Hater, Buggeln’s translation of Moliere’s classic comedy, The Misanthrope, is on stage at the Gist Hall Theatre for its final weekend March 7-10. This Theatre, Film & Dance production directed by Michael Fields is the play’s West Coast premiere.
Buggeln will attend the Friday evening performance (March 8), which begins at 7:30 p.m. He will host a “talkback” dialogue with the audience afterwards.
On Saturday (March 9), Buggeln will answer questions and talk about his work in a forum open to the public, at 3 p.m. in the Studio Theatre. He will also attend a potluck dinner with the show’s cast and crew that evening before the performance.
“Hater is not your grandmother’s Molière; it’s not even your mother’s Molière. It is Molière for the twenty-first century,” according to Jody Enders, theatre professor at the University of California Santa Barbara who translates medieval French farce. “Laugh-out-loud funny even on the page, Samuel Buggeln’s living and lively translation breathes new life into those old alexandrines. In his hands Le Misanthrope has never been more alive, more fun, more contemporary, more eternal.”
“Buggeln’s bold new translation of Le Misanthrope offers a fresh approach that crackles with a contemporary sensibility while remaining true to the original source,” commented State University of New York professor Jordan Schildcrout. “Without gimmicks or glibness, Hater makes Molière’s sharp and witty satire available to today’s audiences with the most playable and pertinent translation I’ve had the pleasure of hearing in the theatre.”