Robert Stanton RED BANK — Bringing a 17th-century play into the 21st century and making it appeal to a modern audience can be a feat, but actor Robert Stanton is up to the challenge.
Celebrating its opening night on Sept. 19 at the Two River Theater, “The School for Wives,” written by 17th-century French playwright Molière, stars Stanton in the lead role as Arnolphe, a rich bachelor who adopts a girl and attempts to mold her into the perfect, submissive wife.
“The beautiful thing about this role is, humanity is a spectrum, and this guy exists somewhere on the spectrum of humanity,” Stanton said of his character Arnolphe, whose name is derived from the patron saint of cuckolds. “Some of the things he does might seem inhumane. … He’s also a comic character.”
Stanton, who recently had an arc on Netflix’s hit series “Orange Is the New Black,” was attracted to the project by director Mark Wing-Davey, who brought the play from the 17th century into the late 1950s and early 1960s of France. Wing-Davey was inspired by the films of Jean-Luc Godard, who was a part of the French New Wave movement.
“There’s a breath of fresh air coming into the world, but it’s still one that’s very ordered and one in which the roles between genders are very strictly defined. And the power dynamic is very strictly defined,” Stanton said.
“… I think it’s just foreign enough and distant enough to be of a period, but it’s modern enough for us to identify with.”
Stanton said he grew up in a matriarchal household, and the play led him to reflect on modern issues of women’s rights.
“Thing have changed dramatically. But in a way, they haven’t,” Stanton said.
In “The School for Wives,” Arnolphe’s attempt to groom his innocent young ward, Agnès, into a “perfect” wife goes awry.
“Through the course of the production, he actually finds himself falling in love with this woman he wants to control,” he said. “… Her purity and innocence and openness are the things that lead to his downfall with her.
“Basically, he can’t control her because she has a spirit and a mind of her own.”
“The School for Wives” has its opening night at the Two River Theater at 8 p.m. Sept. 19 and runs through Oct. 5. For more information or reservations, call 732-345- 1400 or visit tworivertheater.org.