McCarter Theatre - Tartuffe - Audience Guide
Introduction to Tartuffe
Dear Patrons,
I am delighted that Daniel Fish, one of the finest directors of the classical repertory in this country, will be directing
McCarter’s production of Molière's Tartuffe. I first encountered Daniel when he was remounting Michael Kahn's Much
Ado About Nothing for us here at McCarter in 1998, and all of us felt he might just be a wunderkind. When an
opportunity arose to hire a director for The Learned Ladies, I thought of Daniel and wanted to give him his own
production. I was impressed by his acute understanding of the text, his beautiful staging, his sharp eye and his
deep commitment to create theater that impacts the lives of those who attend. Shortly after, he directed McCarter's
production of The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde's comic masterpiece. I have attended many fine
performances of Earnest in my life, both here and in London, but Daniel's is the finest I have ever seen. Brilliantly
conceived, it was funny, visually unforgettable and elegantly performed.
Working in the tradition of today's great European theatrical directors, Daniel's work pushes the boundaries of our
received understanding of a play. There were many parts of his bold and risk-taking McCarter production of Hamlet
Frontispiece for Tartuffe or
that were astonishing. As a fellow director, I give Daniel the highest compliment one director can give another: I don’t The Imposter (1682 edition)
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know if I could ever direct Hamlet without wanting to shamelessly steal more than a few of Daniel's brilliant ideas!
For some of our audiences, Daniel’s Hamlet went too far; for many others, including myself, it was a revelation. Either way, I am
proud to welcome back a director whose work is so daring and intrepid that it provokes strong responses, promotes a dialogue
within our community, and produces a performance that enhances our understanding of the original text.
What Daniel is planning with Tartuffe is more traditional than his work on Hamlet, though it still promises to apply a twenty-firstcentury perspective to the seventeenth-century text. Daniel is fascinated by the seventeenth-century, and this production will
pay homage to that period by looking at those times through a modern lens, as if under a microscope. Certainly, the reason
we continue to produce the great classic plays like Tartuffe is because what they have to say about the human condition is
eternally true. By looking at these magnificent plays through a modern lens, we access the deepest truths about ourselves.
Tartuffe is a study of hypocrisy, a satire with absolutely serious undertones. Daniel’s production promises to ride the line between
the funny and the terrifying with muscular, brutal humor and undeniable relevance to our contemporary lives and politics. As
Daniel has pointed out: “When fear is pervasive, it creates a market for Tartuffes.” Tartuffe is a play I love. Savagely funny, it begs
for a daring theatrical approach. I cannot wait to see Daniel’s production of Molière's masterpiece. It promises to be thrilling.
All best,
Emily
Character Profiles
ORGON
Parisian gentleman, husband, and father of the house. In his quest for religious piety, Orgon
has allowed Tartuffe into his home.
Villain, be still!
I know your motives; I know you wish him ill:
Yes, all of you—wife, children, servants, all—
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Conspire against him and desire his fall,
Employing every shameful trick you can
To alienate me from this saintly man.
Ah, but the more you seek to drive him away,
The more I’ll do to keep him. Without delay,
I’ll spite this household and confound its pride
By giving him my daughter as his bride. (III. vi.)
Orgon
Costume sketch by Kaye Voyce
ELMIRE
Orgon’s wife.
…I’ll be content if he
Will study to deserve my leniency.
I’ve promised silence—don’t make me break my word;
To make a scandal would be too absurd.
Good wives laugh off such trifles, and forget them;
Why should they tell their husbands, and upset them? (III. iv.)
Elmire
Costume sketch by Kaye Voyce
DAMIS
Orgon’s son, Elmire’s stepson.
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You have reasons for taking such a course,
And I have reasons, too, of equal force.
To spare him now would be insanely wrong.
I’ve swallowed my just wrath for far too long
And watched this insolent bigot bringing strife
And bitterness into our family life. (III. iv.)
MARIANE
Orgon’s daughter, Elmire’s stepdaughter.
If I defied my father, as you suggest,
Would it not seem unmaidenly, at best?
Shall I defend my love at the expense
Of brazenness and disobedience? (II. iii.)
VALÈRE
Mariane’s love.
I’ll do my best to take it in my stride.
The pain I feel at being cast aside
Time and forgetfulness may put an end to.
Or if I can’t forget, I shall pretend to.
No self-respecting person is expected
To go on loving once he’s been rejected. (II. iv.)
Valère
Costume sketch by Kaye Voyce
CLÉANTE
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Elmire’s brother, Orgon’s friend and brother-in-law.
Brother, I don’t pretend to be a sage,
Nor have I all the wisdom of the age.
There’s just one insight I would dare to claim:
I know that true and false are not the same… (I. v.)
TARTUFFE
A hypocrite and imposter posing as a holy man.
