To chase away those winter blues, a classic French comedy is being given a lively and thoroughly delightful workout by Stage Centre Productions at Fairview Library Theatre.

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name Moliere, wrote L’Ecole des Femmes in 1662. The story tells of a middle aged man who determines to keep his ward so unenlightened that once he marries her she would never dream of being unfaithful. The play created quite an uproar at the time. So much so that the playwright responded with La Critique de L’Ecole des femmes in which he tried to explain his little earlier piece.

Of course, nothings sells like controversy and The School for Wives has become a classic French comedy performed all over the globe. The version on stage at Fairview Library Theatre is a translation by poet Richard Wilbur that played on Broadway in 1971.  The entire show is done in verse, which gives the language a musicality that makes up for the loss of the original flow of French. It’s ingenious and just adds to the fun of the evening.

That fun carries over to the cast who know not to take anything too seriously here. They play it sincerely, but without apologizing for some of the misogynistic aspects of the text. As Arnolphe, the middle-aged landowner determined to wed his young innocent ward, JB Pierre Rajotte makes what could be a distasteful character into a wily protagonist. His thwarted efforts to control others make this a delicious performance.

Great comic support is provided by Brad Emes and Sara VanBuskirk as his doltish servants, and Monica Paraghamian as his naïve ward. When she sees the dashing Horace, played with the proper vain charm by Jason Martorino, she experiences an arousal of passion that leads sets the comedy in motion.

Martorino manages to play Horace with naturalness even as the script has him unwittingly confiding his plans to Arnolphe, unaware that he is the guardian of the girl he plans to woo.  Watching these two play off each other is like watching a chess game between Bobby Fisher and Conan the Barbarian.

L.Garth Allen who has drilled the cast to deliver the rhyming couplets with crisp assuredness has directed the entire performance with a lighter-than-air touch.  It dopes seem as if everyone on stage is having a great time.

You will too.