Moliere’s ‘School for Wives’ a Joyous, Witty Lesson in Love

Fresh, vibrant and funny, Neel Keller’s direction of Moliere’s “The School for Wives” at La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Forum is a promising signal of things to come from the company’s new associate artistic director.

We first meet Arnolf (Tom McGowan), a bachelor who thinks he knows everything about marriage, in the audience listening to a strolling accordion player (Louis Fanucci). As his debate with his friend Chrisaldo (Rodney Scott Hudson) heats up, they move their chairs from the audience to center stage.

This movement sets the tone for the rest of an interactive production that plays on the audience, teasing them, casting the spotlight around when Arnolf wants to make examples of foolish husbands and wayward wives. He gives them pointed looks during his tirades, recoiling when he becomes the sport of the jokes.

McGowan, who skillfully navigates from Arnolf’s wit to his pain, begins as affably smug, describing his plans to cultivate the most faithful of wives by raising from childhood a girl, Agnes (the wonderfully expressive Michi Barall), to know of nothing but him. Scott Hudson is goofily appealing as the suitor, Horatio, who shows up to dash all of Arnolf’s best-laid plans.

Mark Wendland’s spare but clever set is spiked with humorous surprises such as the act announced on the belly of a skateboard. Like a doll, Agnes (shades of “A Doll’s House”) is kept in an ornate china cabinet as if she were a possession to be shown at will--a touch of “My Last Duchess.”

The only weak link comes at the end when a non-actor, Fanucci, a terrific musician, is tapped for a small role. He looks trapped. Rescue him!

Paul Schmidt’s prose translation is deliciously earthy, redolent with ribald metaphors, more in-your-face than Richard Wilbur’s elegant verse (which the Playhouse used 10 years ago). Allison Reeds’ funky costumes and Michael Roth’s jaunty musical direction give a joyously free feel to the show. It’s a freedom that prevails as Moliere so wittily illustrates that love cannot be ordered like something on a menu. And that if you try, like Arnolf, it will remain stubbornly out of season.

* “The School for Wives,” La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Forum, UC San Diego, La Jolla. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends July 13. $21-$39. (619) 550-1010. Running time: 2 hours.