Long Wharf Has Brilliance In A Moliere Reincarnation

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN — Back in the 1600s, classical French theater specialized in highly formalized tragedies written in elegant verse. Meanwhile, the Italian Comida dell’arte was made up of acting companies who traveled around the boondocks in horse-drawn wagons, improvising rowdy farces, performed outdoors in the village square or in the courtyard of the local chateau, where the local people – tradesmen, servants and peasants – could stand and enjoy the entertainment.

When Jean Baptiste Poquelin, who would become known as Moliere, turned down the chance to follow in his father’s footsteps as Upholsterer to the King, he intended to become a classical actor. When that venture failed, he turned to the work of the Comedia dell’arte troupes for inspiration, and began to write plays that combined the lowbrow buffoonery of that genre with the formal poetic language of classical theater.

Over the next 18 years Moliere produced more than a half dozen works which are still performed all over the world today, including The School for Wives, Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, The Bourgeois Gentleman and The Imaginary Invalid. His career ended with his collapse and death onstage, at the age of 51.

Now Long Wharf has mounted a production of Moliere’s first theatrical success, L’Etourdi, or The Bungler. Never presented in this country before, it has been newly translated into English by Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Richard Wilbur. It is a lot of fun!

Because they drew their audiences from the illiterate lower classes, the Comedia dealt with stock plots based on certain standard characters: tight-fisted greedy old men, star-crossed young lovers, and, of particular appeal to their audiences, the clever scamp of a servant who is much smarter than his doltish master.

All of these are represented in The Bungler: Handsome young Lelie, one of the duller knives in life’s drawer, is deeply in love in Celie, the beautiful gypsy slave, jealously guarded by old Trufaldin. Lelie’s father, Pandolfe, is forcing the boy into an engagement with Hippolyte, the daughter of his friend. Hippolyte is in love with Leandre, who is himself infatuated with Celie and intends to buy her from Trufaldin for himself.

In desperation, Lelie turns to his valet, Mascarille, for help. Mascarille is indeed a genius at devising schemes for stealing the money to ransom Celie, thwarting Leandre’s attempts to get her, and tricking Trufaldin into allowing Lelie into his house. However, every time he is about to bring off one of his strategies, it is interrupted and ruined by the well-meaning but hopelessly misguided actions of his employer, who can’t open his mouth without giving the game away.

Thus it is a one-joke play, repeated over and over in numerous variations. That it works so well is due to a number of things, beginning with a superlative performance by Jeff Weiss as Mascarille. He is so droll a comedian and so smooth tongued a speaker that when he ties the outrageous plot strands together in a five-minute soliloquy, he has the audience on the edges of their seats, listening to him.

Mr Wilbur’s translation also contributes to the success of the venture. The rhyming couplets flow effortlessly in clear colloquial language that is easy to follow and satisfying to hear.

Finally there is the whole Long Wharf production with fabulous costumes by Linda Fisher and raucous accompaniment by a quartet of strolling musicians raucously wielding violin, saxophone, accordion and drum, until it become very easy to imagine yourself back in a French country courtyard, 350 years ago.

(Performances continue through October 22. Contact Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive in New Haven, at 203/787-4282 for curtain and ticket information.)