Misfit for print

If you notice theater folks moving with a bit more pep in their step these days, it may be because they know Ivo van Hove is on his way back to town. The Belgian director’s 2004 Hedda Gabler rocked New York’s avant-garderati: No one who saw it will forget John Douglas Thompson’s Judge Brack slowly drizzling a V8 over Elizabeth Marvel’s Hedda—the nastiest, purest visual metaphor for domination since poor, shrewish Kate put her hand under Petruchio’s foot.

Van Hove has been the highlight of New York Theatre Workshop’s seasons for nearly a decade—first with his savage, minimalist More Stately Mansions; then the weirdly menacing bathtub full of water in A Streetcar Named Desire; and (most recently) the chic, modern Hedda Gabler, with actors accelerating emotionally from 0 to 80. This month, Van Hove returns to the Workshop with another classic—Molière’s The Misanthrope, a tale of a scrupulously honest man flailing in the dangerous shallows of society.

The dirty little secret about the 17th-century French king of comedy is how unfunny Molière’s work can be. (Translations rarely help.) So, says Van Hove, “I won’t treat Molière as comedy. I consider his plays as sociological studies. Our starting point is that The Misanthrope is the portrait of a dying world and a description of a new way of living together.”

And while he won’t hazard any guesses about what sort of imagery the production will explore—“Everyone thinks I show up with the concept already! That I am a bully! In fact, I am an actor’s director, and we find these things in rehearsal”—it’s unlikely that Van Hove will be pulling his punches. So audiences can expect yet another revered, white-glove classic…getting a shot of vegetable juice straight to the face.

The Misanthrope is in previews at New York Theatre Workshop starting Sept 14.