Tartuffe

• Author: Molière
• Title: Tartuffe
• Language: French
• Preformed:  1669 first time Paris, Palais-Royal
• after being censured for years by the King.
• Trivia: List Reading Challenges 2018
  
• Monthly reading planning
• List of French Books
• List of Plays ( TBR)

Definition tartuffe:

1. A person under the cover of a profound religious
2. devotion and virtue tries to seduce
3. his followers (entourage) for his own profit.

Dramatic irony:

1. M. Orgon is “blind”.
2. He thinks Tartuffe will help him attain a place in heaven
3. through pious devotion.
4. Orgon offers Tartuffe a place in his home,
5. his assets and even betrothed his daughter to the rascal.
6. The family members (except his mother Mme Perenelle)
7. and audience are aware of Tartuffe’s hypocrisy.

Plot:

1. The plot is easy to follow and you can find all that information
2. on the Tartuffe wikipedia page.

Conclusion:

1. Reading this play was hard work.
2. But I put in the hours and have made some discoveries.
3. Molière was writing for his time and the play feels outdated.
4. France had just witnessed the manipulation of
5. Queen Anne of Austria by the
6. La Compagine du Saint-Sacrement, a fundamentalist religious society.
7. Anne was named regent upon her husband’s death (Louis XIII).
8. Their four-year-old son was later crowned King Louis XIV of France.
9. Moliere wanted to denounce by means of the play ‘Tartuffe”
10. the power of this society.
11. The society denounced heretics,
12. …libertine morals and other pastimes the French love.
    
13. it functioned as a sort of Inquisition!
14. The King of France and the Bishop of Paris had the play banned!

Last thoughts:

1. After reading the play I felt I was missing something.
2. I decided to watch a french version on
3. ….You Tube and follow the script.
4. It was awful!
5. The stage design was minimalist
6. …costumes were drab (looked like rags….)
7. …and the actors did not bring the nuances I hoped to find.
8. All they did was shout!
9. Again…I felt I was missing something.
10. I decided to watch the Royal Shakespeare Company
11. TV version  broadcast in November 1985 on BBC
12. …adapted by the Oscar winner writer Christopher Hampton.
13. It was an absolute delight to watch such great English actors as
14. Nigel Hawthorne as Orgon and Sir Anthony Sher as Tartuffe.
15. Sher is unquestionably a Tartuffe that  even Molière would love!
16. I’m sure the film is available at better libraries…
17. and here is the link for the play on You Tube.
18. My advice?  Read the play in English
19. …if you are feeling adventurous …read it in French.
20. Then sit down and enjoy this wonderful production
21. of Tartuffe by Molière.

Trivia:

1. Christopher Hampton (British playwright, 1946)
2. has penned a new adaptation of Molière’s
3. classic comedy Tartuffe, which will begin performances
4. May 25  2018 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London.
5. It will be directed by Gerald Garutti.
6. In this new adaptation, the 17th century comedy moves to America, where a
7. French film tycoon finds his life uprooted by Tartuffe.
8. He is a  radical American evangelist.
9. Hmmm…interesting!

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