California Stage
Les Précieuses Ridicules/Them Precious Little Ladies by Moliere
January 16 to February 15, 2009
Fridays: 8:00 p.m. Saturdays: 8:00 p.m. Sundays: 2:00p.m.
Produced and directed by Ray Tatar.
Les Précieuses Ridicules/Them Precious Little Ladies by Moliere
California Stage takes a classic masterpiece of ironic substance and style, plays it for you in the original with powdered wigs and comic gentility and then translates it with the manners and mores of a later era, equally as stylish and ironic. Ray Tatar's resetting of Molière's Them Precious Little Ladies to the Paris of 1890 Texas provides for a great evening of pure enchantment.
The first of Molière's plays to be presented at the Petit Bourbon was Les Précieuses Ridicules which satirized Madame de Rambouillet, a member of the King's court who had set herself up as the final judge of taste and culture in Paris. The play proved so successful that Molière doubled the price of admission and was invited to give a special performance for the King. The King was delighted and rewarded the playwright with a large gift of cash.
Les Précieuses Ridicules poked fun at the limited education that was given to daughters of rich families, and reflected the Molière's own marriage. Writer-director Tatar says, "The play easily adapts to Paris, Texas because the comic themes are universal." The young ladies of the play are pretentious country girls who are trying to act out what they think are urbane manners. All the characters were conceived in the French classic tradition, and like Shakespeare's individuals, are archetypes. Molière's' fiery lovers, braggart captains, misanthropes, snooty servants, and angry fathers are filled with deeply felt passions and ideas that somehow ring true for all ages.This play runs January 16 to February 15, 2009, stars James Anderson. You see this short play in French and English in one evening.
Regular admission: $20. Students, Seniors, SARTA: $15. Groups of 6 or more: $12.
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