Thon Man Moliere (NHB Modern Plays)

Welcome to Paris at the time of Louis XIV. Come backstage and meet the King's theatre company - a troupe of grandes dames, old hams, ingenues and, of course, their leading man, author of their dramas and cause of all their troubles... thon man Moliere. Under constant threat of debtors' prison, in big bother with church and state and worst of all disastrously in love, Moliere writes brilliant, scurrilous comedies inspired by a desperate life. But telling the truth is a dangerous business and his latest drama could be the death of him Liz Lochhead's play Thon Man Moliere was first performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in 2016, in a production starring Jimmy Chisholm and Siobhan Redmond. 'I was so moved by this play, which surprised me, as I had expected a knockabout comedy. Don't get me wrong, it was funny. But I hadn't expected the tenderness and emotional complexity. The bond eternal, exasperated, essential between Moliere and Madeleine is the core of the piece, but all of these characters seem every bit as human and deep and strange and needy as theatre people always are.' David Greig