MOLIERE or THE LEAGUE OF HYPOCRITES Plays The Finborough Theatre Thru Tonight, December 19

Jean-Baptiste Molière is on top of the world - at the centre of Louis XIV's court, author of countless popular hits, and in love with a woman half his age. But what the audiences see as sparkling satire, the authorities see as dangerous and subversive. As soon as he takes a wrong step, his fall from grace is assured.

Assailed by rumours and tracked by the secret police, Molière's private life starts to fall apart. In this world of whispers and distortions, everyone is vulnerable. But not everyone has a theatre to run.

Inspired by real-life events and written under the shadow of Stalin, Molière is about a man's fight to keep his integrity under a repressive regime.

Playwright and novelist Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) was the most original writer of the Stalinist era, turning out outspoken, satirical works, even as his contemporaries were arrested and killed. He is probably best known for The Master And Margarita, published 26 years after his death and now the favourite book of four out of five Russians. He also wrote the plays The White Guard (which Stalin saw seventeen times) and Black Snow, a savage spoof of Stanislavsky and his Method which was inspired by Bulgakov's difficulties in getting Molière staged. Productions of Bulgakov's work in the UK have included Black Snow and Flight at the National Theatre, The Master and Margarita at Chichester Festival Theatre, and The White Guard for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Molière was last seen in London in 1983, at the Barbican's Pit Theatre, in a Royal Shakespeare Company production starring Antony Sher.

Translator Michael Glenny (1927-1990) was one of the most prolific and highly respected translators of Russian works in the 20th century. He was professor of Russian studies at the Universities of Birmingham, Southern Illinois and Bristol. Glenny translated ten works by Bulgakov, including Black Snow, The White Guard and The Master and Margarita. His other translations include works by Solzhenitsyn, Nabokov, Eisenstein, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Gorky and the first volume of Boris Yeltsin's memoirs.

Director Blanche McIntyre is the first recipient of the Leverhulme Directors' Bursary, and is currently Director in Residence at the National Theatre Studio and the Finborough Theatre. Directing includes Bulgakov's The Master And Margarita (Greenwich Playhouse), Three Hours After Marriage (Union Theatre), Wuthering Heights (National Tour), The Revenger's Tragedy (BAC), Birds (Southwark Playhouse), Doctor Faustus, The Devil Is An Ass, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde As Told To An Inmate Of Broadmoor Asylum (White Bear Theatre), and Lost Hearts, The Invention of Love and Cressida (Edinburgh Festival).

Alex Marker is Resident Designer of the Finborough Theatre where his acclaimed designs have included Soldiers, Trelawny of the ‘Wells', Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Albert's Boy, Lark Rise To Candleford, Red Night, The Representative, Eden's Empire, Love Child, Little Madam, Plague Over England, Hangover Square, Sons of York, Untitled and Death of Long Pig.

The cast includes:
Justin Avoth's many credits include Jaques in As You Like It for Tim Supple at the Curve Theatre, Leicester, this summer, and Cassio in Othello for Greg Doran at the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as roles in Dead Hands, 13 Objects and Gertrude - The Cry (The Wrestling School), Edward II (Shakespeare's Globe), The Ash Girl, True Brit (Birmingham Rep), Venice Preserved (Almeida Theatre), Nathan The Wise (Hampstead Theatre), Chains, De Montfort (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), The Government Inspector (HarroGate Theatre), King Arthur (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester). Television credits include Midsomer Murders, Merlin, Spooks, Judge John Deed and Coronation Street.

Portia Booroff's credits include Phedre (National Theatre), Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Gielgud Theatre), The Deep Blue Sea (Theatre Royal Bath), Hamlet (Creation Theatre Company) and The Allotment (National Tour). Film includes Night Junkies and Room 36. Television includes The Bill, Bugs and The Waiting Time.

Paul Brendan's recent credits include Complicit, The Norman Conquests (The Old Vic), A Month In The Country, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar (The Tobacco Factory) and The Threepenny Opera (Bristol Old Vic).

Tom Davey's credits include roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Love's Labour's Lost, The Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Royal Shakespeare Company at the Novello Theatre) and Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe). Television includes Victoria Cross, A Serpent In Eden, Plenty Of Fish and The Ruby In The Smoke.

Mark Desebrock graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama this summer. His credits already include the lead in A Little Neck (Hampton Court Palace) and Love's Labour's Lost (Shakespeare's Globe, Australia) and the feature films Bright Star and The Course.

Emma Jerrold's credits include Macbeth (National Theatre), Miss Julie (Bristol Old Vic), The School for Scandal (Redgrave Theatre, Bristol), The Changeling (Queen's Theatre) and numerous productions for the Gate Theatre. Her television credits include roles in EastEnders and Bad Girls.

Antonia Kinlay's credits since leaving RADA include the lead in The Eternal Not (National Theatre) and Arden of Faversham (Shakespeare's Globe). Television credits include Consuming Passion and How New Amsterdam Became New York.

Gyuri Sarossy's numerous credits include Hangover Square at the Finborough Theatre as well as Romeo and Juliet (Royal Shakespeare Company), Twelfth Night, Uncle Vanya (Donmar Warehouse), Balmoral, Man and Superman, Galileo's Daughter, Don Juan (The Peter Hall Company), Coriolanus, Macbeth (The Tobacco Factory and Barbican), The Hypochondriac (Almeida Theatre), Rope (Watermill Theatre, Newbury), The Promise (Tricycle Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Leicester Haymarket) and Luther (National Theatre). Film credits include Another Life and After Death. Television credits include The Bill, Holby City, EastEnders, Judge John Deed, Egypt, Casualty, Doctors and Kavanagh QC.

Kett Turton's film credits include work for Warner Bros., United Artists, MGM and 20th Century Fox including A Simple Curve, Blade: Trinity, Firewall, Gypsy 83, Rollercoaster, Saved! and Walking Tall. Television credits include The X Files, Dark Angel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and series regulars or leads on 24, Dead Last and Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital.

The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 under the Will of the first Lord Leverhulme. It is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing funds of some £50 million every year. For further information about the schemes that The Leverhulme Trust fund visit their website at www.leverhulme.ac.uk