'Say All the Truth'? Moliere's 'Misanthrope' finally gets Moving Company treatment

This hater is gonna hate, but for a noble reason.

Alceste is an absolutist when it comes to honesty — like what Elon Musk claims to be about free speech. But so many people are not honest with themselves, much less with each other, that Alceste would prefer to leave society altogether and go live by himself.

Alceste is the protagonist and antagonist of "The Misanthrope," Molière's 17th-century satire of truth-telling and French court life.

In decades of theater-making, the principals of the Moving Company have done every major Molière play except "Misanthrope." The time and circumstances have never been more apt than now, said co-adaptor and director Dominique Serrand.

The Moving Company's "Say All the Truth," opening at the Jungle Theater, deconstructs the French original and reconstructs it into something relevant for today.

Serrand and fellow adapters Steven Epp and Nathan Keepers have cut out some characters from the original. They also have drawn bits from other Molière plays plus the works of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo to fill out their adaptation. And they have made the three cousins in the play sisters instead.

That change "strengthens their relationship and makes it more palpable" for contemporary audiences, Keepers said. "It's more immediate to us when they have this complicated familial relationship."

Keepers plays Philinte, the tactful friend of Alceste (Epp) who is trying to stop him from destroying all his relationships.

Alceste stays around because he's smitten with a young woman. And he cannot help but be himself, becoming a brutal gadfly who prods people to be honest and scorns those he sees as false.

"It's easy to make fun of this character but he's one I love and find profound," Serrand said. "His analysis of the world is quite strong. We're in a dangerous period and the way we're being led now — and I speak also as a French person — is not necessarily helpful."

Epp has done all the major roles in the Molière canon, wrestling with the characters the French playwright uses to embody big themes — the soul-deforming greed of Harpagon "The Miser," the phony piety of Tartuffe, the warping lust of Dom Juan.

But Alceste is different from all the others, Epp said. His humor is "more stabbing." And it's also more personal. Molière wrote the character after being censored because he dared to point out the flaws of those who ruled French society.

"Molière is the first actor to play Alceste, and they say that it was his most melancholic performance," Epp said. "You usually think of commedia as visceral, agile, biting. But there's a deep melancholy behind this character. He's very hurt by the world."

The "Truth" cast includes Sally Wingert, Liz Wisan and Tracey Maloney.

Truth can be a weapon, a salve or neutral, said Maloney, who plays the youngest sister.

"This play is very funny, odd and sad at the same time," Maloney said. "It's idiosyncratic as people dance around how to be themselves and how to be in the world."

'Say All the Truth'

When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Nov. 26. Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $17-$97 or pay-as-you-can. 612-822-7063 or jungletheater.org.