I love Molière’s comedies.
Frankly, I am tired of theatre productions that are packaged to appear sophisticated. Extravagant stage designs and tragedies that aspire to philosophical profundity cannot conceal their fundamental emptiness and dullness. A play that makes its audience yawn is not worthy of being called theatre!
Molière’s comedies, on the other hand, are full of intelligence and humour. They make audiences laugh out loud.
In the years since I returned to China, a hugely popular television show has given me something to think about. A group of elegantly dressed, carefully made-up young women from all over the country stand onstage, waiting to meet and assess a succession of male candidates hoping to win their affection.
Each candidate introduces himself through videos about his family, work, friends and hobbies… Yet more often than not, his attempts at courtship end in failure.
These women remind me of Madelon and Cathos in Les Précieuses ridicules.
Just as Molière loved creating portraits of the people around him that were both comical and true to life, I hope, through this production, to offer a snapshot of contemporary society.
During the 2009 tour of Feydeau, etc., I often spoke to journalists about my personal approach to theatre: first, laugh; then reflect on life.
Molière’s comedies were deeply influenced by the Italian commedia dell’arte, with its characteristic masks and famous stock characters such as Harlequin and Pantalone.
Through this production, I also hope to explore with the actors, in a workshop setting, what it means to perform classic works of foreign literature in contemporary China.
At the very beginning of the process, finding the translation of Molière’s play best suited to the stage is, for me, an essential step that requires careful consideration.
How can we find the essence of the work within a translation?
While respecting the original story and its style, I have made certain adjustments to character names and expressions, so that Chinese audiences can more fully experience Molière’s particular brand of comedy.
Since 2012, the long process of preparing this production has brought its share of difficulties — difficulties that became so exaggerated, so absurd, that they reminded me of another play by Molière: The Versailles Impromptu (L’Impromptu de Versailles).
The idea of bringing an excerpt from that play onto the stage, as a little behind-the-scenes episode inspired by our own preparations, arose quite naturally.
It will appear at the beginning of the performance, in the form of a small mishap during a theatre rehearsal.
Masked stock characters, the unpredictable plots of improvised comedy, irresistibly funny characters, costumes both avant-garde and old-fashioned, and an exuberant explosion of theatricality — all these elements will bring together theatrical traditions from different cultures to create a fresh, borderless comedy in the spirit of Molière.
Sifan Shao
Beijing, May 2014