The Oyster Club and Moliere

There have been several famous Oyster Clubs, these were often private societies dedicated to fine eating in good company.

Through the enterprise of Robin Hicks, a businessman who lives near us in the Herault, a group of press, publishers and bloggers get invited to visit and experience local events. As the first meeting was to learn about the cultivation of Oysters in the Bassin du Thau, and as our research involved the eating of large quantities of Oysters washed down with larger quantities of local wine and followed by a typical French lunch - Rupert Wright, a writer for the Sunday Times, named this the working group of journalists the Oyster Club.

Last week, organised by www.herault-tourisme.com we met in Pezenas and had a presentation by the local tourist office www.pezenas-tourisme.fr with a tour of this unique Renaissance town, a French lunch and then a www.scenovisionmoliere.com presentation of the life of Moliere.

I would like to learn to like Molier’s plays, his life sounds interesting with a lot of travel, often running from the law it seems, with his group of actors, up and down France - he was supported by royal court of France, perhaps as much for the “talents” of his actresses, as for the quality of his penmanship - but what I have seen has not enthused me to watch more.

I was hoping the “scenovision” presented by the tourist office in Pezenas would tell me more and encourage me to see the plays, but, although done at huge expense with a massive investment to convert the medieval buildings of the old prison to show five scenes of Moliere’s life in five different set-piece rooms - I was underwhealmed.

We were handed 3D spectacles as we entered the first “theater” I have not worn these since the 1960s - the problem with the technology is that the designers start to think of gimmicky ways to use the effect. After the first scene I took the silly things off, it meant that only part of the scene shown was in sharp focus, but with the glasses on it was all soft and blurry anyway. It also meant that the production was by necessity a flat and posed presentation, very little movement (apart from sticks, swords and place names wandering about as these were easy to make in 3D).

The old prison building could have been much more interesting, a few racks and guillotines would have been better and possibly less painful than this bland presentation of Moliere - but if you are in Pezenas and want to remember what 3D was like 45 years ago, it is a bargain hour (you cannot escape) for 7 euro.