The Ladies Man

The play Ladies Man was a phenomenal performance and was very humorous. This performance kept the audience laughing scene after scene. It also was very engaging and was true theatre in my words with no video and other technical distractions. This paly had a very strong structure, it was easy to follow and kept you on your toes to see what will happen next. The structure of the play is what made each scene have a good flow to the point where you didn’t see scenes, you saw a story as a whole and not scene to scene. The play overall had very strong characters that made the flow of the play seamless. Each character had great depth and each character complemented each other on stage. In example, I like the scene where Etienne and Mr. Molineaux interacted with each other after he came in through the window from spending the night on the bench. The interaction between them showed each of their roles strongly ad they complement each other without overpowering the other; they shared the stage so to speak. In general the play had credibility and intrigue because it was relatable to the time in which it was set as well as the situation going on between the characters. The play did touch on a timeless situation of infidelity, no matter what time period you’re in this situation can happen and that is what made the play relatable to the audience. Although Mr. Molineaux didn’t cheat on his wife, it was known that other characters such as the Prussian soldier Gustav did with Marie the Molineaux’s maid. The play in its entirety was wrapped around idea of infidelity and how males and females interact with each other when there are secrets held in a relationship. The actors and playwright did a good job at making such a touchy subject funny and enjoyable to watch.
I like the scene where all the characters were in a twisted search for each other in the dress shop of Seventy rue San Socui. This scene to me was the climax of the play where everything finally unraveled and all secrets and faults where realized. This is the scene where Mrs. Molineaux and Marie go to dress shop in attempt to catch Dr. Molineaux with another woman. This is also the scene where Suzanne discovers that Gustav was doing the exact same thing she was attempting to get away with Dr. Molineaux. This scene has each character finding out the secrets of the shop and finding that it is a “pleasure paradise” in disguise as a dress shop. In this scene you can see that Dr. Molineaux has now gotten himself deeper in the situation he has been trying to avoid since the beginning: at this point he tries to clear his name, but the way things look only clouds things further because he is caught with Suzanne just as Gustav was caught with Marie. This scene was important to the play because it shows how each character is connected and it reveals all the secrets that each character had. It also tells the audience that, “what’s done in the dark will soon come to the light”. This scene was pivotal because this is the scene where all the females in the play find out what lies the men have been keeping from them because all the lies have now been revealed there is only room for the truth and the following scenes after this is where the truth of the matters at hand are also revealed and “forgiveness” takes place.
Throughout the play there were many examples of representational and presentational elements. I felt that majority of the characters switched between both throughout the play. In example, the scene where Etienne stopped and spoke to the audience about his crazy day of events the day before was a perfect example of a representational element. The scene where Mr. Bassinet tells his story about his wife disappearing to me was a good example of presentational element because he didn't make interaction with the audience but nonetheless kept the audience engaged. Overall the play The Ladies Man was a phenomenal play and I would recommend anyone to see it as well as for Buffalo State to bring it back next semester.