Theatre review: You've been Tartuffed!
The Abbey Theatre production of Molière's classic comedy is playing at Cork Opera House until Saturday, May 13.
By the time the eponymous Tartuffe arrives on stage midway through the first half of Frank McGuinness’ version of Molière’s comedy written in the 17th century, the audience is not short on information about his character: he’s either the most blessed, devout, and benevolent amongst men, or he’s the cutest of cute hoors.
Bar Orgon (played by Frank McCusker), the head of the house, and his mother Pernelle, played by Geraldine Plunkett with her coiffured hair and elaborate dress she looks like she’s a character plucked from a Hayao Miyazaki film, everyone else has their eyes wide open to Tartuffe’s duplicitous and devious ways. He’s a conman. Straight up. With God on his side.
And Tartuffe’s coming for everything Orgon possesses, and that includes his daughter and wife.
The new version of Tartuffe by Frank McGuinness and directed by Catríona McLaughlin for The Abbey now showing at Cork Opera House is played for laughs. And it delivers. On the opening night, there was plenty of cackling, tittering, sniggering and genuine LOLz throughout. It’s hard not to laugh given the antics and innuendo on stage.
Molière wrote the original version in rhyming couplets, and McGuinness sticks with the tried and tested format. Rhyme all the time though can get a little tedious, but McLaughlin has pulled together a stellar cast for the centuries-old play.
The play unfolds in Orgon’s house, in an elaborate banquet room. Servants, family members, and guests pour in and out of doors secreted into the walls. It’s a household where everyone knows everything. Or they should, but they’re blinded by bias and jealousy and rivalries.
Tartuffe is the archetype opportunistic house guest. Played gallantly by Ryan Donaldson, Tartuffe is a fraud dressed up as a religious zealot. That guise falls off quickly though as he tries to disrobe Elmire, Orgon’s wife, played by Aislín McGuckin. Elmire, however, is no fool - her husband Orgon most certainly is - and to unmask Tartuffe, she has to lead him (willingly) up the garden path while Orgon looks on from under a table in some of the funniest scenes in the play.
Theatre critic Helen Meany suggested that Tartuffe 2.0 might have worked better as a cult leader or an online influencer, rather than a religious zealot. Add to that list a celebrity politician, looking to land a super rich and gullible donor. McGuinness’ Tartuffe is less convincing as a zealot than he is as a charlatan or cute hoor.
McGuinness does update the play, or at least the setting, in ways that don’t particularly add much: the EDM music intro, the adjoining room which acts as a recording studio for Tartuffe. But these additions add up to a side salad that’s left untouched throughout the meal.
But on the whole, Tartuffe is fun and funny. And Katie Davenport’s costume designs are stars in their own right.
Tartuffe runs nightly until Saturday, May 13. For tickets and more information visit the Opera House website here.