Matthew Rauch performs the titular character Tartuffe and Michelle Veintimilia is Elmire in Molière’s Tartuffe at the LeFrak Center in Prospect Park.
Lucie Tiberghien, artistic director of Molière in the Park, has scored a coup—an English-language world premiere of Tartuffe that uses Moliere’s uncensored version as its basis. Tiberghien’s production is the first English rendering to draw on a restoration of the original text by Georges Forestier that made its debut in 2022 at the Comédie Française.
Yonatan Gebeyehu (left) performs the gullible Orgon, and Rauch plays Tartuffe in the world premiere of a never-seen-before Tartuffe in an English-language translation by Maya Slater. Photographs by Russ Rowland.
Tiberghien’s Tartuffe plays like a broad farce—and the audience may be tempted to see it as a laugh show. But this comedy not only was taboo for Parisians in the mid–17th century, it also caused Molière his most anxious five years as a playwright. The original three-act version delighted Louis XIV at Versailles in 1664, but his devout Catholic mother, Queen Anne, believed the play was a lampoon of religion and put pressure on her son to ban it.
Even though Molière insisted that Tartuffe was an assault on hypocrisy, he couldn’t persuade the king or the censor to see the play from his perspective. The playwright eventually changed the ending to one that flattered the king—and the ban was lifted in 1669.
The current production succeeds largely because Matthew Rauch inhabits Tartuffe like a second skin. Although the rest of the cast hold their own, Rauch consistently draws the audience’s attention. He infuses his character with the requisite mix of fake piety, lust, greed, and more. Take the Act III seduction scene when Tartuffe attempts to persuade Elmire to ignore her foolish fear of committing adultery with him:
Oh, I’ll help you to dissipate your foolish fear,
For I know what to do when scruples interfere—
It’s true that certain pleasures are denied to man,
But we have ways of getting round this austere ban.
The outdoor venue provided an unexpectedly big laugh, thanks to a dog attending with its master. So committed was Rauch’s performance that when the maid Dorine (Kaliswa Brewster), in a loud stage whisper, announced to Orgon’s son Damis (Keshav Moodliar) that Tartuffe was “coming now,” the canine sensed that Tartuffe was up to no good and barked with all the ferocity of Cerberus. The audience roared.
Kaliswa Brewster is the maid Dorine and Luis Vega is Cléante in Molière in the Park’s production of Tartuffe, directed by Lucie Tiberghien.
The action unfolds on Alex Jourdan’s cagelike set, with its ultrathin crisscrossed wires looking like a huge hunting snare. Molière buffs who enjoy watching the character Orgon (Yonatan Gebeyehu) hide under a table as his virtuous wife Elmire (Michelle Veintimilla) becomes bait for Tartuffe won’t be disappointed by the way Tiberghien reimagines it.
There are some notable differences in this production. The central romantic characters—Orgon’s daughter Mariane and her fiancé Valère—have been jettisoned from the plot and replaced by the feisty maid Dorine and Orgon’s son Damis, who are head over heels in love. This overhauled Tartuffe also doesn’t have the twist ending that Molière tacked on. Suffice it to say that Forestier’s recoupment of Molière’s comedy draws on its dramatic essentials with no padding. And, under the brisk direction of Tiberghien, the current production clocks in at 80 minutes with no intermission.
Mother Nature added a bit of her own drama on the evening I attended. Although a gray cover of clouds hovered threateningly overhead, it was only during the play’s final scene that the plash of raindrops began to pelt the performers and audience. As a result, the performers took their final bows doing a stylized movement sequence that would have made Molière proud.
“The current production succeeds largely because Matthew Rauch inhabits Tartuffe like a second skin. ”
Naturally, one must ask with the staging of any play, why now? Well, in the case of Tartuffe, one readily may answer that our society currently suffers from the hypocritical actions of politicians like George Santos, Donald Trump, and just about anybody who has ever lied on their résumés, sexually harassed another person, or feigned virtue.
Maya Slater is right on the money with her English translation. Although she might not perfectly nail each of her rhyming couplets, she does get the swirl of wit in Molière’s original alexandrines and morphs it into plain English or even a whimsical English-and-French rhyme, as in a scene that spotlights the shameless flirt Tartuffe with the very married and beautiful Elmire:
I too am very glad, I too feel no regret.
Madame, I’m so delighted with our tête-à-tête.
To be alone with you has been my ardent plea,
Which till now Heaven never has accorded me.
This Tartuffe is a must-see for Molière enthusiasts. After all, how often can one go see this masterpiece in live performance with language that Molière originally intended?
Molière’s Tartuffe runs at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park (171 East Drive in Brooklyn) through May 27. Evening performances are at 8 p.m. on Tuesday through Sunday; matinees are at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; additional matinees are at noon Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on May 17, 18, 23, and 24. For tickets and information, visit prospectpark.org/news-events/events/moliere-in-the-park-tartuffe-or-the-hypocrite/ or www.eventbrite.com/e/tartuffe-or-the-hypocrite-an-english-language-world-premiere-tickets-586385804727.
Playwright: Molière (original play restitution by Georges Forestier)
English Translation: Maya Slater
Direction: Lucie Tiberghien
Sets: Alex Jourdan
Costumes: Jessica Irvin
Lighting: Stoli Stolnack
Lyrics & Music: Paul Brill
