Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

French Conversation Stage 6 students perform extracts from the seventeenth century play ‘Le Bourgeois gentilhomme’ by Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Molière.

In ‘Le Bourgeois gentilhomme’, Molière satirizes attempts at social climbing and the bourgeois personality, poking fun both at the vulgar, pretentious middle-class and the vain, snobbish aristocracy. The play tells the tale of the well to do, middle class Monsieur Jourdain and his absurd aspirations to the aristocracy. The action takes place in his house in Paris.
Molière’s work stemmed from the scandal caused by the Turkish ambassador Suleiman Aga who, on visiting the court of Louis XIV in 1669, affirmed the superiority of the Ottoman court over that of the Sun King. The play reflects the trend at Louis’s court for everything Turkish and for mocking Turkish nobility. The music is taken from the original accompaniment by Jean-Baptiste Lully, court composer to Louis XIV.

Cast

Monsieur Jourdain, bourgeois (Chris Patey)
Madame Jourdain, sa femme (Sheila Murphy)
Maître de Philosophie (Elizabeth Barrott)
Dorante, comte, amant de Dorimène (Martin McNeill)
Dorimène, marquise (Jane Wilson)
Clovielle, valet de Cléonte (Alan Peake)
Cléonte, amoureux de Lucile (Carole Baxter)
Lucile, fille de Monsieur Jourdain (Sue Mannion)

Narrators

Carole Baxter
Lynn Holman
John Alt-Graham

Director Lynn Holman

Morley College French Tutor, Lydia Glinoer