The Critique of the School for Wives [5] - {{ productInfo[0].CHARACTER }}

From The Big Book of Molière Monologues by actor/author Timothy Mooney. A collection of over 160 of Molière's funniest monologues in new rhymed iambic pentameter versions. Molière’s local competition, the Grands Comédians of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, envied the sudden success of The School For Wives. They had more direct ties to the playwright, Corneille (whose brother, Thomas was a likely target of Molière’s satire), and felt the need to respond on his behalf. Whatever their reasons, they produced plays criticizing Molière’s original. They attacked Molière for seemingly frivolous and superficial reasons, such as his failure to live up to Aristotle’s three unities, or the way he told the story through long speeches, rather than interactive scenes. Molière created The Critique of The School For Wives as his answer to several of the attacks, actually bringing their arguments onto the stage, into an after-show tea-party, or salon, as several dilettantes gather to discuss this play which has become the talk of all Paris. The performances of that era (also satirized in The Precious Young Maidens) were evidently broad and ham-fisted, as actors raged and swept grandiosely through their performances, trilling their consonants, pausing for applause and laughter, and breaking character to acknowledge their cheering supporters. It was, perhaps, more sport than art form. Far more detailed than Hamlet’s famous “advice to the players,” Molière’s depiction of theatrical infighting gives an unparalleled peek into the performance aesthetics of that age.see less

From The Big Book of Molière Monologues by actor/author Timothy Mooney. A collection of over 160 of Molière's funniest monologues in new rhymed iambic pentameter versions. Molière’s local competition, the Grands Comédians of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, envied the sudden success of The School For Wives. They had more direct ties to the playwright, Corneille (whose...see more