Hand up my hair-shirt, put my scourge in place,
And pray, Laurent, for Heaven’s perpetual grace.
I’m going to the prison now, to share
My last few coins with the poor wretches there. (III. ii.)
DORINE
Mariane’s lady’s-maid.
Dorine
Oh, he’s a man of destiny;
He’s made for horns, and what the stars demand
Your daughter’s virtue surely can’t withstand.
Orgon
Don’t interrupt me further. Why can’t you learn
That certain things are not of your concern?
Dorine
Costume sketch by Kaye Voyce It’s for your own sake that I interfere.
Dorine
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MADAME PERNELLE
Orgon’s mother.
Orgon
You’re talking nonsense. Can’t you realize
I saw it; saw it; saw it with my eyes?
Saw, do you understand me? Must I shout it
Into your ears before you’ll cease to doubt it?
Madame Pernelle
Appearances can deceive, my son. Dear me,
We cannot always judge by what we see.
Orgon
Drat! Drat!
Madame Pernelle
One often interprets things awry;
Good can seem evil to a suspicious eye. (V. iii.)
Molière Biography - By Janice Paran
Molière was the stage name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, born in 1622, to a
prosperous Parisian upholsterer. At the age of 21, Jean-Baptiste left the
family business and abandoned his legal studies and birth name to take up a career
in the theater. His first appearances on stage were with the Illustre Théâtre, a
young ensemble whose fortunes soon faltered. After a brief stint in debtors’
prison, Molière rededicated himself to a life in the theater, spending most of the
next fifteen years touring the provinces with Madeleine Béjart, the Illustre’s leading
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lady and his mistress, and other itinerant performers, honing his skills as a comic
actor and playwright (though he longed for success as a tragedian), and turning out
a number of farces inspired by the Italian commedia troupes he encountered in
his travels.
The company returned to Paris in 1658 with Molière as their manager. Invited
to perform before Louis XIV, they quickly won his favor, and Molière was granted
the use of the Petit Bourbon (a court theater adjacent to the Louvre) and later
the Palais-Royal for the troupe’s farces, character comedies, and lavish
court entertainments—with music by Jean Baptiste Lully. In 1662, Molière
married Armande Béjart (the younger sister–or the daughter, some insinuated–of
his mistress), who became a leading actress in his company, beginning with his
next play, The School for Wives, which demonstrated the playwright’s maturing
talent and propelled him into the ranks of France’s greatest dramatists.
Portrait of young Molière, attributed to Pierre
Not all of Molière’s plays were unqualified successes, however, and not even
the patronage of Louis XIV could protect him from the censure provoked by
Tartuffe (1664). Its story of a pious hypocrite and his willing dupe was interpreted
Mignard (circa 1660)
by many as a condemnation of religion, and five years elapsed before the play,
in modified form, passed official muster. Molière fared little better with Don Juan (1665); its free-thinking title character incurred
the wrath of the censors immediately after opening night and the play soon disappeared from the repertoire. Still, by 1665,
Molière’s company was awarded regular pensions from the crown, and took the title of La Troupe du Roi. The Misanthrope and
The Doctor in Spite of Himself premiered a year later, followed by The Miser (1668) and The Learned Ladies (1672). Molière’s
next play, The Imaginary Invalid (1673), which featured the playwright as a grousing hypochondriac, was to be his last; Molière,
who suffered from tuberculosis, took ill during a performance and died shortly thereafter. A Christian burial was initially denied
him because he had not received last rites nor had he made a deathbed recantation of his profession (as tradition required), but
the archbishop of Paris, responding to petitions from Molière’s widow, grudgingly allowed a private burial in the parish cemetery,
on condition that it be carried out at night, without ceremony.
Dramatic and Theatrical Style à la Molière: le ridicule,
le naturel, and "The Comic War" - By Paula Alekson
Molière’s dramatic roots lie in Old French farce, the unscripted popular plays
that featured broad characters with robust attitudes and vulgar ways, emphasized
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a strong physical style of performance, and were an entertainment staple in the
town marketplace and on the fairground. He was, likewise, greatly influenced by
his interaction with the Italian commedia dell'arte performers who were known for
both their improvisational skills and highly physical playing, and for the everyday
truth they brought to their lively theatrical presentations. The “new brand” of
French comedy, which Molière developed and perfected, featured the vivacity
and physicality of farce, tempered by a commedia-inspired naturalness of character.
What is at the heart of Molière's dramatic style, and what made his plays unique
for their time, is their satirical bent, brilliant intellect, sharp wit, emphasis on the
ironic, and a strong sense of what the dramatist himself viewed as morality. He held
a mirror up to both human nature and French society to reflect the comic glory
(or horror) of their frailty, stupidity, iniquity and hypocrisy. “Le ridicule” is the
literary term frequently applied to the dramatic strategy employed by Molière.
