“What’s it all about? A thoroughly brilliant show directed and performed by a troupe, tg STAN, of cheerful and eccentric Flemish actors who are completely off the wall. For over twenty years now, this collective has found in Molière, as Jean d’Ormesson would say, the triumph of truth. (…) If “the duty of comedy is to correct people whilst entertaining them”, then tg STAN has certainly fulfilled its mission.”

“Performed in such a raw style, with its improvisations, asides and controlled slip-ups, Molière speaks to us powerfully and still makes us laugh: more ‘miserly’, less ‘sick’ than ever, his heroes traverse time without ageing a day. His heroines aren’t to be fobbed off: embodied in particular by a bubbling Jolente De Keersmaeker, they almost have us believing in a feminist Molière.”

“Tg STAN, however, restores him to his chaos. To his ferocity. To his laughter that bites before it comforts. In the raw setting of the Carrière de Boulbon, where the rock seems to bear the memory of centuries, the Flemish collective is not simply celebrating yet another anniversary. It is opening a construction site. A vast construction site of joyful demolition where certainties crumble one after the other. For 1,2,3 Poquelin tells no story. Or rather, it tells the essential: the eternal return of our basest instincts. (…) Nothing is hidden because everything rests on a pact of absolute trust with the audience. This deliberate fragility becomes a force for subversion. At a time when productions can hide behind technology or concepts, tg STAN still dares to believe that theatre arises first and foremost from an exchanged glance and a shared breath.”

“Avignon 2026: clubs, laughter and a Belgian accent – the tg STAN collective’s approach to shaking up Molière. (…) The eight-strong troupe will play thirty-five characters in 1,2,3 Poquelin at the Carrière de Boulbon. The Belgian collective, founded in 1989, is once again tackling Molière’s plays. They do so in their own unique way – the hallmark of a troupe where no one is in charge.”