_Wise women_played this weekend at the factory of Saint-Astier give a welcome facelift to Moliere and evoke feminism.
Agnes Larroque stages this version where the setting is a kitchen, the characters look like in 2022, and all the roles played by women.
1. Is it true that Les femmes savantes served as a reference to say that it was useless, even dangerous, to educate women in the 19th century?
Absoutely. It’s a play that frightened a little the male sex, which had a bit of a monopoly on knowledge. And we know that knowledge is also power. Today, women have nevertheless gained more and more space in society, even if there is still work, It’s not moving fast enough for my taste.. Wise women it’s a piece that serves to restore, I believe, energy to the public, to young audiences, to teenagers through this incredible freedom that crosses the five actresses who take on all the roles with a jubilation that contaminates
2.Have you kept the original text?
He was a little cut because it’s a great comedy of manners that lasts two and a quarter hours when it’s completely edited. But we do a burlesque theater where the body engages in the battle of words. The text is a little too long sometimes, too talkative. So I cut some scenes to make room for action rather than discussion. But it remains Wise women by Moliere in alexandrines. It’s not a pretext. We really play the part. She’s just lightened up
3.In your staging, you added pop culture, like a song by Adèle. In today’s pop culture, precisely, there is Angèle who conveyed feminist messages in these songs. What do you think? Angèle is Molière today?
I think it’s extraordinary to finally be able to hear these singers. I think it saves the lives of a lot of teenage girls. It gives impetus to live your life as you want to live it, being completely free from patriarchy.