This review looks at the The Misanthrope and Hosanna, both translated from French. “It’s plain that these two love one another, and that they both lose….Molière had more invested in Alceste than in any of his other protagonists. It’s not just that he played the role himself (as actor-manager, he always starred in his own shows); it’s that his much younger wife played Celimene.

“Grindley seems content to play it safe and opt for a straight-up reading of the text with little in the way of interpretation or embellishment, perhaps as a sop to our long-suffering protagonist. Which begs the question, would not a little embellishment of, say, the setting only heighten the contrast between Alceste and his world?”

3 Stars: ” Kelli Fox is wonderful as Arsinoé, Steve Ross and Trent Pardy make brief but memorable appearances as a pair of other suitors of Célimène,…however, as its solidness is matched by a stuffiness – and actors stuck in gorgeous, but stifling costumes that seem to wear them rather than vice versa.”

“Moliere continues to speak to us because our world isn’t much different than 17th-century France. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know it from this eye-pleasing, but ultimately vapid, production.”

2 1/2 Stars: Ben Carlson’s Alceste once again proves that no one can wrap his tongue around language more splendidly and his intensity is never to be denied. Sara Topham has perhaps never been more delectable than she is here as Célimène…But too often, we feel we’re in a museum after closing time, when some very stylish ghosts come out of the display cases to stretch their limbs.