Gary Fox, Class of 2013, played the title role in Der Bourgeois Bigwig. In the background is Nathalie Ellis-Einhorn, Class of 2016, as the enthusiastic lackey. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)
Extravagant wigs and sumptuous costumes serve as metaphors that breathe life into the social satire of Der Bourgeois Bigwig, a new adaptation of a 17th-century comedy by Molière that pokes fun at both the pretentious middle-class and the snobbish aristocracy.
A production of Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts and the Department of Music, Der Bourgeois Bigwig tells the story of a wealthy merchant who aspires to become an aristocrat, but who only succeeds in looking foolish and falling prey to con artists. The adaptation was created by playwright James Magruder, who served during 2012-13 as Princeton’s Class of 1932 Visiting Lecturer in Theater, and is based on Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme as well as a 1912 musical version by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Der Bürger als Edelmann.
Performed for the first time in fall 2012, the play was directed by Tim Vasen, director of the Program in Theater. Michael Pratt, director of the Program in Musical Performance, conducted the Princeton University Orchestra. Performed by an all-student cast, the Bigwig production was also a credited course, taught by Vasen.
“Our production was a 21st-century English language version of an early- 20th-century German musical adaptation of a late-17th-century French play,” said Vasen. “Yet, the story, the themes, the satire and jabs at pretense to a higher perceived social class resonate as vividly today as they did over 300 years ago.”
The title role was played by Gary Fox, Class of 2013, who earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry with certificates in French and theater. His classmate, Lily Akerman, who earned her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature with certificates in creative writing and theater, choreographed the production. New York-based designer Anya Klepikov created the set and costumes, with lighting design by Jane Cox, a lecturer in theater and the Lewis Center for the Arts.
-By Steve Runk
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