Premiere: january 26, 2024.
The five-act ballet comedy Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in Dezső Mészöly’s translation presents a series of humorous situations depicting a common man caught in the whirlwind of the madness of ambition. Mr. Jourdain, an average bourgeois, struggles to adopt a value system and behavior that is foreign to him. Disrupting his family’s peace and denying his origins, he tries to align his lifestyle with the demands of a higher social circle. The question remains: how authentic and real is the world he imagines today, a world that he forcefully drags his surroundings and us, the audience, into? The behavior of the characters, who are adrift in the void between the desired and the real world, do not only represent Molière’s thoughts, but also the bitter truth-seeking of our own world.
As a director, Attila Keresztes consistently returns to the questions that Molière’s works often raise in his comedies: Can lasting harmony exist between people? What role does art and theater play in this? How does a society driven by conventions function, and how does an individual place themselves within it? What happens when dissonance arises between an individual’s desires and society’s expectations? This production seeks answers to these questions using the unique tools of theater.
Director: Keresztes Attila
