tg STAN
Poquelin II
© Poquelin II, tg STAN © Kurt Van der Elst ©
© Poquelin II, tg STAN © Kurt Van der Elst ©
© Poquelin II, tg STAN © Kurt Van der Elst ©
Directed by Els Dottermans, Willy Thomas, Stijn Van Opstal, Bert Haelvoet, Jolente De Keersmaeker and Damiaan De Schrijver
Text, Molière (The Miser and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme)
Featuring Els Dottermans, Willy Thomas, Stijn Van Opstal, Bert Haelvoet, Jolente De Keersmaeker, Damiaan De Schrijver and Jan Bijvoet
Lights, Thomas Walgrave
Costumes, Inge Büscher
Décor, tg STAN
Produced by tg STAN
French version co-produced by Centre Dramatique National Besancon Franche-Comté; Les Nuits de Fourvière, Lyon; Théâtre de Lorient Centre dramatique national; Théâtre populaire romand La Chaux-de-Fonds; Théâtre Garonne, scène européenne à toulouse; Le Parvis scène nationale Tarbes Pyrénées; Comédie de Genève (CH)
Coproduction Toneelhuis (Antwerp); NTGent; Dood Paard (Amsterdam); ARSENAAL/LAZARUS (Mechelen)
Coréalisation Théâtre de la Bastille; Festival d’Automne à Paris
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.
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