Battle of the Sexes Rages in ‘Learned Ladies’

GLENDALE — Before the word “repressed” was invented, Moliere wrote a sparkling satire of sexually frustrated, bossy women called “The Learned Ladies,” first produced in 1672.

A new production at A Noise Within sets this verse play in the 19th century, apparently for no reason except that costume designer Charles Tomlinson likes dresses with huge puffy skirts and sleeves.

Whatever the setting, this production emphasizes the play’s surprising contemporaneity. Moliere’s is an eminently recognizable world, with angry women and men jockeying for power and arguing with heat and vigor. But the directors--Deborah Strang and Joel Swetow--have managed an odd trick. Virtually all the actresses deliver overstated, pushed comic performances while the men offer controlled and original shtick. Could the directors be on the playwright’s side?

In this universe, Moliere’s men tend to be weak and/or pretentious, but his women are contemptible. Philaminte (a scowling Jenifer Parker) is a dragon lady who bullies her husband, Chrysale (Mark Bramhall), while slavishly worshiping a poet, the preening fop Trissotin (the amusing Robertson Dean, whose bird-nest hair seems to mock the obvious care he’s taken with the rest of his toilette, an elaborate, maroon-striped outfit).

Philaminte is an actual as well as an aesthetic bully. She has decided that Trissotin will marry her non-bookish daughter Henriette (Ann Marie Shipstad)--the only woman in the household with any sense. Henriette is in love with Clitandre (the solid Jason Heil), an ex-suitor to her sister Armande (Hisa Takakuwa), who has been recruited into her mother’s cult-like salon.

In the midst of the main power struggle--in which the meek Chrysale tries to thwart his wife without actually standing up to her--Moliere delivers a wicked condemnation of women who believe they can rise above the messy concerns of the flesh.

The most outrageous is Aunt Belise (Emily Heebner), who looks like a spinster in a Hitchcock movie. Belise believes every man who looks at her is madly in love with her but speaks about it only in code. It’s a good gag; Heebner gets laughs, but only by indulging in cartoonish eye-batting.

These women inhabit a world “where everything is known except what matters” (in Richard Wilbur’s excellent translation), a place where if the meek inherit the Earth, it will only be because of expert manipulation.

Nobody can wrap up a play with a ribbon quite the way Moliere can. “The Learned Ladies” ends on as felicitous a comic note as is possible, with every loose end tied and without any unbelievable reforming going on among the incorrigible.

The cast brings off the ending with joy, and their bow is a bow as well to the durability of this playwright’s power.

* “The Learned Ladies,” A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, Sunday and Nov. 9 and 30, 2 and 7 p.m.; Wednesday and Nov. 12 and 13, 21 through 28, 8 p.m.; Nov. 22 and 29, 2 and 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 30. $22 to $27. (818) 546-1924. Running time: 2 hours.