This translation by New York-based director Samuel Buggeln has been controversial, but widely praised. “Hater is not your grandmother's Molière,” said Jody Enders, professor of French and theatre at University of Southern California Santa Barbara. “It is Molière for the twenty-first century... In [Buggeln’s] hands Le Misanthrope has never been more alive, more fun, more contemporary, more eternal.”

 But for all the contemporary banter (and frequent strong language), Hater follows the Moliere play exactly. Alcestus is now Alex, Celimene is now Celine, but the course of their romance is the same. So are the other characters, their alliances and enmities in the court intrigue—which, as it turns out, is a lot like high school, or the workplace.