The learned ladies - Molire

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price

Moliere's satire of intellectual snobbery focuses on the women folk of Chrysale's household, who look on all but intellectual pursuits as worthless and spurn love in favour of learning. The heroine, Chrysale's daughter Henriette, wants to marry Clitandre, but her mother wishes her to marry the poet Trissotin, who is worming his way into the household in order to marry Henriette for her family's fortune. When his avaricious plot is discovered, he is sent away in disgrace, leaving Henriette to marry Clitandre as she wishes.

Adapted for the RSC by Steven Pimlott & Colin Chambers, from a translation by A.R. Waller, and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.