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Educating Agnes
10:04am Thursday 15th May 2008
Liz Lochhead is one of Scotland's finest contemporary playwrights, while the 17th-century writer Molière is a legend of the French theatre. So it's no wonder that the combination of these talents has created a play that will leave you grinning from ear to ear. Coming together in Lochhead's sparky adaptation of L'Ecole des Femmes (School for Wives), it is a great classic romp with a super modern edge to the dialogue.
The story features the middle-aged, misogynist control freak Arnolphe, played by a well cast Kevin McMonagle who delights in this performance. Paranoid and convinced of womankind's propensity for infidelity, he decides to supervise the education of the young lady he has plans to marry, who is also his ward. He hopes to keep her away from the evilness of the real world - pure and unsullied. But the object of his desire, pretty Agnes has more about her than that - and she has fallen for the handsome young Horace. In her debut role Anneike Rose, as Agnes, has made a tremendous beginning to what looks certain, if this performance is anything to go by, to be a successful career.
To complicate matters, her young beau, Horace, is the son of Arnolphe's close friend. One of the great gags in the show is that the young man doesn't realise that the old geezer is also interested in the lovely young girl. Unknowingly, he confides in Arnolphe - telling him his plans - oops! John Keilty captures Horace's naivety superbly. Other topping performances are offered by Maureen Carr and Lewis Howden, as the mischievous servants Georgette and Alain, who join in with the roistering fun.
The staging is impressive. Graham McLaren, the director and designer, keeps the cast in 17th-century costumes, which are a treat for the eye and a feast of gorgeous fabrics. In contrast to this visual classicism, Lochhead's script is full of colloquial language, but she still uses the form of rhyming couplets that Molière's originals employed. It's an interesting combination and one she has already had success with in her two previous translations of Molière's Tartuffe and Le Misanthrope. It is an admirable piece of writing - with a very strong Scottish flavour, but none the worse for that.
Educating Agnes, and the original L'Ecole des Femmes, illuminate so much regarding relationships - whether they are based on love, power or a combination of both. Like all good comedy, it has this strength of seriousness at its heart and that is a very satisfying way to be amused.
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