21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
A delicious reimagining of baroque excesses updated for Instagram generation
Smock Alley Theatre production puts a modern twist with Irish gloss on Molière's 1666 comedy A Misanthrope
Creating a version of Molière's 1666 comedy of manners for a contemporary audience is a challenge. A straight adaptation can feel museum-y. Yet reimagining for a modern context can feel forced. However, this version by American writer Matthew Minnicino, from 2016, is a tonic. The follies of high-society 17th-century France find a clever mirror in the Instagram generation.
Director/designer duo Marc Atkinson Borrull and Molly O'Cathain, of Sugarglass Theatre, have also added a layer of Irish gloss to the piece. The show is set in a Dublin tech company called Frans. The misanthropic Alceste (Matthew Malone) cannot bear the falsity of business life and his home-truths verge on the abusive. He has got on the wrong side of the HR department because of biting criticisms of a fellow worker. Despite himself, Alceste is in love with Célimène (Emer Dineen), though he finds her false and untrustworthy.
