<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3gCL0H_0wBCtwmB00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3gCL0H_0wBCtwmB00" width="1080" height="1080" ><figcaption>Christian Ortega as Alceste in The Misanthrope at Forest Park Theatre Credit: Courtesy Forest Park Theatre</figcaption></figure>Though first produced in 1666, Molière’s The Misanthrope still feels daisy-fresh in its observations on how humans are driven by the foibles of social (or in today’s terms, parasocial) relationships. Forest Park Theatre’s current staging by artistic director and founder Richard Corley (the first indoor production in the young company’s history) doesn’t take risks with the setting, keeping it during the time of Louis XIV, the “Sun King.”Because of the timelessness of his insights, Molière’s play can lend itself to almost any era. I still recall a production many years ago by now-defunct Greasy Joan &amp; Co. that set the tale of choleric Alceste and his social-climbing friends in Hollywood during the blacklist era. But Corley’s production (using Richard Wilbur’s celebrated rhyming translation) is a sturdy and fun introduction to the story for those who are unfamiliar and a solid reminder of why Molière is so damn delightful to perform.The MisanthropeThrough 10/20: Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2; Madison Street Theater, 1010 Madison, Oak Park, www.fpheatre.org, $35 ($15 students; $30 seniors and Forest Park Arts Alliance members)Alceste (Christian Ortega) is a courtier who is incapable of not telling people exactly what he thinks about them. When he criticizes the terrible verse of the fop Oronte (Amontae Banks), he finds himself in hot water legally. Unfortunately for Alceste, he’s in love with Célimène (Elizabeth Hope Nahulak), a woman whose penchant for flattery and little white lies stands in stark contrast to his own bull-in-a-china-shop approach to social interactions.The genius of Molière’s play is that Alceste isn’t meant to be heroic. Indeed, what comes through clearly in Corley’s staging and Ortega’s performance is that the misanthrope’s behavior serves as its own sort of self-conscious, status-seeking performance. (I was reminded of Andy Samberg’s video about a disaffected self-styled “rebel,” “Threw It on the Ground,” more than once while watching the Forest Park show.) And a brief speech by Nahulak’s Célimène, in which she reminds him that the stakes for women speaking their minds are far higher than for men, couldn’t be more timely in the current election season.There are elements of the staging that feel a little awkward in terms of scene changes. The delightful final dance at the curtain call with the sprightly ensemble suggests that something of that choreographic impulse could have been applied to those changes as well. But for all his ongoing relevance and insights into human nature, Molière really doesn’t get produced all that often. Corley’s staging shows us why that’s a shame.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

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Molière’s The Misanthrope retains its relevance

Though first produced in 1666, Molière’s The Misanthrope still feels daisy-fresh in its observations on how humans are driven by the foibles of social (or in today’s terms, parasocial) relationships. Forest Park Theatre’s current staging by artistic director and founder Richard Corley (the first indoor production in the young company’s history) doesn’t take risks with the setting, keeping it during the time of Louis XIV, the “Sun King.”