Molière’s classic comedy The Miser (first produced in 1668) has enraptured the imaginations of writers and adapters in many languages. In English alone, it’s been given the red carpet treatment going back to Henry Fielding in 1766. Actors’ Theatre are currently staging the Miles Malleson adaptation which gives the play a very English drawing-room spin with charm to spare.
The Miser tells the story of Harpagon (a delightful Ted Amore), a widower and notorious skinflint in the twilight of his life who seems more paranoid than ever to keep a tight grip on his fortune, going so far as to bury silver in his garden. Harpagon’s son, Cleante (Danny Turek), and daughter, Elise (Elizabeth Harelik), are both deeply in love with people they’re concerned Harpagon won’t approve of. The apple of Elise’s eye is Valere (Andy Falter), Harpagon’s steward who is a notorious striver, a manipulative whirlwind of flattering and cajoling, determined to keep his favored status in the eye of his employer but who comes alive with real emotion dealing with Elise. Cleante’s love is Mariane (Lexi Bright), a woman new to their town living with her Mother who comes from little or no wealth.
Two inciting incidents set the wheels of this fast-paced farce in motion. First, Cleante meets the would-be lender of an appallingly usurious loan (intended to help Mariane’s family) who turns out to be a very angry Harpagon. Second, Harpagon announces he intends to marry Mariane through a matchmaker intermediary Frosine (MB Griffith). Once those balls start rolling it’s an avalanche of slapstick, mistaken identities, and hilarious indignation. There is some meat in The Miser about being blinded by false love, our inability to see our own hypocrisy, and not judging a book by it’s cover, but the themes just provide some frission to underpin the laughs.
Pamela Hill’s direction is spot-on, keeping one event rolling into the next at the humming pace of a well-oiled machine and making the outlandish situations feel organic and grounded in human experience. The cast is almost uniformly good. MB Griffith’s matchmaker and her partner in love and crime, La Fleche (David Harewood), give their minor characters a human electricity that keeps them from just being plot drivers. Andy Falter’s Valere takes possibly the least likable character in this play – no easy ranking – and both hilariously sells his desperate wheedling and makes him seem like a person with choices that brought him to that low, ugly place. Danny Turek and Elizabeth Harelik as Harpagon’s children get the claustrophobia of growing up that was and the lazy, spoiled nature of their characters but, again, manage to make them come off as people and have the crowd rooting for them. Robert McDonald appears at the very end as Sngr. Anselm and commits so fully to his character, who almost only exists to make a happy ending possible, that he gets a couple of the biggest laughs of the show. But of course everything here lives and dies on its Harpagon and Ted Amore, Actors’ Theatre stalwart, is astonishing – his whiplash turns of mood, his utter commitment to the character’s delusions, are hilarious and fascinating, it’s impossible to take your eyes off Amore whenever he’s on the stage.
The Miser is a delightful romp. A kind of comedy rarely seen on contemporary stages executed with verve and aplomb, it’s one of the best ways to spend a summer night before Fall is upon us.
The Miser runs through September 6. Performances are at 8pm Thursday-Sunday. Performances are free with donations strongly encouraged and there are premium reserved seats. For reservations and more information, visit TheActorsTheatre.org.