Moliere’s the Bourgeois Gentleman

Nominated for "Best Adaptation" by the LA Weekly, and a "Critic's Choice" in the Los Angeles Times, this sparkling new translation/adaptation of Moliere's classic comedy le Bourgeois Gentilhomme was described by the LA Times as a "gracefully loopy souffl " and an "unguarded hoot." Wealthy and foolish Monsieur Jourdain is in love with the Countess Dorim ne and aches to be what he is not-a member of the aristocracy. Determined to overcome his low birth with an education in high style, he unwittingly surrounds himself with charlatans and swindlers who gleefully take his money and prey on his innocence. Originally written by Moliere as a "comedy ballet" for Louis XIV, this new translation re-imagines the play for today's audience, transporting us into an extravagant fantasy world of song, dance, and upper class nonsense with a French accent. "With a generous soupcon of witty anarchy...this sleek City Garage take on Moliere's deathless satire of nouveau riche pretensions and aristocratic machinations is nominally avante garde, but mainly an unguarded hoot....With many wicked analogies to modern mores, Michel and Duncombe slyly tailor our times into their tart adaptation, complete with anachronisms, nonstop postures, and purposely limp songs....everyone embraces the formalized mischief with lan." "Critic's Choice," Los Angeles Times "Frederique Michel and Charles Duncombe's fresh and bawdy translation-adaptation serves up a bouquet of comedic delights." "Go," LA Weekly

Frédérique Michel & Charles Duncombe Frédérique Michel was born in Paris and studied theatre at the Conservatoire. She is the Artistic Director of City Garage. Charles Duncombe is a writer, producer, designer, and serves as the Managing Director and Dramaturg of the company, which they have run together in Los Angeles for over twenty-five years. They have won numerous awards for their work, including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Margaret Hartford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre, the Otto Rene Castillo Award in New York for Political Theater, and The ＂Queen of the Angels＂ Award from the LA Weekly for ＂decades of directing and producing scintillating, politically charged theater that challenges audiences to reconsider their assumptions about the nature of politics and the nature of theater itself.＂ Their translation and adaptation of The Marriage of Figaro won the 2010 LA Weekly Theater Award for Best Translation.