Jean-Baptise Paquelin, otherwise known as Moliere, wrote “The Miser” in 1668. The initial perfomance met with less than enthusiastic reviews, but experienced a come-back shortly after the death of the playwright. The son of a wealthy merchant, Moliere turned his back on the family enterprise to pursue the life of an actor and playwright. Initially, his works raised the ire of various court and church officials, but his use of the foibles not of the elite but of the common man gradually won over his audiences since at the time there was a fashionable fettich regarding the lifestyles of the lower classes. Moliere, like Shakespeare, combined bawdy farcical comedy with the more polished Court humor, creating appeal for all viewers from the groundlings to the elite.

In “The Miser” we find the universal quest for money providing the focal point as well as the humor of this piece. In adapting the script to the needs of my vision for the show, I found it important, however, not to overlook the tragedy underlying the laughter: emotional and physical abuse, discrimination, extortion, the sacrifice of everything for the sake of the almighty dollar — or franc, as the case may be.