When theatre directors proclaim that plays by Moliere and Shakespeare are timeless and then proceed to update them, what are we to make of the apparent contradiction?

Next month, both West Yorkshire Playhouse and Harrogate Theatre are staging productions of classic plays that have been modernised.

The Playhouse is putting on Moliere's The Misanthrope, adapted by Ranjit Bolt and directed by Sarah Esdaile, and renamed The Grouch.

Bolt has transferred the French into English rhyming couplets and has included references to contemporary British politics.

Sarah Esdaile told a press conference at the Playhouse before Christmas that, in her view, this version of The Misanthrope made the play more relevant for a modern audience. Bolt's adaptation, she said, was a work of genius.

Blake Morrison has been adapting drama from ancient Greece as well as 19th century Germany and Italy; he too has transferred original texts into modern English couplets, most recently in his patchy adaptation of the Aristophanes' anti-war comedy Lysistrata - Lisa's Sex Strike - for Northern Broadsides.

The question is, does The Grouch, which sounds broadly similar to the kind of alternative title Morrison might favour, adequately reflect the ironic contradictions rife in the plot of Moliere's 17th century masterpiece?

"I think this adaptation does reflect Moliere," Sarah Esdaile told Play. She is based in London but works a lot in the North.

"The irony is that Ranjit's adaptation, set in London in 2008 and in rhymed couplets, reflects Moliere better than the Penguin translation which is where most people read Moliere.

"There is a paradox in by reflecting the political and social realities of New Labour Britain, The Grouch also is true to the spirit of Moliere's satire."

Alceste, the play's protagonist, rejects society's conventions and finds fault with the behaviour of everyone - including himself. But the misanthrope of the play's title is caught by his intense love for the flirtatious Celimene, who pays great attention to social appearances and conventions.

Eventually Alceste's unwillingness and inability to deal with society causes him to abandon all hope of the love of his life. At this point Celimene agrees to marry him and go with him to a deserted land far from civilisation.

In Ranjit Bolt's version these contradictions are caught in verse form (Moliere also wrote in verse).

Sarah Esdaile does not believe that the audience in the Quarry Theatre at the Playhouse will find this off-putting.

"It's not monotonous to listen to; it's not like dum-te-dum-te-dum all the way through. It's very flexible. I think the brilliant thing is that it feels like contemporary society and yet is Moliere's play."

At Harrogate Theatre an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream by KAOS Theatre transfers the play from the Forest of Arden to the urban underworld of modern times.

The KAOS Dream, as it is called, offers "a contemporary and socially relevant exploration of the play's themes of love, betrayal, dreams and reality", presumably with narcotics replacing the magic potions.

Puck is portrayed as a dealer, Hermia pole-dances and Titania is a transvestite. Doesn't it make you wonder what Xavier Leret, the company's artistic director, makes of Bottom?

  • The Grouch is on at West Yorkshire Playhouse from February 18 to March 8, starting at 7.30pm. For tickets ring (0113) 2137700. The KAOS Dream is on at Harrogate Theatre on February 5 and 6, starting at 7.30pm, plus a 2.30pm matinee on the 6th. The box office number is (01423) 502116.