12.42°C Moliere’s ‘wickedly brilliant’ farce, Tartuffe, hilariously barges its way into The Headgate Theatre to provide an evening of laughter and uproarious entertainment. The production, directed and choreographed by Heather Davis, has some unforgettable moments and some brilliantly crafted lines in this adaptation by Roger McGough. He is, of course, one of the Liverpool poets and a former member of The Scaffold, and his script is an absolutely joyful combination of rhyming couplets which delight and make you wince with pleasure in equal measure (see what I did there) and down to earth prose from the title character. Moliere wrote this farce in the seventeenth century, but with its themes of hypocrisy, scheming, power struggles and corruption, it clearly still has relevance today.
The plot revolves around Orgon, a wealthy merchant, whose house has been thrown into convulsions by Tartuffe, a pious hypocrite posing as a religious exemplar, and whose faults and ulterior motives can only not be seen by the Master of the House and his mother, Madame Pernelle. All the other characters, from the servants to the nobles in the family, see Tartuffe for the charlatan that he is and go out of their way to persuade and convince Orgon of his evil intentions. An elaborate plot is conjured up to expose Tartuffe as the hypocritical fraud and villain by setting him up with Elmire, Orgon’s wife, who is the subject of his lustful desires in the (hidden) presence of Orgon himself. As ever, with a Moliere farce, there are hilarious consequences and twists and turns before we get to the denouement and the much-anticipated comeuppance.
The cast, in the main, does a great job with this classic comedy despite the confines of The Headgate Theatre stage, which, at times, struggles to accommodate all the actors. There is so much going on that the audience has to keep their wits about them and can easily be distracted by other events occurring, which draw focus from the main action. I nearly missed a hilarious “Titanicesque’ moment between Orgon and Tartuffe because the servants caught my eye collecting a notebook!
There are some superb performances on show. Dr Paul T. Davies, as Orgon, uses his physicality, stagecraft, and experience to the full, mixing arrogance and naivety with panache, and his character is taken in by the odious Tartuffe. He has some of the best lines and delivers them with style and excellent comic timing. He even coped with the unintentional escapades of a slippery wig with some brilliant ad-libbing, which brought the house down. Orgon is central to the plot but not more so than Dorine, who is Orgon’s daughter’s (Marianne’s) maid. She holds the whole play together, and Leanne Howard produces a layered performance of caustic wit and energy that deserves enormous credit. The other cast members all play their parts with style, but a special mention must go to Cameron Jones, as Orgon’s son, Damis, whose stage acting debut this is and who pulls off his aggressive and vengeful nature with great skill. Annabelle Caldwell as Marianne, Jamie Glasse as her suitor, Valere, Paul Reed as Orgon’s brother-in-law, Cleante, Helen Kitson as Madame Pernelle and Kevin Inskip as Laurent, Tartuffe’s servant, all add to the fun and farce and give this production a fine ensemble worthy of this classic piece. Stuart Williams and Chris Austin, although, as mentioned, slightly distracting as the servants in the first half, really come into their own after the interval as Monsieur Loyal and the King’s Officer. The other servants and parts are played superbly well by Lorena Saiano, Christine Smith and Holly Hipwell.
The outstanding star of the show through is undoubtedly Lucia Fox as Elmire. She has great stage presence without drawing focus. Her timing is excellent and her scene when she is exposing Tartuffe’s hypocrisy to her husband is an absolute delight. It’s a wonderful performance that deserves all the plaudits going.
Which brings me to the title character. Tartuffe is a difficult and complex part. He is the only character who speaks in prose rather than rhyming couplets and is, clearly, central to the whole nature of the play. He has to be slimy yet charming, sleazy yet believable, selfish yet pious, charismatic yet conceited. It’s not easy, and on this opening night, despite real dedication to the part, John Roberts didn’t quite pull it off. It may have been first night nerves, but the audience waits so long for Tartuffe to appear on stage it has to be a knockout when it happens, and, sadly, it was just a bit disappointing.
The set and design of the production are functional, and the music, incorporating Bach, Scarlatti, Handel, and Vivaldi, plus an original work by the estimable Musical Arranger Georgina St George, is excellent. A shout out for the costumes – well done, Dawn King and Isobel Sullivan and their team – they are great. The whole cast and crew can be very proud, as befits Tartuffe, of this production that is definitely worth seeing.
There’s a well known saying in English that the eating of the pudding is the proof and you could do far worse than consume a helping of this production of Tartuffe!
It runs at The Headgate Theatre until Saturday 5th April.
Tim Young
Photos: Sally Parkinson Photography
