A Tale of Corruption and Greed: Moliere’s Classic 'The Miser' Resonates With Chinese Audiences, Jun 30-Jul 1
A 300-year-old French comedy has been winning laughs and plaudits on its Chinese tour, proving that its themes of financial greed and the corrupting power of wealth still resonate across ages and cultures. And now Beijingers will have an opportunity to see it for themselves, as Moliere’s classic L’Avare (The Miser), comes to the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center this weekend (30 June and 1 July).
The miser of the title, Harpagon, is a rich man, but hoards his wealth and lives in a constant state of suspicion and paranoia. He plans to marry a much younger woman, unaware that she and his son are in love. In classic farce style, the deceits and misunderstandings pile up with breathless speed, until all is finally resolved through a series of unlikely coincidences.
French company La Comédie de Reims have given the play a fresh spin and a contemporary setting. Harpagon’s house, where the action takes place, becomes a warehouse filled with cardboard boxes, representing the uselessness of stockpiling wealth. Everyone in the play is obsessed with money, despite being surrounded by it.
“The issue is not about a lack of money, it is more about the lack of monetary movement,” says director Ludovic Lagarde. “The function of money is to pay, and here it has lost this function. It seems to have become the target of a mortiferous worshipping. Everything can be sacrificed for money, since nothing else matters, there is no value, and no price ... except for money of course.”
It’s not hard to see why audiences have been responding to this portrayal of what Lagarde calls, “a society under crisis ... where money rules like a despot.” Fortunately both Moliere and Lagarde have not forgotten the humor, with witty dialog, physical comedy, and fun with theatrical conventions sugaring the play’s serious message.
L’Avare by Moliere plays at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center at 7.30pm on Friday, June 30, and Saturday, July 1. Performances are in French, with Chinese and English subtitles. Tickets cost RMB 99 to RMB 580, and are available from the box office or online here.
Images courtesy of the organizers
