Moliere’s ‘Tartuffe’ - Valaint Theatre
$15 online, $20 at the door
Richard Wilbur’s unmatchable verse translation is given an anything-goes spin well-suited to Moliere’s comedy of licentiousness, upper-class manners, and hypocrisy. Set now during the 1970s at the Fire Island vacation home of Orgon, his young wife Elmire, and his rebellious children Damis and Marianne – with pulsating disco wafting from the “other side” of the Dunes – the laughs ignites at once. The severe but seductive evangelist Tartuffe has wormed his way into Orgon’s heart and mind, promising him redemption in exchange for, well, everything…Orgon’s home, his fortune, his daughter, perhaps even his wife. Will the combined efforts of his plain-spoken brother-in-law Cleante, sarcastic maid Dorine, angry son Damis, and long-suffering wife Elmire may not be enough to pluck the wool from Orgon’s eyes?
A farce with a satiric edge and an undertow of desperation, Tartuffe is an unmissable classic.
Richard Wilbur’s unmatchable verse translation is given an anything-goes spin well-suited to Moliere’s comedy of licentiousness, upper-class manners, and hypocrisy. Set now during the 1970s at the Fire Island vacation home of Orgon, his young wife Elmire, and his rebellious children Damis and Marianne – with pulsating disco wafting from the “other side” of the Dunes – the laughs ignites at once. The severe but seductive evangelist Tartuffe has wormed his way into Orgon’s heart and mind, promising him redemption in exchange for, well, everything…Orgon’s home, his fortune, his daughter, perhaps even his wife. Will the combined efforts of his plain-spoken brother-in-law Cleante, sarcastic maid Dorine, angry son Damis, and long-suffering wife Elmire may not be enough to pluck the wool from Orgon’s eyes?
A farce with a satiric edge and an undertow of desperation, Tartuffe is an unmissable classic.
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