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 give 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.

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.

Buy tickets here.