Where does the virtue of truth lie and how do we separate hype from substance? These questions float through David Ives’ The Liar, an airy and erudite adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s Le Menteur, which just opened at Classic Stage Company. The titular character, whose given name is Dorante (Christian Conn), has turned deception into an art. He arrives in Paris after a tired stint studying law (cue obvious lawyer jokes) and immediately meets an out-of-work servant, Cliton (Carson Elrod), who has the curious affliction of not being able to tell a lie. More reflex than deep moral code, the truth erupts from him in uncomfortable ways, such as feeling compelled to tell Isabelle (Kelly Hutchinson), a fellow servant who’s interested in him, that she’s an eight but not a ten. This amuses the pathological Dorante who immediately employs him.
Ives, who is best known for writing dialogue that sings with rhythm and unbound wit, has kept the structure of the play in verse with the iambic pentameter rhyme scheme fully intact. The words themselves are decidedly modern though giving the audience the giddy feeling of what it must have been like to see the original in 1644. On lying about his military service, Dorante advises Cliton, “You know how ladies love a uniform / Just reel off any military muddle / The dame will deliquesce into a puddle.” He’s the kind of man who never fears the truth holding him accountable, and Conn plays him with bombastic verve. As is want for such a man, he’s also obsessed with having “the best,” so when Isabelle tells Cliton that her lady Lucrece (Amelia Pedlow) is the fairer of two women Dorante is talking to, he assumes incorrectly that she’s the one he’s pining for. The true woman of his desire though is Lucrece’s best friend Clarice (Ismenia Mendes) who’s engaged to a hothead, Alcippe (Tony Roach) who’s prone to duels.