With comments like “cut the mustard”, “a pit bull on heat” and an eye-rolling “Oh. My. God.” along with references to “tossers” and “the short and curlies”, you can pretty well guarantee that this new version of Molière’s satirical farce The Miser is unlike any other to have hit the stage.

Sean O’Shea, Harriet Gordon-Anderson, John Bell, Jessica Tovey, Elizabeth Nabben, Michelle Doake and Russell Smith. Photograph © Prudence Upton

Justin Fleming has cornered a market adapting Molière’s comedies for Australian audiences, writing them in rollicking, witty, rhyming verse, full of irreverent, colourful, contemporary Aussie idioms and slang. Bell Shakespeare is now presenting its fifth Fleming take on Molière, having previously staged The School for Wives in 2012, Tartuffe in 2014, The Literati (co-presented with Griffin Theatre Company) in 2016, and The Misanthrope in 2018.

Bell Shakespeare’s Artistic Director Peter Evans, who had a huge success with the hilariously funny production of Tartuffe, has donned the directing gloves again for The Miser, with his predecessor John Bell returning to the company to play the title role.

The Miser premiered in 1668 with Molière himself in the role of the brutally stingy skinflint Harpagon. Though most of his plays were written in...