Interview with Moliere
R: Well Mr. Moliere, I’m glad that you could take time out of your schedule in order to join me and answer some questions about your life and career.
M: Well I am glad to be here.
R: Great. So to start things of, you first started out working with your father for the king as keepers of the royal upholstery, right?
M: That is correct.
R: Ok. Now you were part of the upper class, but instead you decided to become part of a lower class and become an actor. What caused you to make this choice?
M: Well that was actually caused by a number of things. One thing would be that my father wanted me to work with him. My father and I never really had a strong connection with each other after my mother died when I was ten, so I wasn't quite enthused when he told me that I was going to work with him. Later as I worked with my father, I soon realized that I really didn't take a strong interest in working for the king. It just wasn't really what I had in mind. I mean, I wanted to work for the king, but cleaning his furniture wasn't quite what I had in mind. Ha ha ha.
Another thing is that while I worked at the king's palace, two theatres were walking distance from the palace, so I would go there in the afternoons with my grandfather, or myself, and watch some of the plays and farces that were being performed in the city. Now, they weren’t exactly in real theatres, but in the streets where I lived. Anyway, I really took an interest in it and decided to become an actor when I was twenty-one.
R: Interesting. Now personally I have to say that you must have to be an enthusiastic actor and playwright in order to leave that type of power. I don’t know if I could do that.
M: Thank you. I will take that as a compliment.
R: Now. Who or what caused you to be the funny and successful actor and playwright you are today?
M: Well, while I was working with my father and going to see shows, I usually watched comedies and farces and all types of things that would make you laugh. I remember that I went to go and watch the King’s Players, a famous and wonderful acting troupe, and they performed a few romantic tragedies and some well-known farces. That was one main cause of my success.
Also, as a kid, my mom was very religious, although I wasn’t. For some reason I could never figure out why I always have, and still do, love making fun of the clergy. Its just something that I didn’t like or trust about the clergy and I found and still find it Quite amusing.
R: Ok. So you liked to poke fun at the clergy and your not quite sure why?
M: well it was usually something like the jokes made on your government leaders today in America.
R: Well yeah. I guess it was. Ok next question. When you first entered the acting world, how did it treat you at first?
M: It was really rough for me. I started my own acting troupe known as the Illustre theatre. I had help from the Berjart family mainly because I fell in love with their eldest daughter, Madeleine Berjart, who became my mistress. Around that time, I obtained my pen name of Moliere. Anyway, my acting troupe had a very unsuccessful tour in Paris and our troupe was run into the ground with debt and I had to serve a sentence in jail for it. I wasn’t in jail for long though because my father decided to pay my bail. While I was in jail, I polished up my acting skills and managing skills so I could bounce back into my acting career after my short sentence.
After my time in jail, I collected a group of actors and restarted my acting troupe and moved the tour to the provinces. There we toured for about ten years. Finally in 1658, we returned to Paris to perform in front of the king. Some time passed, and my troupe and I were appointed as the official entertainers of the sun king himself. Afterwards, starting from my play, The Precious Maidens Ridiculed, my success has gone nowhere but upward.
R: Well, it sounds like you have a very strong and successful career. Ok, so question number four. Throughout your career, have you faced any economic, cultural, or political problems that affected your work?
M: Well, I had many enemies while I was in the theatre company. MANY enemies.
R&M: (laughing)
M: Yeah, so many other acting troupes did not favor me at all. The reason was that I challenged the culture of traditional theatre. I mixed in some different ideas into my plays with which angered traditional comedy writers and actors. Some of my ideas were changing the ways of verse as well as traditional comedy itself. Also, the clergy saw me as a threat to their beliefs. The clergy believed that I attacked them through my plays, which in a way was true. Like I said before, when I was young, I used to poke fun at the clergy and make fun of religion. Of course when I put my beliefs into my plays, the clergy didn’t quite like it, so they didn’t want much to do with me. Eh, go figure.
R: I see. So did any of the other acing groups attack you as well?
M: I wouldn’t see why not. I don’t doubt that anyone attacked me through their plays or literature, but I really wasn’t concerned with them because it didn’t really have a big effect on people’s beliefs.
R: Ok. So, question number 5. What were some major accomplishments and methods you used in your plays?
M: The interesting thing about that is that I actually came up with my own stage language through my plays.
R: Really?
M: Yes its true. Some words that I used in past plays are actually used today in France. A few examples would be the word harpagoon, which was the name of a character in my play, The Miser. Also, the word, Galere, was used in my play, Les fourberies de scapin. The word Galere now means “a painful affair.”
