Der Menschenfeind (The Misanthrope)

Comedy in five acts (1666)
Translation by Hans Magus Enzensberger edited by Martin Kušej (2023)

PREMIERE
30 March 2024 - 7.30 p.m.

DURATION
approx. 2 hours (no intermission)

Guest performance by the Burgtheater

Alceste despises the hypocrisy and shallowness of his social circle. He follows an ideal of unconditional honesty and authenticity and fanatically tries to convert the people around him. Because he refuses to play by society’s rules and practise diplomacy, things rarely go his way. He makes an enemy of the poet Oronte when he criticises him instead of praising him. He loses the lawsuit initiated by Oronte after refusing to bribe the judge, and he ignores his friend Philinte’s well-meaning advice. But his biggest loss is in love: He woos the fun-loving widow Célimène. Despite her affection for Alceste, she is not keen on the prospect of seeking solitude in the countryside and being alone with a grumpy misanthrope, preferring instead to indulge in short-lived flirtations. In the end, it is unclear whether Alceste will finally carry out his plan to escape from the world alone. 

In Der Menschenfeind (The Misanthrope), playwright and director Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his name Molière (1622–1673), takes great delight in scratching the surface and looking behind the glittering façade of a society acting as though categories like morality or truth are the consensual basis of coexistence, while these categories have all disappeared. No matter how suave their language and how glamorous the image they present of themselves, all of his characters seem trapped. Their sense of forlornness and loneliness has an almost existential urgency.

Alceste ltay Tiran
Philinte Christoph Luser
Oronte Markus Meyer
Célimène Mavie Hörbiger
Éliante Lili Winderlich
Arsinoé Alexandra Henkel
Acaste Tilman Tuppy
Clitandre Lukas Vogelsang
Bosco Christoph Griesser
Ein Beamter Hans Dieter Knebel

Stage Director Martin Kušej
Stage Design Martin Zehetgruber
Costume Design Heide Kastler
Sound Design Bert Wrede
Lighting Design Reinhard Traub
Stage Support Stephanie Wagner
Dramaturge Anika Steinhoff

Alceste ltay Tiran
Philinte Christoph Luser
Oronte Markus Meyer
Célimène Mavie Hörbiger
Éliante Lili Winderlich
Arsinoé Alexandra Henkel
Acaste Tilman Tuppy
Clitandre Lukas Vogelsang
Bosco Christoph Griesser
Ein Beamter Hans Dieter Knebel

Inszenierung Martin Kušej
Bühne Martin Zehetgruber
Kostüme Heide Kastler
Musik Bert Wrede
Licht Reinhard Traub
Mitarbeit Bühne Stephanie Wagner
Dramaturgie Anika Steinhoff