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Tartuffe
Directed by: Jonathan Munby
Showing Thursday 20 April to Saturday 22 April 2006
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Performance Times: Thursday to Saturday at 7.30pm and Saturday Matinee at 2.30pm
Running Time: 140 minutes
call our box office on 01253 290190
Group bookings call 01253 743232
By Jean-Baptiste
Poquelin Molière (1664)
Translated by Ranjit Bolt (2001)
Directed by Jonathan Munby
Designed by Mike Britton
Lighting by Oliver Fenwick
Music by Dominic Haslam
Such hypocrites are far from rare, in fact you’ll find them everywhere.
Railed against as a sacrilegious outrage by the Church, Tartuffe was banned from public performance by Louis XIV in 1664. Now considered a comic masterpiece, it is one of the funniest plays ever written.
Tartuffe tricks his way into the heart and household of the affluent merchant Orgon. He is a sanctimonious and scheming con-man but appears pious and therefore considered a good example for members of the family. But through corruption and deceit the hypocrite Tartuffe plans to turn this once peaceful household upside down. The gullible Orgon fails to see his house guest for what he is and chaos ensues as, the greatest of all theatrical rogues, employs unholy tactics in order to reach his goal!
A fast-moving, witty and farcical comic masterpiece by the man considered to be the world’s greatest writer of comedies, this production is by the internationally revered Watermill Theatre, Newbury, a company that transferred two productions to New York and two to London’s West End in 2004.
It is the duty of comedy to offer correction at the same time as entertainment. I could do no better than to attack the vices of my age through portraits of ridicule; and since hypocrisy is surely one of the most widespread, the most troublesome and the most dangerous of vices, I wrote a comedy attacking hypocrites, showing up for what they are, the studied grimaces of these pedlars of countefeit piety, who try to deceive others by a misleading charity and a bogus zeal.
Molière
* Painting by kind permission of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica
Presented By: The Watermill Theatre Limited By Arrangement With The Grand Theatre
"Irreverent and blessed with filthy wit"
Daily Telegraph
"Few finer studies of hypocrisy and zeal"
The Guardian
Booking information
Tickets: £8.50 to £16.50.
Friends of the Grand: Opening Night all seats £12.50.
Groups: 20+ £3 off.
Full Time Students £5
For tickets call our Box Office on 01253 290190
Group Booking: 01253 743232
