Molire, LAvare First performed in 1668, Molire's five act comedy L'Avare tells the story of Harpagnon, a widowed

moneylender and his two children, Clante and Elise. The children long to escape the clutches of their avaricious father, following their hearts to marry their respective lovers. The plot is derived from Plautus' drama Aulularia though differs greatly from this Greek comedy in both form and content. Set in a bourgeois household, Harpagnon is the embodiment of the vice of avarice. Beyond this, however, Molire's presentation of the protagonist establishes him a clear psychological element to the drama; Harpagnon is reduced to petty and ridiculous acts of greed such as stealing oats from horses; he is plagued by the paranoia that he will be robbed by his own children. One of the key props in L'Avare is the protagonist's casket, where his money is stored. In Act IV, Scene VII Harpagnon discovers that this chest is missing. Naturally, he is beside himself, and interrogates his friends and family. This episode reveals the character's insecurity in his family bonds and emphasizes he personal and psychological effects of allconsuming obsession with money. Essentially, the play presents the conflict of love and money, revealing the problems this can cause within a family environment. Unbeknown to her father, Elise is engaged to her lover Valre; she is concerned that the marriage will outrage her father, who has promised her hand to an old, boorish man in return for a significant dowry. Harpagnon himself, meanwhile, is in love with a young but penniless woman named Mariane. However, Harpagnon's son Clante is also in pursuit of Mariane. As the plot develops, it transpires that both Valre and Mariane are the long-lost children of Anselme, a wealthy, elderly friend of the family. With this discovery, Harpagnon gives up his quest to win Marianes heart and agrees to allow his children to marry their respective lovers, on condition that Anselme pays for both the weddings. The play seems to end happily: Elise and Clante get to marry Valre and Mariane, Anselme foots the bill and Harpagnon is re-united with his beloved casket of money. However, this fortunate conclusion is tinged with tragedy as Harpagnon's all-consuming passion for money loses him the love and respect of his children, who leave him to begin a new life with their new spouses. Despite the extreme nature of his wrongdoing and the extreme nature of his heartlessness, the whole scenario is treated in great comic spirit, making it difficult truly to hate Harpagnon; the man becomes a mere parody. Moreover, Molire's use of language and dramatic techniques in the play is effective in evoking a certain degree of sympathy towards Harpagnon, in spite of his terrible avarice.

The following passage is taken from Act IV, Scene VII of L'Avare.

Read the passage. What do you think has just happened? In what ways does Molire use language to present the character's psychological state? How is the vice of avarice depicted in this extract? Is this monologue in keeping with the comic slant of the play? Is there a social or moral message to be drawn from this soliloquy?

Gisle Vienne, Jerk Gisle Vienne (b. 1976) is a Franco-Austrian dramatist, producer and director who has written scripts to be performed in French, German and English. She studied philosophy and music, before going on work in the field of puppet theatre at the Ecole Suprieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette. Viennes work often raises troubling philosophical questions and she makes creative use of drama discuss gritty and often disturbing issues. The following video-clip is taken from a performance of Viennes one-man puppet play, Jerk. The work is collaboration with the American novelist Dennis Cooper, and is based on his 1993 novel of the same name. Coopers novel is based on the real life serial murders which took place in Texas in the 1970s. The drama tells the story of David Brooks, a teenager who was an accomplice in the murders of serial killer Dean Corll. Now in prison, Brooks has taught himself puppet drama and attempts to master the skill of ventriloquism. As part of the therapeutic process whilst in prison, Brooks uses the puppets to act out scenes from the murders which he committed alongside Dean Corll.

Video Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZh5p6Hkk78&feature=related

Themes in the theatre Evidently Molire and Gisle Vienne are very different artists, working in very different periods. However, there are some similarities between them. For both dramatists, drama provides both with a space in which to confront some of the less pleasant aspects of human nature. Jerk, in particular, confronts the inevitably of death as part of human existence while LAvare focuses on the destructive nature of human vices.

What is the role of the puppets in the extract? What impression do we get of human nature through the dialogue and the handling of the puppets? Do you think we can draw any kind of social/moral message from Jerk?

Review of Jerk In director Gisele Viennes Jerk (France) an audience of about 50 people is crowded onto a very small stack of bleachers in breathing distance of actor Jonathan Capdevielle. The room is painted white and fluoro-lit. In this setting Capdevielle is able to watch audience reactions in detail as he performs gruesome murders of teenage boys in real time with puppets. The script is based on serial murders that occurred in Texas in the 1970s. The lighting and close proximity to the performer leave us nowhere to hide as we are forced to contemplate this disturbing subject through various layers of theatrical mediation that include puppets-as-characters, the actors arm-as-puppet and the actor as both ventriloquist and dummy. At times I am forcefully dissociated from my own feelings, which themselves become like puppets to observe: feelings of horror, amusement, disgust and impatience. RealTime Arts Magazine, issue #96 April-May 2010 pg. 2-3 < http://realtimearts.net/article/96/9802>