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The Liar doubtlessly a visual pleasure “I’ll teach you all about dishonesty,” promises the charming Durante and leaves the stage to employ his vivid imagination and skill in—and out of—yet another complicated life and love situation. He is the Liar in the title of Pierre Corneille’s classical comedy, directed for the stage of the Claremont Colleges by Professor Leonard Pronko and showing this weekend at Seaver Theater. The show runs today at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 5 at 2 p.m. Considered the Master of French classical tragedy, Pierre Corneille also wrote delightful comedies, and these lighter works are “the only French comedies of the seventeenth century that have a survival rate to compare with that of Moliére’s,” said Mr. Pronko, who was introduced to this translation of The Liar 20 years ago in London and has revisited it in Paris many times since. It is the year 1640. Paris is the beautiful background for young romantic passions and gallant conversations about the “subtleties of psychology and the intricacies of l’amour.” In this clean and idealized environment, the carefree characters of The Liar encounter and pursue love—not always an easy task, especially when, “even to tell the truth you have to lie.”
The story starts out as a purposeless whim of Durante’s imagination, but soon 2 young ladies, Clarice and Lucrece, get involved and the situation becomes complicated in a delightfully Moliéresque and Shakespearian fashion. There are failures and successes wrapped in numerous lies and comic confusions, but, as Cliton states in the last scene, “Liars get into scrapes, but there’s no doubt: they’re pretty good at getting out.” The venue, Seaver Theater at Pomona College, provides the professional atmosphere and impressive costume and set design opportunities of a big public theater and The Liar is doubtlessly a visual pleasure. Any possible disappointment, albeit small, would be caused by the actors’ stage behavior and presence choices. In the popular fashion of seventeenth century French drama, The Liar is composed of numerous lengthy monologues in verse. The key to the audience’s genuine interest and the success of works of this nature is immaculate and engaging acting, which was, at times, missing on stage. The spectator’s enchantment was occasionally broken by monotonous delivery of rhyming couplets accompanied by repeated gestures and voice alterations. Fortunately, the pace became quicker and more exciting towards the end and the play ended with appropriate energy. The travels of The Liar through cultures and languages are impressive. The original play is a famous comedy from Spain’s Golden Age author Ruiz de Alarcón, La verdad sospechosa (The Dubious Truth), which has a heavier, didactic tone. Mr. Pronko explained that Corneille removed the moralizing and set the play in fashionable Paris, emphasizing that Durante “lies not through pettiness or craftiness, but because he has a lively imagination: he is a poet of the art, creating through sheer pleasure.” The play was translated in 1989 by the British playwright and translator of classics Ranjit Bolt, who preserved the verse in the English version and produced, in the words of The Daily Telegraph, “the best translation of a French play into English ever done.” “The Liar is a charming cream puff of illusion and reality,” the director explained; “a light-hearted, amoral piece, fluffy (and, I hope, irresistible) as a French pastry.” Tickets for The Liar are sold at the Seaver Theatre Box Office: General Admission: $10; Students, Staff & Faculty: $5. —Savina Velkova |
