"Tartuffe" Not Hypocritical (At All!)

When students saw posters around campus advertising Knight Theatre's latest production "Tartuffe," I'm sure many of them turned their heads asking their friends, "What the heck does that mean?" For those who don't know-and I'm sure most who did not see the play held April 17-25 in Webb Theatre do not-the word tartuffe is a French word meaning "a hypocrite, especially one who affects religious piety."How does piety tie into the play (written by French playwright Moliere and translated into English by Richard Wilbur), exactly? Well, the play begins where the title character Tartuffe (played by Colin Gulling '09) has successfully convinced the wealthy Orgon (Brandon Ponschock '12) that he is an extremely religious and pious person. Orgon then allows Tartuffe to stay in his family's home. However, as the title suggests, Tartuffe is a hypocritical schemer.

His religious act does not convince other members of the family or household, including Elmire (Orgon's wife, played by Marla Jacob '10), Damis (Orgon's son, played by Sam Ball '09), Mariane (Orgon's daughter, played by Kelly Haddad '10), Cleante (Orgon's brother-in-law, played by Jon Herger '09) and Dorine (Orgon's housemaid, played by Amanda Cormican '11). In fact, the only one besides Orgon who has fallen under Tartuffe's spell is Orgon's mother (Jill Pequet '11).

The plot thickens as Orgon announces that Mariane will marry Tartuffe and not Valere (played by David Gusloff '11) as was planned. In an effort to prove Orgon has fallen victim to the fraudulent Tartuffe, Elmire ultimately hatches a plan to play along with Tartuffe's sexual advances, with Orgon present (he is hiding under the table) to witness it.

Once Orgon is positive that Tartuffe has been his puppet master this entire time, he orders Tartuffe to leave his home immediately-but it is too late! After successfully fooling Orgon for so long, Tartuffe has gained control of Orgon's finances as well as his family, which gives him the right to both Orgon's money and for him to marry Mariane. However, a police officer (Sarah Lundburg '10) sent by the king enters Orgon's home and arrests Tartuffe at the last minute, thus allowing Mariane to wed Valere as originally planned and shattering Tartuffe's stronghold on Orgon's family.

One aspect of the play that differed from Moliere's original French version was the setting. Director Stephen Rupsch noted the change in setting from Paris in 1664 to Washington, D.C. in 1962 in the show's program.

"Initially, the choice to modernize the design of the play was practical," stated Rupsch. "I felt that it was important to begin to introduce students to classic texts, and yet, if we were to place them in their appropriate time period, we simply couldn't afford it."

Instead, Rupsch decided to fast-forward into the 1960s, where many of the elements from Paris in 1664 were simply transferred.

The change surely did not affect anything drastically, as the comedy kept the audience interested and laughing with scene after scene of hilarious interaction. Ponschock's comical portrayal of the dogmatic Orgon, Haddad's hilarious performance as the weak and easily-controlled Mariane, Jacobs' representation of the temptingly-devious Elmire and Gulling's captivatingly cunning creation of Tartuffe makes "Tartuffe" one of the finest plays I have experienced at St. Norbert so far. Bravo to another well-done production, whose unique time warp and fantastic acting has only strengthened the end result.


5/5 stars