PUENTE THEATRE

La Bete (The Beast) is a 1991 comedy by American playwright David Hirson. Written entirely in rhymed couplets, this homage to the genius of Moliere is set in 17th-century France. The play revolves around a single evening in which the highly respected head of a royal court-sponsored theatre troupe – Elomire - is forced by the troupe’s patron to play host to a boorish and megalomaniac street performer named Valere. Despite Elomire's violent objections, the company is forced by their patron Prince Conti to perform one of Valere's own plays in the drawing room where they have assembled that night. The results are both unexpected, hilarious and heart-breaking as vulgarity triumphs over taste and Elomire’s entire troupe and patron reject their former leader and launch a new age driven by populism and vulgarity.

“This is truly a play for our time” says director Brian Richmond. “As we struggle with our disbelief that our world can be so quickly and radically transformed, we all need to find the way to break the thrall brought on by the violence of ego. Hirson’s hilarious and brilliant play offers us such a cure – if only for an evening.”