Educating Agnes

Photo: Douglas McBride

Liz Lochhead’s new translation of Moliѐre’s great comedy The School for Wives, adapted and re-titled, is, like the original, in razor sharp, wicked, rhyming couplets. Read more …

Ageing bachelor Arnolphe, obsessed by the fear of being cuckolded, decides to marry his pure and innocent ward Agnes and mould her into the ‘absolute ideal wife’...Only he hasn’t told her yet. And, unbeknownst to him, Agnes has already fallen for handsome young Horace who, unaware of Arnolphe’s intentions, trustingly confides to the older man in the madly-in-love young pair’s marriage plans.

Insanely jealous, Arnolphe plots against his rival with increasingly outrageous and hilarious consequences, as he attempts to ‘school’ his intended wife.

The critical consensus

Has all the right ingredients to be a great production.

Michael Cox, Onstage Scotland, 10/04/2011

What follows is a hilarious turn of events made all the more colourful and vibrant by Lochhead’s Scotified script, which combines poetry and crude bawdy wordplay to devastating effect.

Alan Chadwick, STV, 10/04/2011

Nothing triumphs more than a deserved come-uppance; if anything, it undermines our complacency. And that’s an education.

(*) Emma, TV Bomb, 10/04/2011

There’s an airy brightness to Cownie’s production, and if Peter Forbes’ Arnolphe could be a bit more Bill Wyman in the object of his affections, this is made up for in the depth of his persuasions.

Neil Cooper, The Herald, 11/04/2011

The play remains an archetypal romp in which young love triumphs and corrupt old age gets its comeuppance. But for its two happy hours on the stage, Forbes and this strong ensemble make you believe this stock scenario matters.

(*) Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 12/04/2011

It’s a measure of the quality of Tony Cownie’s brilliantly-cast production – and of a superb central performance from Peter Forbes, until now best known for creating the great role of the officer in Black Watch – that it both honours the basic shape of this classic comedy, and recognises the complexity of the characters involved.

(*) Joyce McMillan, 14/04/2011

A welcome revival.

Thom Dibdin, The Stage, 15/04/2011

Cownie’s production is a timely and funny piece that proves the magic of Moliere is very much alive, and that his plays deserve a place on Scotland’s stage.

(*) Amy Taylor, The Journal, 22/04/2011

There's lots to enjoy.

(*) Allan Radcliffe, The List, 28/04/2011