In what was – of necessity – his last play, Moliere was re-cycling a formula he had used many times before: middle-aged monomaniac wants to marry off his daughter, natural or adopted, though she’s in love with somebody else. The success owes something to the choice of translation and more to the choice of leading man. Stephen Ouimette’s Argan is a self-pitying tyrant who somehow remains likeable. It seems as if the play proper will never start, but the delay pays off with a surprise horizontal entrance by Ouimette. It isn’t, Ouimette’s title performance apart, in the same league as The Alchemist last year.

Source: National Post August 31, 2016 19:30 UTC