Alceste loathes the world’s deceitfulness. He cannot abide flattery, hypocrisy, and his beloved Célimène’s flirtatious duplicity. Everywhere he turns he encounters people who flatter one another to achieve their own ends. Alceste insists on telling the truth and even comes to contradict himself in order to show his righteous indignation at the hypocrisy of the world. His thirst for truth knows no bounds, not when it brings harm to his friends, to Célimène, or even to himself.
Lars Mikkelsen plays the title role in Molière’s classic comedy of character. Le Misanthrope is the story of a type of person one might call an idealist – or a misanthropist. The play poses one of the eternal questions: Is the world going to hell in a handbasket, or is Alceste simply too much of a moralist? Is his view a trenchant commentary on the superficiality of our times – or is he what is currently known as “politically correct”, or even complacent?
Website: The Royal Danish Theatre
