The Misanthrope
16 July 2026
National Theatre
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
The Misanthrope, currently running at the National Theatre until 1 August. is a modern reimagining of Molière’s classic, placing Sandra Oh at the centre of the satire.
Alice, a feminist novelist and staunch cynic, doesn’t make many friends with her blunt, no nonsense attitude, raising people’s hackles by shunning manners and politeness and simply opting to speak her mind at all times. Sidestepping her own strong opinions to defend her bad-boy lover, she loses friends and respect as she spirals out of control.
The set for this play is absolutely sumptuous and needs to be mentioned before anything else. There’s a richly decorated backdrop, with the most gorgeous furniture and opulent decor. The stage design feels classy and elegant, like an exclusive private member’s club for the elite, serving as a perfect high society playground befitting the play.
The narrative is a strong one, examining many modern societal expectations centred on women’s behaviours and the backlash for stepping out of line. There’s not a lot of character development happening, and yet so much happens over the course of an hour and 45 minutes. Most of the plot feels somewhat contrived and forced into a modern format though.
However, no amount of storytelling can get past the poorly structured verse in this play. Molière’s original is written in verse, and so is this modernisation, though it takes some time for the audience to realise this. Partly because the rewritten text has very poor rhymes in it, partly because there are several occasions where more than one conversation happens simultaneously, making it impossible to follow the narrative, but mostly because the cadence in which the text is spoken doesn’t fit the verse structure. Hurtling past the rhyming words and not keeping to the rhythm of the verse makes it difficult to discern that the show is, indeed, presented in verse. It is a very frustrating experience that feels tedious to watch.
