Molière: The Last Laugh
Molière: The Last Laugh is an intimate solo performance imagining the playwright’s final night.
Alone, ill, and facing death, Molière revisits a life spent challenging authority, exposing hypocrisy, and championing the transformative power of laughter.
Inspired by Molière’s own plays and Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, the production blends humour, storytelling, and theatrical invention to explore ambition, creativity, resilience, and legacy.
France's funniest man - Death's worst patient!
Paris, 1673.
The applause has faded. The audience has gone home.
One man remains.
As illness closes in after his final performance, Molière - the playwright, actor and theatrical revolutionary - looks back on a life spent challenging authority, provoking controversy and discovering that laughter can reveal truths that the powerful would rather keep hidden.
Blending storytelling, physical theatre, comedy and vivid character transformations, Molière: The Last Laugh brings to life friends, rivals, kings, priests and comic servants as memory and performance collide. Inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov's biography and Molière's own plays.
Why book this show?
Molière: The Last Laugh combines the accessibility of great storytelling with the theatricality of live performance. Designed for both traditional theatre audiences and first-time attenders, it is a flexible, small-scale production that works equally well in arts centres, village halls and community venues.
About Perfect Fools
Perfect Fools create imaginative theatre from simple means — transforming stories, spaces, and audiences through the power of live performance.
Reviews & Audience Responses:
Molière: The Last Laugh premiered in May 2026 at the Witham, Barnard Castle and the Divadlo Inspirace as part of the 25th Prague Fringe Festival, where it received strong audience responses and excellent critical reviews.
Designed for Flexible Touring
Molière: The Last Laugh has been created specifically as a small-scale touring production.
Requiring only a modest performance area and minimal technical support, the show is equally at home in village halls, community centres, libraries, studio theatres, arts centres and festival venues.
The production can be presented on a raised stage or at floor level and has been designed to create an engaging theatrical experience in both traditional theatre spaces and non-theatrical community settings.
Who will enjoy this show?
The production appeals to audiences who enjoy: No prior knowledge of Molière is required. At its heart, this is the story of a performer looking back on a life filled with ambition, friendship, love, failure, success and laughter. The themes are universal, accessible and relevant to contemporary audiences.