The playwright's next stop is Washington, DC. "I've translated a play by [Pierre] Corneille called The Liar, a comedy from 1643 — in verse," he says. And furthermore: "I think it is one of the greatest comedies I've ever read. I didn't know anything about it until the Shakespeare Theatre of Washington sent it to me. I'd been translating French plays lately — I did A Flea in Her Ear and a Yasmina Reza play [A Spanish Play] — so they said, 'Would you look at this French play?' I said, 'Sure' — and I just fell in love with it. It's like A Midsummer Night's Dream — in French. And, of course, I've helped it a bit."

His French-translating hasn't stop there, either. "After I finished The Liar, I did a version of The Misanthrope, which Walter Bobbie wants to direct next year at CSC. We had a big reading of it not so long ago with Denis O'Hare, Kate Jennings Grant, Christopher Evan Welch and Andrea Martin. This may happen after The Liar."

STC artistic director Michael Kahn directs The Liar April 6-May 23.

— Harry Haun