The Misanthrope
Moliere · 1666
Alceste hates social hypocrisy but falls in love with the biggest flirt at court. Moliere wrote his darkest comedy here: the man who insists on total honesty turns out to be as self-deluded as everyone he despises. Moliere played Alceste himself. The role is considered the Hamlet of French theater.
The case against
Nothing much happens: people talk in a salon, a sonnet gets criticized, a lawsuit occurs offstage, and Alceste storms off. The comedy lives in rhymed alexandrines that no English translation fully carries, and the ending resolves nothing by design. You need to care about seventeenth-century politesse for the satire to draw blood.
Drama · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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