Two Masterful Romps Through Moliere's Plays

Of all the playwrights who have been staged repeatedly in recent seasons, Moli?re may be the most popular. Now, two more productions of the Frenchman's comedies indicate there is no danger of his dropping out of vogue any time soon.


The Taganka Theater's "The School for Wives" -- Moscow's third rendition in two years -- is a wild romp that aims for fun and hits it. Meanwhile, the Yermolova International Theater Center has produced an intriguingly stark, modern version of "The Imaginary Invalid."


At the Taganka, Alexei Kiryushchenko, the play's director, pulled off the theatrical equivalent of building a ship in a bottle. The actors, performing a shortened text in rapid-fire style, play on a stage barely large enough to hold them. The only notable set decoration is a lacy, pink structure that looks as much like a woman's armoire as the facade of a country house.


It is a breathless leap into hyper-theatricality, with the players ecstatically laughing too hard, weeping too loud, and bursting into song. Physical humor, from the cornball to the bawdy, and moments of inspired silliness, such as an abrupt halt in the action as a character leisurely chases a butterfly across the stage, make for non-stop craziness.


Kiryushchenko boldly attacks the story of a virile youth acing out a middle-aged man for a girl's attentions. He retains the play's satire of human follies, while making a delirious celebration of "provincial" theatrical shenanigans his main focus.


As Arnolphe, the pot-bellied gentilhomme out to marry his ward Agnes, Alexander Karpov is a bundle of jealous nerves, while the grinning Andrei Butin, who is constantly straightening the disobedient wig on his head, plays his rival Horace with as much endearing, thick-headed simplicity as arrogance.


Matching the uniformly energetic cast are Oleg Stepchenko's dazzling costumes, as busy as beehives with bows, buttons, frills and folds everywhere. The masterpiece is Agnes's dress, looking every bit a lamp-shade made from a bed spread.


In "The Imaginary Invalid," director Alexei Levinsky achieves a very different kind of humor, relying on his familiar style that might be called existential clownery. Levinsky loves a good joke as well as anyone, but he invariably couches it in unconventional surroundings.


Here he was aided by designer Viktor Arkhipov, whose bare set creates a bracing atmosphere with a backdrop split into black and white halves by a long diagonal streak.


The performance begins with the actors doing tap-dance exercises -- playing on Moli?re's description of his play as a "comedy-ballet" -- and bits of jazz and hip-hop crop up frequently. There are silent movie-like chase scenes, graceful pantomimes, slow-motion games of catch, and all the while the dialogue is spoken in markedly contemporary intonations.


The tone is set by Sergei Dreiden, a splendid St. Petersburg actor brought in to play Argan, a hypochondriac who wants to marry his favorite daughter to a medical apprentice in order to have his own doctor in the family. Phlegmatic and stubborn, Dreiden's anti-hero is actually a man more in sync with his own world than it appears. In fact, it is the world around him that is bad for his health.


Tatyana Rudina as Toinette, Argan's eccentric servant, provides a crystal-clear counterpoint to Dreiden. Brash, wily and decisive, she sees to it that the fragile Angelique (Natalya Seliverstova) escapes the rigged marriage and is given to her goofy, but beloved Cleante (Dmitry Pavlenko).


Even if the second act of "Invalid" flags as it gets wrapped up in curiosities, this outing remains one of note.





"The School for Wives" (Shkola zhon) plays May 14, 15, 29 and 30 at 7 p.m. on the small stage of the Taganka Theater, Taganskaya Ploshchad. Tel. 915-1217. Running time: 1 hour, 50 mins. "The Imaginary Invalid" (Mnimy bolnoi) plays May 11, 12 and 14 at 7 p.m. at the Yermolova International Theater Center, 5 Tverskaya Ulitsa. Tel. 203-7952. Running time: 2 hours, 55 mins.