Our Next Production

‘The Miser’

"Money is the most precious thing in life"

The penny pinching Harpagon reckons there's a mint to be made in marriage and intends to cash in on both his children and himself - but Elise and Cleante believe in love over money and have fallen head-over-heels for suitors of their own.

Someone's going to get married tonight, but as the children fight to follow their hearts' desires whatver the cost, Harpagon plots to stop his credit being crunched, and nothing and nobody is quite as it seems in Moliere's RIOTOUS and RAPID-FIRE comedy.

Sefton Theatre Company is to premiere a new translation and adaptation of a classic comedy. It is Moliere’s 17th century farce at the expense of the money-obsessed, The Miser. There have been many translations from the French original, “L’Avare”, over the years, but Sefton Theatre Company member John Sharp has not only made a new translation from the original, but has adapted it for the 21st century - one scene will be conducted by iPhone! The play retains all its original comic genius, but with a new twist.

Sefton Theatre Company is now rehearsing this exciting project, with John Sharp himself creating the title role and Roger Sloman directing. This will be our "Summer tourer", in the slot in which we have been presenting Shakespeare comedies in recent years. Moliere was born just 6 years after Shakespeare died, but his writing was very different, deriving from an older tradition, Commedia del Arte, but taking it in a new direction into more contemporary farce. The idea of young people in thrall to their father may not sit quite as comfortably in today's culture; unless, of course, they rely on his money! The plot thickens when he decides to take a young (and supremely affordable) bride to comfort his advancing years.

It will open on Thursday 17th June at 7.45, at St Stephens Church Hall in Hightown, Friday 18th June at 7.30 at Melling Tithe Barn, then in Greenbank High School Theatre, Southport, on Saturday 19th. June at 7.45. Entry will be by programme/ticket purchased at the door, price still only £5 at all venues.