Tartuffe

Published Thursday 11 June 2009 at 12:50 by Francesca Morrison

Miracle Theatre celebrates its 30th anniversary this summer with a new adaptation of Moliere’s once-banned comedy about a wealthy bourgeois duped by a serial con man posing as spiritual guru.

As you would expect from this always-sparkling company, classical French farce from 1664 Versailles is magicked into a portable pantomimic package that will tour the southwest until the end of August.

With MP scandals still raging, its catch line, “Trust me - I’m a scoundrel”, gives the production topical edge, but it remains sitcom rather than satire, and funny rather than discomforting.

Supported by music from the Braga Tanga quartet - played live at The Minack opening run, but recorded for the rest of the tour - the actors romp enjoyably through the gamut of farcical situations, from caught in the act seductions to cuckolded husbands.

Operating in a very cramped space at The Minack, actors Lollie Brewer, Ben Dyson, Holly Kavanagh, Kate Lamerton Wilde, Dan Richards and Jason Squibb double up on several roles and maximise the humour in the caricatures.

Basking sharks competed for audience attention at the wonderfully vertiginous cliff top setting, but the ensemble were high-energy and nimble enough to keep us focused on the antics of the sanctimonious lecher with “a face like a monkey’s bum”.

Luckily, Bill Scott ditches Moliere’s rhyming couplets in favour of a highly colloquial translation that would suit television comedy as much as live theatre. Thirty years on, Miracle still continues to employ local performers, crew and staff, and adapts its productions to venues of all shapes and sizes. Long may it last.