There's some touch of human frailty in every one of us.

What better way to celebrate Christmas Eve than a little Molière? (Don't answer that.)

We saw Crimp's edition of the Misanthrope, a 21st-century version of the play, starring Damian Lewis, Tara FitzGerald, Keira Knightley, and Dominic Rowan.

On the positive side of things, the acting was impressive. I thought Knightley was particularly good, providing a nuanced performance for a character who is largely 2-dimensional. I honestly forgot she was Keira Knightley most of the time--which can't be easy on the stage when her face immediately reminds me of Cecilia Tallis and Elizabeth Bennett and Domino Harvey and Elizabeth Swann.

That said, I did take issue with the text. The frequent use of rhyming couplets was annoyingly trite after a while, and it was irksome that the play over-simplified so much of Molière's commentary. Just to give a quick example, Molière's Alceste risks severe court judgment for his criticism of social convention, but this Alceste doesn't risk much at all--maybe his relationship with Jennifer (Knightley)--in this version.

All in all though, it was a fun afternoon. Plus, it gave us an excuse to walk through Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus on the way home, which is a pretty fun thing this time of year.