Tartuffe

Published Tuesday 7 February 2006 at 17:05 by Julie Watterston

Ranjit Bolt’s translation and adaptation of Moliere is a masterpiece in rhyming verse providing the restoration comedy with a fascinating mix of witty poetry and contemporary phraseology.

From Marty Cruickshank’s powerful entrance as Madame Pernelle it takes just a few moments into the script for the realisation that the entire play will be in rhyming verse. So well is the piece constructed that it becomes a mental obsession for the audience to pre-empt or eagerly anticipate the next delightful rhyming phrase.

The cast work particularly well with the verse, maintaining a strong level of understanding and breaking the lines up when and where appropriate, adding only to the emphasis of the rhymes and the skill of the adaptor. Patricia Gannon as Dorine (or Doreen as the name is more comically enunciated) has a delightful role as the servant who cannot hold her tongue and enjoys some one-liners that are hilariously shocking.

Des McAleer is the master of the house Orgon who cannot see through the hypocrisy of his new found friend Tartuffe, played with pious duplicity by Adrian Schiller with Sophie Roberts and Matthew Spencer as the naïve lovers Mariane and Valere, perfect roles for two young actors making their professional debuts.

Jonathan Munby directs for full visual effect with the production enjoying a particularly ingenious scene as Tartuffe imagines the pleasures of seducing his host’s wife Elmire (Catherine Kanter) assisted by his aide Laurent (played with deadpan humour by Chris Porter).