THE MISANTHROPE Touring

Molière’s greatest comedy, premiered in 1666, a satire on the vanity, the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of fashionable society, castigates the heartless indifference of mankind to truth, virtue and justice. The mouthpiece for his attack is Alceste; uncompromising, intolerant, incapable of holding his tongue, he tramples over everybody. Celimene (Zara Tempest-Walters), a cold, calculating flirt, personifies all the faults he sees in society; yet he is still bewitched. The basic fault with Colin Tierney’s Alceste is that you never believe he was ever bewitched. The transition from comic to serious in the final act, when the outrageously camp fops turn on Celimene and she gets her just deserts, is the high spot in Gemma Bodinetz’s handsome revival for English Touring Company. Roger McGough’s translation doesn’t stick to Molière’s text, which may annoy some purists; but he has a lot of fun with the rhyming couplets and the undisguised malice. Simon Coates is notably articulate as Alceste’s best friend, the voice of reason, toleration and self-restraint.