Tartuffe
Molière updates can be something of an uphill struggle. The sensual charms of a rococo period staging are simply a lot of what his works have going for them. And if just getting a handle on their complicated historical context is daunting, fitting the plays to another is far trickier. Take the case of Tartuffe, in which a “holy” con man wreaks havoc on the household of a credulous man of wealth, Orgon. Not surprisingly, this satire on religious hypocrisy is often reset in modern times, but the story is specific to 1660s France, and it’s hard to imagine a time and place more gripped by religious intrigue, or more poised for agnostic reaction.
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Roughly midway between Reformation and Revolution, late mid-17th-century France was still subject to clerical entrenchment and corruption. And like most of the nation-states emerging on the continent, France had been battered by ecumenical conflict for almost 100 years. The Wars of Religion of the late 1500s, played out on French soil, had extinguished one royal line, and its aftershocks nearly nipped another in the bud. The Thirty Years’ War—which decimated a fifth of the German population—had only recently ground to a halt. In Spain the Inquisition continued apace. It was a time when atrocities committed in the name of religion could scarcely be numbered.
When: Through 3/5: Wed-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM
The Misanthrope
