The Bourgeois Gentleman
Reviewed by Dana Martin
City Garage Theatre
Through April 7
Ignorance is bliss at City Garage. Moliere’s 1670 French comedy The Bourgeois Gentleman tells the tale of a giant jackass with a taste for life’s finer things. While the play’s translation is bawdy and accessible, The Bourgeois Gentleman starts off hot and heavy but slowly loses steam.
Monsieur Jourdain (Bo Roberts) is an idiot supreme. Unsophisticated, ill-spoken with poor manners, he’s dumbly determined to rub elbows with the well-to-do and win the affection of the lovely and refined Dorimène (Angela Beyer) — much to the dismay of Madame Jourdain (Geraldine Fuentes). Seeking hasty self-improvement, he hires gurus, coaches and teachers — all frauds faking admiration and pretending praise in exchange for generous handouts. When Jourdain’s daughter Lucile (Carina Conti) intends to marry middle-class Cleonte (Grant Gerber), he refuses to agree to the union despite his daughter’s pleas. He’s tricked into consent, of course, so everyone wins in the end.
Bo Roberts’ Monsieur Jourdain is supremely dopey and totally delightful. Danny Hackin is trusty and dependable as Valet. Angela Beyer is a breath of fresh air as the worldly and sophisticated Dorimène. Troy Dunn’s Dorante is slick and suave. Carina Conti’s Lucile is appropriately sweet. Grant Gerber’s Cleonte is earnest but rigid. Lindsay Plake plays it safe as outspoken servant Nicole. Geraldine Fuentes delivers a steady voice of reason as mistreated wife Madame Jourdain.
Director Frédérique Michel finds a steady pace for the play and an admirable nod to tradition but the action lacks extremes in both tempo and physicality. Charles A. Duncombe’s original score fluctuates between French court and musical theatre. Costume design by Josephine Point and Gertrude Fuentes is uneven; some costumes are sharp and well-fitted to the actors while others are ill-fitting and hasty. Duncombe’s lighting and set are cohesive and attractive.
While the play’s translation is a welcome update, the subject matter is outdated and sometimes insensitive. Jourdain’s ambition is to rub elbows with the upper class and to seduce a woman who’s not his wife. Women are property, objects of sexual desire or shrews. Sometimes character portrayals are culturally insensitive. The martial arts master is played by a white man costumed and wigged to portray a person of generalized Asian descent.
First premiering for the court of King Louis XIV, there’s nothing sophisticated about The Bourgeois Gentleman. It’s a parade of idiots donning foolish facsimiles of sophistication. The characters represent archetypes and are intended to be played broadly, crudely. The City Garage’s revival doesn’t take it quite far enough, but they do make one thing clear: people can be such jackasses, can’t they?
City Garage Theatre, 2525 Michigan Ave.. Building T1, Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; through Apr. 7. (310) 453-9939 or www.citygarage.org. Running time: two hours with one 15-minute intermission.
