tg STAN Poquelin II
[Theatre]In Poquelin II, tg STAN pays tribute to Molière. Or rather, it strips his work of all its frills in search of a vibrant, modern text. Thanks to the work of a company in which the art of the actor rhymes with the spontaneity and freedom, the humour of L’Avare and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme ring out in a joyous way.
This is not the first time that tg STAN has explored the work of Molière. Poquelin, first performed in 2004, brought together several comedies and farces by the author. In Poquelin II, The Miser and The Would-Be Noble are played out in the same decor, a sparse, tri-fontal space marked out by trestle stages. Onstage are a few stools, a curtain and, of course, the central place occupied by the actor. In their capable hands, the text, whatever it might be, is used as the basis for a natural, spontaneous, conversation articulated in a lively, low-key manner. The heroes in Molière’s work begin to resemble us; they become the archetypal mirrors of our humanity at its most profound. tg STAN excel in this art of breaking down theatre into its constituent parts, anchoring it in the here-and-now of each evening’s representation. The actor-directors restore to the language of Molière its physicality, modernity and humour. We laugh at the characters, and laugh with the actors and, in doing so, Poquelin II brings audiences the very essence of comedy.
