I did "The Misanthrope" in college freshman year. I don't remember any of my lines. I didn't have the female lead. I was a reporter on celebrities and it would be weird if I remembered my lines because it was an updated piece, and my lines were probably the furthest from Moliere's perfect stuff. They were more these monologues that had to reach orgasmic climaxes of thrilled tabloid-news gathering, and that's all I can tell you.
Anyway, I also don't remember because my memory's not that good. There's only one line I remember and that's to come...
I was thinking about the Misanthrope this morning because I am one. I was trying to remember the plot. I should probably read it (but how can I read when I need to write?! ... and go to work! ... and date! - time to date before someone else gets my boyfriend!) :) because all I got is vague memories of this updated version where Alceste never changed? Has no arc? That can't be right. He must not love the girl at the beginning. Anyway, at the end he definitely loves her, as does all society, but he still hates all society, and pleads with her to come away with him and she says:
"I'm only twenty! I'd be terrified...
Just you and me and all that countryside..."
Isn't that the prettiest? I defy you to ever forget that line. It's perfect. It's in every version. I think I've checked at some point. The cadence of it makes for the easiest comedic inflection/ expression into "you" and "me" .. it's just a perfect rhyming line.
It takes time to come around to you and me and all that countryside. And in The Misanthrope it takes not a particular penchant for the bucolic, but instead an unequivocal acceptance of one's own disgust. Of course this girl is totally lost to Alceste. She's the toast of the town. How is she going to walk away from that?
Good play. Columbia's doing it somewhere now. Jeez can I bring myself to buy a ticket from Columbia when they always reject me? sigh...I probably can...
XOXO
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