The School for Wives 

Reviewed by Neal Weaver 
City Garage Theatre 
Through April 1 

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Moliere’s satiric comedy centers on Arnolphe (Bo Roberts), a man who mistrusts all women and has a deadly fear of being cuckolded. In his younger days he was shocked and appalled by the unfaithful wives and complaisant husbands he saw around him and became convinced that the greatest of all shames was to be a cuckolded husband. He resolved to build himself an ideal wife, so he adopted a little girl, Agnes (Claire Pida), and attempted to mold her into a perfect spouse for himself. He had her raised by nuns and taught as little as possible, because a knowing woman would already be on the path to infidelity.

When the play opens, Agnes has reached a marriageable age, and he feels it is time to make her his wife. However, he goes away on a business trip for ten days, and when he returns, his world has been shaken to the core. From the balcony of her room, Agnes has spotted a handsome young man, Horace (Buddy Brown), and he has noticed her, become infatuated with her, and assiduously courted her. She may be ignorant, but she has a bit of mother wit, and nature overcomes nurture. She falls madly in love.

Meanwhile, naïve and gullible Horace, unaware that Arnolphe is the ogre of a guardian Agnes has told him about, makes the older man his confidante and spills the beans. Arnolphe is infuriated and sets out to turn the tables on his young rival. Multiple plots and intrigues ensue.

Director Frederique Michel relies on an elegant new translation she’s written in collaboration with producer and designer Charles Duncombe, with a staging that emphasizes the artificiality of Moliere’s comedy with balletic, stylized movement. The result is crowd-pleasing and consistently funny. As Arnolphe, Roberts captures the quintessence of male arrogance, egotism and insensitivity, which makes his growing desperation hilarious and leaves us longing to see him get his comeuppance.  Pida brings the asset of real youth (she’s a high school senior) to the ingénue role of Agnes. Brown lends natural charm to the role of Horace, but he has been encouraged to take a relentlessly physical approach to the role that makes him seem downright manic. Jaime Arze and David E. Frank score as a pair of dimwitted servants, and Troy Dunn is smoothly insinuating as Arnolphe’s friend, Chrysalde.

The handsome set departs from the play’s 17^th century time period; Duncombe chooses instead to set the action in “a time when such things happen,” using a modernistic flavor. Josephine Poinset provides the clever and stylish costumes.

City Garage, 2525 Michigan Avenue, building T1, Santa Monica. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; (310) 453-9939(310) 453-9939 or www.citygarage.org. Running time: one hour and 50 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.