Tartuffe theatre review - Tartuffe

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Danielle Clark Bryan        G.C.S.E Drama Coursework        March 2006

Theatre Review – Tartuffe

Tartuffe was written by Molière in France in the 19th century during the reign of King Louis XIV. It shows the Parisian high society, religion and most importantly, religious hypocrisy. In the play a religious fraud, Tartuffe, manages to persuade Orgon, a rich merchant, to stay in his wealthy, happy house by masquerading as a priest and appearing to be pious and wholehearted. During Tartuffe’s stay in the household he nearly manages to trick Orgon into letting him drive away his son, Damis, marrying his daughter, Mariane, seducing his wife and imprisoning Orgon. This play explores the themes of status, trust, and the betrayal of trust, greed, jealousy, lust and families’ duties and their expectations. It seems that Tartuffe is supposed to represent the people in society who do not live by any morals, but still try to preach religious piety and force upon others what they themselves do not follow, or respect.

In the theatre, the stage actually appeared very small at first when there were no actors on it.

It was a very minimalist set which meant that the few features on it, such as the two floral patterned, embroidered chairs and the grand black door gave the feeling of quite an austere, aristocratic house with authentic architecture and powerful, serene, imposing colours such as the deep blue of the gauze curtains and black door and floorboards. The way that the floorboards were placed, going toward the audience felt very inviting and made it feel very intimate because the stage was so close to the audiences’ seats.

The seriousness of the set seemed to contrast with the continual humour throughout the play. This is similar to Tartuffe’s character because he appears on the outside to be very solemn and proper but then he actually has a rather rude and arrogant character on the inside.  

I think that the director’s interpretation was very important in this play as it made it its own, without loosing any of the important themes. Although the director, Jonathan Munby, decided to keep the authentic costume and performance technique he did change a few details to give it more of a modern feel. For example, the actors did not wear any of the old fashioned wigs that would have done in the time it was written, and they used more contemporary speeches to keep up with the today’s, modern, audience. Another great example of the way Munby adapted the script was at the beginning of Act Four. In the script it just states that it should open with, “A room in Ogon’s house. A table, with a bottle of wine on it.” Munby managed to turn that into a very amusing scene in which Tartuffe seems to be almost preparing for a communion, setting up wine glasses very carefully, but then you realise that in fact he was preparing to indulge himself with food, profiteroles – which are very indulgent, rich treats, wine and lust. When Cleante, Elmie’s brother, comes into the Tartuffe’s room during this scene Tartuffe says to him, “If I have a vice, it isn’t greed” after eating four profiteroles all at once! The when Tartuffe leaves to go upstairs he picks up the huge silver platter of profiteroles and says to Cleante, “I must go upstairs for some more chastisement and prayers”. During this scene Tartuffe’s acolyte, Laurent carries the dress of Elmire, Orgon’s wife who Tartuffe likes, on his hand like a puppet. This puppet then pretends to flirt with Tartuffe and he obviously enjoys this very much. The puppet really helps in enhance the action here because it is physically showing the audience exactly what Tartuffe is thinking of in his head, it also gives the piece a lot of humour and helps the scene to keep flowing.

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I found that Orgon’s character was quite different to the light hearted Dorine. When Orgon first arrives Dorine, being the maid, informs him on everything that has happened in his absence. During his time away in the countryside his wife, Emire, got very ill but all he wants to know about is how Tartuff is. For example, Dorine tells Orgon how Tartuffe has been, “Once he satisfied his appetite, he went to bed and slept as soundly as the dead.” All Orgon can say in response to that, and all the other tales of what he got up to is, ...

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