The School for Lies - UMD Theatre

 

Lots of Hot Comedy in The School for Lies

Duluth New Tribune
Lawrance Bernabo

February 4, 2022 

 The School For Lies, David Ives’s “translaptation” of Moliere’s classic comedy The Misanthrope, opened at the University of Minnesota Duluth on Thursday night.  This is a show that slowly simmers for the first one-third, starts boiling and then refuses to stop.

Alceste the misanthrope is now named Frank because that is what the character clearly is as he rudely criticizes everyone’s flaws.  The young widow Celimene is equally critical of others and pursued by a trio of inept suitors.  Once Frank’s wingman Philinte tells Celimene’s gal pal Eliante a strategic lie, the romantic ball starts rolling and wackiness ensues.

Director Lauren Roth has put together a production where every single member of the cast has multiple moments to shine.

As Frank, Ian Wallin wields his caustic opinions like a baseball bat, while Kelly Solberg’s Celimene favors using a rapier in her attacks, when she is not rapping or going vapid Valley Girl.  She is up on points by the end of the night.

Even funnier is how their victims steal the moments back from their tormentors.  This show gets into gear when Celimene skewers Mikela Anderson’s Arsinoé who then loses it.  Completely.  On several levels.  Likewise, when Frank offers his insulting “apology” to Oronte, Nick Wright’s inarticulate rage was just epic.

In this comedy of manners, the most comic manners, both quantitatively and qualitatively, goes to Jake Lieder’s Acaste, who also displays a nice array of sudden shifts in delivery to humorous effect.

Ives is working in iambic pentameter and while there are certainly several payoffs to the rhyming couplets, the best humor comes when the characters break up the meter.  Especially when the cast starts playing things broadly, while keeping the characters grounded, which perfectly defines Maddie Schafer’s performance as Eliante.  Schafer used her voice, face, and body to punctuate her passionate dialogue.

Add to that moments of hysterical physical comedy that should stop Moliere from spinning in his grave over the whole translaptation thing.  Such as when Bryce Melton as Clitander makes his case for why he would be better, in a certain area of marital relations, than his competitors.  Others might be haunted more by where Frank’s encouragement of Jack Senske’s Philinte to woo Eliante takes the two of them.

Emily Crawford’s exquisite scenic design has a trio of chandeliers casting shadow on a black and white checkerboard floor and a settee covered in cursive and printed script, while the back wall offers a quartet of pop art portraits in the style of Andy Warhol.

Jeannie Hurley’s costumes are a luscious mix of gorgeous gowns for the women and excessive elegance for the men, topped off by wigs created by Ora Jewell-Busche.

Ives ends his version with a compilation of Moliere’s greatest hits: the royal ex machina from Tartuffe, the return of a long-lost character from The Miser, and the revelation of twins from the one where twins are revealed.

However, I do have a serious concern that the serving tray used by Hunter Ramsden’s Dubois cannot possibly survive the entire run of this show.