Le Lycanthrope

Revenge Tragedy, French Farce, and Monster-Movies inspire Le Lycanthrope, a new “Revenge-Farce with a Monster-Movie Groove” composed entirely in rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter, as an unofficial sequel to Moliere’s masterpiece, Le Misanthrope. At the close of Moliere’s play, Alceste, the “Misanthrope” (hater of mankind) of the play’s title, furiously exits the stage, vowing to live in the wilderness away from the Society of Men that “treats each other worse than wolves.” His friends Philinte and Eliante exit after him, determined to change his mind.

Le Lycanthrope begins on Halloween, 1673, with Alceste having returned from six years in the wilderness. He claims to be a “Lycanthrope”, a werewolf, and has come back to exact Revenge upon the “Wolves Society” of his enemies. So he decides to throw a little Halloween Party…

What ensues is a dark and ridiculous breakneck meditation on Transformation, Terror, Identity, Revenge, Conscience, Will, Satisfaction, Love, Laughter, Lies, and Death. Inverse Theater Company Member Timothy McCown Reynolds is the author.