Old play, timeless storyline
■ With a touch of
playfulness, this play
brings actors and audience
together with participation
By Yael Menahem
Oregon Daily Emerald
Expect the unexpected in the
Arena Theater’s production of
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere’s
play “The School for Wives.”
The title is misleading in this
contemporary interpretation of
the play, which doesn’t set out to
teach how to create the perfect
wife.
“The School for Wives” is
about Arnolphe, a 42-year-old
man played by Ross Maxwell,
who bought Agnes from her
mother when she was four years
old and has raised her for the last
13 years to be the perfect wife.
Agnes lives in a convent, and he
keeps her sheltered from the
world so that she will know no
other man and to ensure her faith
fulness once they marry.
Elizabeth Flesh, who plays
Agnes, describes her character as
a “really naive girl who hasn’t
seen any of the woiid. She’s been
under strict guidelines not to
learn how to read or write,” al
though she does learn how on her
own.
Things don’t work out for
Arnolphe, who comes back from
a trip ready to marry the young
girl only to find that his bride-to
be has met a young man, and the
two have fallen in love.
Fate plays a major role through
out the play, and this is the first
trick that fate plays on Arnolphe
to mess up his plans.
“He’s constantly surprised, and
something new always comes
up,” the play’s director Biliana
Stoytcheva-Horissian says.
Stoytcheva-Horissian consid
ers Moliere her favorite play
wright, and she’s writing her dis
sertation about him. She also
played the role of Agnes in the
theater academy in Bulgaria, her
native country, in the school’s
production of the play. In Bulgar
ia, the production of “The School
for Wives” stayed true to
Moliere’s play, which was set in
17th century France.
“What I really like about the
play, on the one hand, is it has the
themes that we deal with every
day: It deals with love, marriage,
control and fate,” Stoytcheva-Ho
rissian says. “But on the other
hand, it gives a lot of possibility
with theatricality of bringing co
media del arte.”
Comedia del arte is an Italian
concept for improvisational the
ater where a scenario is given to
the actors, who must come up
with the scene. Although the dia
logue is written, there is still
room for interaction with the
crowd.
The stage at the Arena Theater
is small, which breaks down the
wall between actor and audience,
making the audience part of the
action, Stoytcheva-Horissian
says.
“Very often the actors refer to
the audience,” she says.
This production of “The
School for Wives” isn’t set in 17th
century France. Instead, it spans
the century with costumes that
aren’t period specific.
“It’s sort of taking different
pieces from throughout history
that are kind of ridiculous or over
the top and exaggerating them
even more [by] adding bright col
ors, lots of feathers and bows,”
says Kendall Dodd, the play’s cos
tume designer.
Dodd wants to emphasize
through her designs that the ac
tors are street theater performers
Azte Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
Ross Maxwell (top photo, center) is Arnolphe, upset because the servants Georgette,
Kathryn Reese (top left), and Alain, Michael Govier, have let a stranger in the house,
spoiling his plans to marry Agnes. The Moliere play ‘The School for Wives’ opened at
Arena Theater Wednesday night and runs through March 11.
1
who might have put together a
costume from a trunk that they’ve
used in other plays.
Even though the story of the
play might seem a bit archaic and
unappealing to a Eugene audi
ence, Stoytcheva-Horissian as
sures skeptics that this produc
tion’s approach is playful.
“We’re not trying to make a
dark play about a person control
ling somebody else’s life but
rather make it ‘Let’s have fun’
with somebody who’s not a total
ly contemporary thinker [and]
who believes that he can control
somebody else's life,” she says.
By the end of the play, Agnes
redeems herself after confronting
Arnolphe and eventually leads
the life that she chooses for her
self. That will probably win the
audience over, Flesh says.
This production is also a bit
unusual in its blend of cultures.
“We’re doing a French play for
an American audience done by a
Bulgarian director with a [South]
Korean scene designer and in Ital
ian style,” Stoytcheva-Horissian
says.
“The School for Wives”
opened Wednesday night at the
Arena Theater and continues to
day through Saturday, with addi
tional shows March 9-11.
Tickets are $6 for the general
public, $5 for senior citizens, fac
ulty, staff and non-University stu
dents, and $4 for University stu
dents.
Tickets are available at the Hult
Center, EMU Ticket Office and at
the theater box office in the
Robinson Theater lobby. All per
formances begin at 8 p.m.
;0007307
University Theatre Presents
Mo l ie re's
~T h e Selioof F rtf' (i) i v c c
Translated By Richard Wilbur
March 1-4, 9-11
The Arena Theatre
8pm
EMU Ticket Office 346-4363
UT Box Office 346 4191
Hult Center 682-5000
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