In front, Will Harrell as Sganerelle and, in back from left, Robbie Harrison as Valere, Y’vonne Rose Smith as Isabella, A.J. Baldwin as Leonor and Mark S. Cartier as Ariste. Photo by Kat Moraros Photography

At least for some summer theatergoers, class is back in session a little early this year. The Theater at Monmouth has opened a run of Molière’s “The School for Husbands” at the historic Cumston Hall.

The folks at the Theater at Monmouth have adapted the more than three-and-a-half-century-old play into a tidy prose production under the direction of Hannah Cordes. The focus is primarily on farcical comedy. But this work, the first full-length play by the author, employs established comedic devices, both verbal and physical, in presenting more complex ideas about male-female relations than were commonly put forward at the time.

A friend’s will has placed two young women as wards to a pair of brothers who they are expected to eventually marry. Older brother Ariste treats his Leonor with kindness and respect, allowing her feisty personality to shine through as she admonishes Ariste’s brother Sganerelle with swats of her fan for his controlling relationship with her sister Isabella. The latter all the while romantically pines for handsome young neighbor Valere.

After some hilarious verbal jousting between the brothers in the early going about fashion, much of the remaining 75-minute-with-no-intermission production is given over to Sganerelle’s efforts to keep his bride-to-be in check. “Girls are what we make of them,” he believes. He, unfortunately, makes Isabella unhappy. But the clever young lady has a plan to prove his theories wrong and marry Valere.

Sganerelle, played with a pompous disdain by Will Harrell, rather verbosely spouts his views on human relations and what many view as the overly “suspicious precautions” he recommends. Meanwhile, the comically foppish Valere, played by Robbie Harrison, awaits his chance to better the older man and win the girl.

A standout in several Monmouth productions in recent years, A. J. Baldwin here plays the elegantly dressed but not afraid to get in your face Leonor as well as a Magistrate and, most engagingly, Valere’s wise servant Ergaste.

From left, Robbie Harrison as Valere, Will Harrell as Sganerelle, and Y’vonne Rose Smith as Isabella. Photo by Kat Moraros Photography

Her actions and reactions in the latter role are comically rich in the classic tradition of lesser characters outwitting their supposed superiors.
When it comes to guile, Y’vonne Rose Smith reveals her Isabella’s talents by designing a complex subterfuge. Full of funny eyerolls and waves when Sganerelle’s not looking, Smith’s Isabella is fun to watch as she charges ahead with her plot.

Theater veteran Mark S. Cartier scores most of his laughs at the expense of his character’s unbending brother. But his Ariste’s hints of vulnerability at the hands of the bristly Leonor are both funny and telling.

Period costumes by Michelle Handley establish elegance, despite Sganerelle’s preference for more severe garb, and the minimal set by Jim Alexander gives full measure to the natural allure of the Cumston Hall stage when populated by such a highly entertaining play.

Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.