La Bete

High-minded and haughty, Elomire (an anagram for the great Moliere) has a plum job leading a 17th-century acting company in the court of his mercurial patron, Prince Conti. But when he’s ordered to accept a buffoon of a street performer-the hilarious, megalomaniacal Valere-into his troupe, Elomire is forced to choose between a life of poverty for the sake of his art, or selling out for comfort. Audaciously funny and told entirely in rhyming verse, Hirson’s dazzling nod to Moliere’s life and works is among the funniest American plays of the past 20 years. David Hirson’s La Bete is the winner of the 1992 Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

Fred Sullivan, Jr. directs.