Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
In contemporary slang, “Karen” is often described as a white, middle-aged, suburban woman behaving entitled or rude, particularly when seeking undeserved special treatment. Through this hot-button, provocative social lens, Wright State University Theatre presents “KARENS: A comedy of bad manners,” a new adaptation of Moliere’s naughty, sophisticated and satirical class comedy “The Learned Ladies” streaming on YouTube from Friday, Feb. 26-Sunday, Feb. 28.
Written and directed by acclaimed WSU actor, director and professor Bruce Cromer and condensed to one hour, “KARENS” primarily deals with the hypocrisy of righteous family members rejecting a daughter’s new love for pious reasons. Following Moliere’s original blueprint, which borrows comic stereotypes from the colorful commedia dell’arte technique, Cromer has crafted the story in rhymed verse, a stylistic trademark of the groundbreaking French playwright’s witty canon including “Tartuffe,” “The Miser” and “The Imaginary Invalid.”
“I like to think of myself just as a humanitarian free-thinker and not be put in a box,” Cromer said. “I hate political theater but I love Moliere. He’s telling us to look at our lives and, (in doing so), he says this is nuts! Moliere got in trouble because people would come to his plays, see themselves on stage and be (furious). Moliere also (creates) good comedy which can be humanized. You don’t have to go broad or over-the-top. (His plays) have a (tinge) of sadness too. In ‘Tartuffe,’ Orgon is duped and his house is brought to ruin because he trusted a charlatan.”
As for “The Learned Ladies,” which premiered in 1672 and became one of Moliere’s most popular works, Cromer felt its strong, opinionated characters were ideal for an irreverent update. Having previously staged the play for WSU in 1996, he was eager to not only return to the plot but inject it with current references to gender identity, social media, COVID-19 and political conspiracies run amok.
“When I think of ‘The Learned Ladies,’ I think of (characters) in the know, people who consider themselves to be above everybody else because they’re in the know,” he said. “They have secrets, education, knowledge. These are elevated women. And when you think about all the conspiracies going on right now, people who are duped by technology hour after hour, it is breaking families apart. The climate right now is so divisive. It’s become us versus them. It’s difficult for families to try to bridge that gap. And you can find any opinion you want reaffirmed by experts and authorities on the Internet. You listen to that and start thinking you know the truth.”
