Molière Than Thou: A Gleefully Giddy One-Man Classical Comedy

 

Response to Show

 

• Best of the Fringe: Best Adapted Work (San Francisco Fringe Festival)
• “Outrageous … hilariously tortured … cleverly wrought … the humanities are in safe hands this year.” – San Francisco Bay Guardian
• “What this wily entrepreneur, Mooney, channeling Moliere, proposes is a solo revue of favorite speeches from the oeuvre … linked by their satirical thrusts at hypocrisy, pretension, excess and folly. Moliere’s gallery of peasants, noblemen, cunning servants and credulous bourgeois patsies offers an unparalleled wide-angle view of 17th century society. … Hey, it’s a one-man SNL 17th century scoundrels convention.” – Edmonton Journal — “Moliere by Mooney: Carefully crafted kitsch”
• “There is no doubting Mooney’s intelligence and talent. … barbed and brilliant…” – Edmonton Sun
• “On behalf of University Theatre and the students in my class, I thank you for your excellent workshop today. The clarity of your communication regarding text work was inspiring. I particularly enjoyed your Tartuffe performance.” – Fred Gorelick, North Carolina State University
• “As two French teachers experienced in the teaching of Moliere’s works, we thoroughly enjoyed watching the characters come to life in Mr. Mooney’s portrayals. The witty translations captured Moliere’s essence, including satire, irony, and ribald references. His animated features, set off by a variety of wonderful wigs, and his energetic stage presence were an important element of the comedy. We have recommended this show to our students for a glimpse into the true world of Moliere.” – Seattle Fringe Festival
• “Combine Timothy Mooney’s refreshing, clever rhyming couplets with his manic energy and impeccable sense of comic timing, and what results is two hours of delightful theater.” – Kathryn Hutchinson, Fine and Performing Arts Coordinator, Buffalo Grove High School

 

About the Book

 
Molière’s cast has all come down with food poisoning! Worse… They’ve been to see doctors and, as such, are now confined to bed! This leaves Moliere to entertain the audience all by himself (praying that no one asks for a refund…)! And so, he proceeds to lead them through his favorite monologues and scenes: “Tartuffe,” “The Misanthrope,” “Don Juan,” “The Bourgeois Gentleman,” “The School for Wives,” “The Precious Young Maidens,” “The Doctor in Spite of Himself,” “The Imaginary Cuckold,” “The Schemings of Scapin,” and “The Imaginary Invalid.” He plays scenes to unexpecting audience members, pulls volunteers from the audience, and climbs over the audience’ laps, while working his way through the funniest theatrical catalogue in history! Timothy Mooney, living a parallel existence with France’s greatest playwright, has not only rewritten most of Molière’s plays into fresh rhymed iambic pentameter, but, playing Moliere, in “Moliere Than Thou,” has introduced over a hundred thousand people to the man who is, perhaps, the funniest playwright of all time!
 

About the Author

 

 

Timothy Mooney, author of the new acting textbook Acting at the Speed of Life; Conquering Theatrical Style and The Big Book of Moliere Monologues has given over a hundred thousand students their first introduction to Moliere through his one-man play, Moliere Than Thou. Mooney also presents one monologue from every Shakespeare play in the one-man show, Lot o’ Shakespeare, and a series of great historical speeches in The Greatest Speech of All Time. Mr. Mooney is the former Founder and Editor of “The Script Review” and was the Artistic Director of Chicago’s Stage Two Theatre, where he produced nearly fifty plays in five years.
 
When Stage Two turned to the classics, Mr. Mooney started writing new versions of the plays of Molière, with a mischievous sense of rhyme. He has now written seventeen iambic pentameter variations of the plays of Molière, produced around the world. High School productions of Mr. Mooney’s The Misanthrope, The Miser, The Imaginary Invalid, and Tartuffe have gone on to state finals in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama, while his Doctor in Spite of Himself took third place in the Scottish Community Drama Association National Festival, and was a finalist at Italy’s Sanremo Global Education Festival.
 
Mooney created Criteria as a short story in 2002, and has been performing it live as a “One-Man Comic Sci-Fi Thriller” since 2003. Mr. Mooney continues to present his one-man shows across North America and recently presented both Molière Than Thou and Lot o’ Shakespeare at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as well as festivals, schools and conferences across the United States and Canada. He can be found in hundreds of videos on the internet, presenting Molière, Shakespeare and much more, along with clips from his acting workshops.