Molière’s life certainly deserves to be described as romantic. From his birth in 1622 in a family of merchants until his death in 1673 after the fourth performance of the Imaginary illness, the actor and playwright has multiplied the exploits and failures. It is to this illustrious character, born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, that the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov devoted a biographical novel in 1933, and that Louis-Dominique Lavigne, author, and Lorraine Pintal, director, dedicate these days. here is a show at the TNM, The novel by Monsieur de Molière.
Who graps all, looses. This is how one would be tempted to sum up the situation. Between Molière and Bulgakov, between France and Russia, between the XVIIe and the XXe century, the show never adopts the right balance. We struggle to represent a multitude of episodes from the life of Molière, but without completely renouncing what should undoubtedly have dominated the whole: Bulgakov’s satirical gaze on the adventures of the great playwright as well as on his own fate, his analysis of the delicate relations between art and power, his comments on censorship, in short the rich parallels he draws between the era of Louis XIV and that of Stalin.
While these questions are at the heart of Lavigne’s adaptation, Pintal’s staging seems hesitant to embrace them fully. Thus, most of the appearances of Jean-François Casabonne in the clothes of the Russian writer clash. Whether he intervenes in the action or whether he manifests himself on the sidelines of it, the man very often arrives like a hair in the soup. The two-hour show would most likely have gained in coherence and efficiency if Bulgakov’s character had been more present, if he had been better drawn, in short, if he had behaved more like an orchestra conductor.
In a contemporary environment that they rarely leave, a space so to speak empty, staged, all in edges, sometimes lit with neon lights, the performers are dressed in period costumes. The whole is not shocking, but cold, even disembodied, an impression that Jorane’s music, pleasant, but ethereal, only reinforces. In the role of Molière, Éric Robidoux does not lack energy, but his character is rather unlikable, perhaps because he often hides behind buffoonery rather than revealing his vulnerability. No weak link in the cast, but Karine Gonthier-Hyndman (Mademoiselle du Parc), Simon Beaulé-Bulman (Louis XIV) and Benoît Drouin-Germain (La Fontaine) particularly shine.