrope, and Célimène, the beautiful and witty woman he loves, satirize the social norms of the time and act as a moral compass for the audience, exposing the hypocrisies of the French upper class.
Concept
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One of the driving forces of the play (as well as of Moliere’s work generally) is the display of society’s flaws through the use of individual characters. The play serves to teach a moral, specifically to illustrate humanity’s tendency to make mistakes, exaggerate, and the dangers of straying from the ideal model for existence (which for Moliere was the CLassical age of the Greeks and Romans)
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Moliere sets up the play by writing each character with a fatal flaw in mind - Alceste is hypocritical and close minded, in addition to his selective misanthropy; Celimene is dishonest and acts with no consideration for others; ect- the moral element of the play means it can lend itself to a more folk/fable like rendition, and the method of building character around a specific characteristic links it well to the Commedia dell’Arte (which Moliere himself was heavily influenced and inspired by).
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The concept is to pinpoint the 1660s silhouette and characteristics of popular dress at the time, while seeking to understand what made the traditional costumes of the Commedia dell’Arte so compelling and successful. By pairing each character from Le Misanthrope with one of the core characters from the Commedia, I can identify similarities they share in terms of character, role within the play, and relation to the audience - in order to create a visual and aesthetic link between them.
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The costumes will be designed from a 1660s base, onto which modifications will be made to colour, shape, textiles, with the goal of creating an aesthetic that fits together and feels ripe with the same physicality, comedy, music, dynamism that the Commedia was known for. In order for this to happen, slight variations in the method of interpretation (on the actor’s part) would have to be taken into consideration - with much more attention paid to creating a choreography of entrances and exits that is quick and witty, throwing in some comedic aspects. The engagement with the audience should be amped up, as to form camaraderie between the stage and the spectators.
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The colours are an important choice, and in order to better make decisions, I sought inspiration from images and illustrations of the Commedia (which showcased bright, vibrant, often complementary colour palettes), but also consulted a copy of The Colour Bible by – which provided a list of colours with their respective psychological effects and the emotions/thoughts they evoke or are associated with (the evidence of this thought process is displayed in the ‘colour theory’ slides)