The Liar

Pierre Corneille · Richard Wilbur

Mar 2014 · L.A. Theatre Works · Narrated by Matthew Wolf, John Sloan, Christopher Neame, Danny Mann, Janine Barris, Mark Sullivan, Sue Cremin, and Tara Lynne Barr

About this audiobook

In this classic farce, a young man pretends to be a war hero to impress a pretty girl. As his lies progress, so do his troubles – with hilarious results. Playwright Pierre Corneille’s comedy of manners is considered a groundbreaking work which influenced contemporaries such as the young Molière.

Includes a conversation about Corneille and French drama with Larry F. Norman of the University of Chicago.

Recorded before a live audience at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in April 2013.

Directed by Martin Jarvis Producing Director Susan Albert Loewenberg An L.A. Theatre Works Full-Cast Performance Featuring: Tara Lynne Barr as Clarice Janine Barris as Lucrèce Sue Cremin as Isabelle/Sabine Danny Mann as Cliton Christopher Neame as Géronte John Sloan as Dorante Mark Jude Sullivan as Philiste Matthew Wolf as Alcippe Associate Producers: Christina Montaño, Anna Lyse Erikson Recording Engineer/Sound Designer/Editor: Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood Sound Effects Artist: Michael Rhea Lead funding for this production is provided by the Sidney E. Frank Foundation.

About the author

Corneille is a part of the greatest period of French drama. His artistic model and theory of the drama were to be followed by successive generations of dramatists, including Racine. His plays deal with noble characters in closely defined situations of high moral intensity. After modest success as a writer of complex, baroque comedies, Corneille achieved fame with Le Cid (1636--37), adapted from Guillen de Castro's three-day comedy Las Moceddes del Cid. It vividly represents the dominant theme of his tragedies: the inner struggle between duty and passion. Corneille went on to dominate the French theater of his day with plays that reflect the changing relationships between the aristocracy and the new absolutist state. Some of Corneille's other major tragedies include Horace (1640), Cinna (1640), and Polyeuctus (1643). In his shaping of language and form to his dramatic purposes, Corneille had a great effect on the development of French literature; more specifically, it can be said that he gave form and aim to French neoclassicism.