‘The Liar’ is hilarious comedy in Lenox 

By David Begelman

Theater Critic

 

           Pierre Corneille was one of those writers of French tragedy for whom humor

 

 was a sleeping giant. After all, his first drama, “Mélite” was a comedy. It represented

 

 a deviant example of the farcical style in disfavor among seventeenth century French

 

 intelligentsia, and was peddled to a group of traveling players in 1629. They happily

 

 incorporated it into their repertoire.

The playwright was forever hassled by authorities like Cardinal Richelieu (the real life prelate who was the nemesis of “The Three Musketeers” in the fictional Dumas novel) and his hand-picked toadies in the Académie Francaise. Corneille refused to abide by the dramatic conventions of the day, leaning as they did on Aristotle’s rules for drama. He went so far as coauthoring a work with Molière, a playwright who likewise had to deal with accusations of immorality. (In those days, bad drama was an affront to heaven.)

But there was light at the end of the tunnel: witness “The Liar” (Le Menteur), authored in 1643. Today it may be hard to capture the flavor the play had for audiences of its time. After all, it was penned in French, and debuted in the early modern period of history.

Whatever the separate contributions of author, a riotously clever adaptation of the play by David Ives (in rhyming blank verse, to boot), and the hugely inventive direction of Kevin G. Coleman, Shakespeare & Company’s current version of the comedy is something to savor, whatever the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” audiences must cope with these days, to quote a contemporary of Corneille’s.

Coleman has hit just the right note with his company of eight seasoned performers. And he couldn’t resist the temptation to lace the dialogue with quotes from the dramas of the English guy. Included in the Ives adaptation are lines borrowed from “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Othello,” “As You Like It,” and other familiar plays of the bard. Oddly enough, they work beautifully in this comedy, a play in which all characters have to bounce—happily or otherwise—off the fabrications of its central character, Dorante.

David Joseph tackles the role of intransigent liar with gusto, as though telling whoppers were second nature to him. He and his fellow performers maintain a perfect pacing in the dialogue, often a rapid-fire verbal barrage in which all characters face the challenge of coming up for air.

Ives and Coleman are not above the use of contemporary idiom to spruce up interactions. “She called you a liar,” says one character. “Why?” queries another. “Maybe because your pants are on fire” is the response. Not exactly in the seventeenth century mode, but funny all the same.

Douglas Seldin is Cliton, Dorante’s stocky servant, whose asides to the audience have you on the floor. Emily Rose Ehlinger and Alexandra Lincoln are Lucrece and Clarice, alternating deliciously as objects of Dorante’s shifting attentions. Enrico Spada is fittingly agitated and furious as Dorante’s competitor, while Jake Berger as Geronte and Marcus Kearns as Philiste attempt to make the most of the paternal and friendship mode in the topsy-turvy world manufactured by Dorante’s continuing vacations from the truth. Dana Harrison supplies exceedingly comic interpretations of her double role as Isabelle and Sabine.

All in all, a production to tickle your funny bone to the max.

“The Liar” runs through March 24 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MASS. Performances are Friday and Saturday 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00  p.m. Tickets are $15-$50, and can be purchased by calling the box office at (413)-637-3353, or contacting www.Shakespeare.org