Molière’s heady amalgam of farce, social satire and psychological drama receives vivid interpretation in this new production of the 17th century masterpiece.
Intense physicality and the clever, off-beat humour of rhyming couplets give Sylvaine Strike’s reinvention of Tartuffe a distinctive stylisation which is initially disconcerting until one surrenders to its infectious fun. Then the magic begins…
As is often the case in Molière’s comedies, this play has as its mainspring the contrast between reason and its subversion by human folly; but the potentially tragic consequences are neutralised by a keen sense of the ridiculous, as well as the obligatory happy ending.
Strike has updated the action to the Roaring Twenties, a period of reckless joie de vivre. We start with a boisterous garden party at the home of Orgon: jazz, cocktails and dancing amid floral prettiness – all suddenly and rudely terminated with the arrival of Mme Pernelle, mother of Orgon and besotted with a pillar of virtue named Tartuffe.
Thereafter matters go from bad to worse as a picture emerges of Tartuffe’s character as judged by different members of the family hosting him. We are kept waiting for some time before he finally appears, a black-clad figure amid the pastel brightness of the household décor and a blight on his surroundings.
As for the golf club-wielding Orgon, his obsessed stupidity is as sinister as Tartuffe’s calculated villainy.
Craig Morris excels in both the minor role of Pernelle and the major one of the eponymous lead, his Tartuffe alternating between beguiling vulnerability and cynical materialism. Not to mention a lustful sensuality at odds with his reputation for sanctity.
McCarthy fills the anti-heroic role of Orgon with distinction and a wide facial repertoire, contriving to be both hilarious and tragic. Outstanding portrayals of the two voices of reason opposing Orgon’s idiocy – Dorine the servant and Cléante, Orgon’s sibling – are offered by Cooke and Waldman respectively. Strike has re-cast Dorine as a gardener (as opposed to the maid in the original) and with intent, as the garden becomes a metaphor for the crippling of Orgon’s household through the imposter’s self-serving guile. By the end of the action there is not one plant left alive.
Green is an engaging Elmire (Orgon’s long-suffering wife), while the younger members of the cast attack their roles with gusto. Vuyelwa Maluleke (Mariane) and Anele Situweni (Valère) have the personal charm to appeal as the young lovers reunited despite everything. Adrian Alper’s Damis is all nervous aggression in keeping with his impetuous character, while William Harding as the glutton Monsieur Loyal brings the house down with his outré padding and ludicrous Norman accent.
Sasha Ehlers’ eye-pleasing set and costume designs complement the sense of this production, which is the celebration of life and common sense in the face of destructive turpitude. But Strike has added a nasty little coda of her own to remind us to be vigilant of a deathless corruption which can mar even the happiest dénouement.
Molière would have approved.