Moliere’s 17th-century classic, Tartuffe, has been oft hailed as a morality play — a cautionary tale against the evils of deception, a spurning of organized religion and its subversive motives or even a testament to interfamilial turmoil.
The theatre, dance and performance studies school production opening Friday at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center will be those and more.
“I think generally, the play harkens back to that familial love and hope,” said Marina di Marzo, a senior journalism and theatre major who plays Cléante. “Even though things are bad, staying together, persisting though it, good will come from it.”
“Additionally, there are parts of the play that are immensely fun to look at,” said Patrick Joy, a sophomore physics and theatre major who plays Tartuffe.
Tartuffe, originally produced and performed in the 1660s, is a story about one man, for whom the play is named, and the effects he has on a family. Tartuffe is a villainous character. He fakes piety and holiness to garner loyalty, love and eventually, property. Orgon, head of the household, and his mother, Madame Pernelle, pledge blind allegiance to the con man, at first heeding Tartuffe’s council, then pledging to him Orgon’s daughter Mariane, the family estate and some incriminating letters.
Though a comedy by design, the work was met with immediate outrage from the French Catholic Church, who saw it as a denunciation of organized religion. Conversely, it’s been interpreted as a pro-religious work, warning only of the dangers of extremism and false prophetry.
Its versatility lead it to theaters around the world, including this university’s Kogod Theatre.
Except for changing di Marzo’s character from a man to a woman, director Lee Mikeska Gardner honored Moliere’s original text.
“You can’t really create something new without understanding how it was done originally,” di Marzo said. “[Our production] is raw Moliere.”
The play, while rife with streams of dialogue, has a physicality that livens the text, di Marzo said. It follows that Gardner and the actors rehearsed the performance in a rather unconventional manner.
“We never concretely set up blocking,” Joy said. “You can find new things every night … and new meanings in new movements.That definitely will keep the play fresh every night.”
As for design, Orgon’s kin wear crisp, posh creams and beiges to “communicate the family” and their traditional old-money lifestyle to the audience, said di Marzo.
“Everything is put-together and crisp except anything to do with Tartuffe,” she said. “He comes in to ruin the family. He does all these vile things, so [the directors] were like, ‘How are we going to differentiate the world of Tartuffe from the world of this family?’”
Against them, Tartuffe is brusque and bawdy in coarse burlap robes and a large V-shaped hat that consumes the space around it.
“It’s always interesting when Tartuffe is on stage,” di Marzo said. “He’s just this amalgamation of dirt and burlap among this white, clean … home. It almost represents his invasion into the family.”
Tartuffe’s invasion is the crux of the story itself, the reason to see the play and the reason it’s held on for hundreds of years.
After a particularly enlightening rehearsal, Joy, after screaming “Dammit, it’s all wrong,” realized Tartuffe is not necessarily a bad person; he’s just such a good con man that he might almost believe the lies he spews.
“It’s not ridiculous what he’s saying, if he believes it so strongly,” Joy said. “[The play is] about taking something for face value and judging a book by its cover. You have to think for yourself a bit. You can’t just have someone else tell you what’s right and what’s wrong and not question that thing.
“You have to be objective and thoughtful in the choices you make.”
Tartuffe opens Friday and runs through Nov. 14. Tickets are available online at theclarice.umd.edu.
