Théâtre : LES FEMMES SAVANTES

With Les femmes savantes (1672), director Christian Schiaretti sets out to make Molière?s thought and language resonate in an exciting and powerful confrontation.

After staging Molière?s early farces and comedies, followed by L?école des femmes, Christian Schiaretti returns to Molière with Les femmes savantes: "The libertarian writing associated with farce and the pleasure of play in the early plays gives way to the great comedies, which go beyond entertainment to bring into play a moral reflection on society. Echoing the scathing comedy of Les Précieuses ridicules, in which young women subjected to oppression are the object of vengeance, Les femmes savantes reactivates the subject of female emancipation through knowledge, that of male anguish in the face of these women who go beyond limits, become out of control."

As usual, the director strives to bring out the amplitude and subtlety of the contradictions underlying this complex, ambiguous text, which Molière worked on for years. Christian Schiaretti emphasizes the scholarly construction of the text, based on oppositions "between Descartes and Gassendi, between Cartesianism and libertine thought", and tackles the disturbing aspects of this project for female emancipation, beyond a reassuring reading.

Without ever losing his sense of humor, the director also aims to let a tragic tone resonate: "Tragedy is always an irresolution of contradiction", he confides. A promise of refinement and intelligence?

MOLIÈRE (1622-1673)

Les femmes savantes was first performed in 1672, between Les fourberies de Scapin (1671) and Le malade imaginaire (1673). In this play, Molière attacks pedants, in particular Abbé Cotin, who had inspired the character of Trissotin (le trois fois sot), with whom he had had a dispute since L?école des femmes (1662). Trissotin's verses actually appear in the Abbé's works. Everyone laughs at them, except the Abbé?

FROM: MOLIÈRE
STAGING: CHRISTIAN SCHIARETTI
WITH:OLIVIER BALAZUC, FRANCINE BERGÉ, PHILIPPE DUSIGNE, JULIETTE GHARBI, DAMIEN GOUY, HEIDI JOHANSSON, BENJAMIN KÉRAUTRET, KENZA LAALA, JULIEN TIPHAINE, GISÈLE TORTÉROLO (CAST PENDING)

Production: Compagnie Dramatique Dépendante
Coproduction: Comédie de Picardie