As I said before, I also had an opportunity to perform in front of the king, which I find to be a major accomplishment. That performance really changed my career and me in general. Also, My tour in the provinces really raised me to the top. Also I believe that my changes from traditional theatre really helped me stick out from the crowd and that gave me an advantage.
R: Ok. Interesting. Next question. What do you believe were important opportunities that really enhanced your career?
M: Well the first thing that has really helped me is, believe it or not, going to jail. I think that being in jail really helped me reflect on my plays and find the reason of why I was so unsuccessful in my Paris tour. Another thing was the chance to go and see plays inside of the city. I think that I may not have become an actor or a playwright if I had never went to go see a play. Who knows? I may still be working for my father if I didn’t discover theatre. Another really important opportunity would be the willingness of the berjart family in giving me the help of forming an acting troupe. I knew that my father would be too ashamed of me for becoming an actor to help me with making an acting troupe, so their help was a great opportunity.
R: wow. This sounds a hard and promising road you had to travel. Well, almost done. Question 7. What personal choices do you really think helped you become successful?
M: Well, first things first, I believe that my choice of becoming an actor really helped me become much more successful. Not to say that working for the king wouldn’t be a successful job. I just mean that I wanted to do something that I really enjoy instead of gaining a lot of money at a job that I barely like. My second choice is that I decided to differentiate myself from the regular crowd. I think changing the way that theatre was performed and written really helped me become more successful. It helped me become separate from the traditional group of playwrights and actors. Plus, adding a little bit of mockery of the clergy really riled up them which then drew more attention to me, although I never really did it for the attention part whereas I just didn’t like the clergy at all, as I mentioned before. These choices may have created many enemies for me, but it all paid off in the end.
R: Yes it did indeed. Ok so question number 8. What kind of setbacks did you suffer during your career?
M: One setback was that I had a very hard time getting a bigger audience with my early plays and farces. My early plays couldn’t really collect a big audience and thus my early plays were unsuccessful and I didn’t have enough money to pay off the bill for the theatre we used to perform in and in the end, the Illustre Theatre was a big failure. Another thing is that my father was very disappointed and ashamed of me. When I joined the acting business, he saw it as a disgrace to our family and made him look bad to have an actor as a son. Since working for the king was considered an upper class job and the acting business was a lower class job, I made my father look like a failure for not being able to raise his son to be successful in the upper class. I may have not gotten along with my father, but becoming an actor really ruined his image, which truly hurt his acceptance in society. Also another setback would be my loss of inheritance when I changed to the acting business. When I decided to become an actor and changed my social class, I lost my inheritance money I received from my mother when she died, which could have been very helpful.
R: Those are some interesting setbacks. Ok question number 9. What types of limitations did you run into as a playwright and a person?
M: The only limitation I had as an actor was the negative criticism I received from my rivals. As I mentioned before, the clergy and other playwrights and actors hated my success and my plays. This wasn’t a huge problem. Not many people believed in the criticism that I received from others. There was some criticism about me using faulty grammar, using unnecessary words to fill up a line, using an inconsistent and inorganic style, and having an issue of mixing up my metaphors. There were also people who doubted my humor and saw me no funnier than a dead baby. This all occurred inside France. England actually enjoyed my plays and performances. My social class was also a problem, but I didn’t quite have a problem with becoming an actor since it was a lower class job.
R: Interesting. Ok last question. What personal stories best describe how you became successful in the theatre?
M: I made a quote that said, “The greater the obstacle, the greater the glory in overcoming it.”(Moliere, 1622-1672) I believe that this quote best described my success in the theatre. I believed that this really showed my motive to my success. Throughout my whole life, I took many huge risks in order to be where I am now. I suffered through debt, criticism, and a very unsuccessful start in order to become successful. This quote simply describes my whole struggle to become an actor and a true success. Also, I watched lots of theatre troupes when I was young. Watching these troupes influenced me to challenge myself to become the best I could. Also this was a way for me to cheer up my dad and accept me as an actor.
R: Ok. Well, that is all we have for today. Once again, thanks for your time.
M: It was a pleasure to be here and tell my story.
Bibliography
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moli%E2%88%9A%C2%AEreclsc35.html
http://www.theatredatabase.com/17th_century/moliere_001.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/moli-re
http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/molierebio.htm
http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Theatre/Moliere/moliere.shtml
http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Theatre/
http://home.att.net/~quotations/moliere.html
