On ne sera jamais Alceste ・ Comédie-Française

Since 1680, the Comédie-Française has given nearly 2,500 performances of Le Misanthrope and there is not a single actor in this house who has not worked on either Philinte or Alceste in preparation for his exams.

This play is an inexhaustible source of material for acting and directing. Louis Jouvet, in his classes at the Conservatoire in the 1940s, said to Michel, one of his young students: “You can never be Alceste. Alceste is a character who exists before us, and who will exist after us. When you are a great actor and a great man, you will play Alceste, but you will not be Alceste; you will die and Alceste will live.”

Lisa Guez, who received the 2019 Impatience prize, invites three sociétaires of the Troupe to return to process of learning how to be an actor to bring Jouvet’s fiery lessons to life.

Act I. Scene 1. On stage, Michel and Léon tirelessly rehearse the first scene of Le Misanthrope under the worried gaze of their teacher. Jouvet stops the play, notes an “o” that is too open, an intention that is too well reasoned, the meaning of an “indignant breath” – striving to achieve the infinite rigour of the theatre.

This production offers the audience the unique and exhilarating experience of witnessing these performance sketches, of entering the actor’s workshop and discovering the backstage work on a great scene from the repertory.
Lisa Guez

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