Its rhetorical goal is to criticize or condemn a person, institution or idea by making
he/she/it laughable and ridiculous.
Molière became a master of “le ridicule,” so much so that in the process of making
his audiences laugh, he made a multitude of serious enemies. Writing first for
the polite court and specifically for the pleasure of King Louis XIV, he also pleased
the popular Parisian audience who attended the public theater. However, he
Frontispiece for The School for Wives Criticized
(1682 edition)
only accepted criticism from the most learned critics. Quarrels flared up around
every new comedy Molière presented. These quarrels, referred to by theater
historians as "The Comic War,” were fought not with fists or weapons, but with
pens, and often took the form of plays.
Two of the battles instigated by Molière in the Comic War, The School for Wives Criticized and The Impromptu at Versailles,
were mounted first on the page and then on the stage. The former is the dramatist's self-critique and defense of his own The
School for Wives in which he presents a group of social intimates who casually debate the play while waiting to dine. In the course
of their conversation, the playwright showcases, and subsequently dismisses, every criticism weighed by his actual detractors:
the vulgar rabble liked it; it was immoral, immodest and obscene; the actors from rival theaters denounced it; the play didn't follow
the Neoclassical "rules"; there was no action; Molière overacted, etc. The play’s most important moment of defense also
best addresses the controversial target and moral objectives of Molière's new dramatic style:
[…] Satire of this kind is aimed directly at habits, and only hits individuals by rebound. Let us
not apply to ourselves the points of general censure; let us profit by the lesson, if possible,
without assuming that we are spoken against. All the ridiculous delineations which are drawn
on the stage should be looked on by everyone without annoyance. They are public mirrors, in
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which we must never pretend to see ourselves. To bruit it about that we are offended at
being hit, is to state openly that we are at fault. (Scene VII.) Molière was adamant that the
butts of his brand of le ridicule were always behaviors and not specific persons. He targeted
agents of excess—a misanthrope, a religious hypocrite, a libertine, a miser—all characters
absurd, unbearable, and scandalous in their unreasonable conduct and actions.
The Impromptu at Versailles was written at the command of and for the pleasure of Louis
XIV. The King wanted to see how Molière would dramatically respond to the Hôtel du
Bourgogne's production of The Painter's Portrait, a comedy they commissioned as a direct
assault on Molière and The School for Wives. Impromptu, as the title suggests, was
composed with little or no preparation and cast Molière and the individual members of his
acting troupe as themselves in staged rehearsal, moments before the players are to act a
new dramatic piece before the King. Perhaps contrary to the expectations of the King, the
playwright took the relative high road in his response to his rivals’ lampoon of him:
I do not mean to make any reply to all their criticisms and counter-criticisms. Let them say all
the evil they can of my pieces; I am quite willing. (Scene III.)
Undoubtedly, the playwright sparked a bit of controversy in not being controversial.
Yet he did not surrender his satirical edge completely, as he took time in the course of
Impromptu to spoof, via direct impersonation, the actors and actresses of the Hôtel du
Bourgogne. Molière's virtuosic presentation must have brought the palace down.
Frontispiece for The Impromptu at Versailles
(1682 edition)
Impromptu's moments of mimicry, combined with "Molière” the character's directorial notes to
his troupe, provide a twenty-first century audience with an understanding of the formal, gestural and declamatory acting style of
the time. The play also provides insight into the new, understated theatrical style introduced by the innovative, “early” director.
We know from the Impromptu that le naturel became the principle which most informed Moliere’s and his troupe's approach:
natural tone of voice, naturalness in gesture and movement, balance, etc. Actors of the new style were encouraged to catch the
spirit of his or her role by imaging that she or he was that person. Molière urged his troupe not to simply stand and deliver their
lines, but to sit and speak while sitting: "…the Marquises must sometimes get up and sometimes sit down again in accordance
with their natural restlessness." (Scene III.) This sort of truth in acting seems so basic in the year 2007, but le naturel was a
new-fangled approach to comedy in a theater that had heretofore valued the robust and flamboyant artifice of French tragedy.
Impromptu proved to be Molière's final foray in the Comic War, although he would continue to be assaulted by his enemies,
especially those who enjoyed lampooning his inability to captivate audiences with his tragic performances. The actordramatist-manager remained conflict-ridden because of his controversial plays—such as Tartuffe—which he wrote and produced
until his sudden death and disgraceful interment.
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Tartuffe Unmasked - By Janice Paran
Tartuffe, the play, has proved every bit as slippery as its title character since its first
recorded performance at the court of Louis XIV in 1664. Promptly—some would
say defensively—interpreted by prominent clerics as an attack upon religion, the
unfinished play was quickly banned, though Louis himself evidently took no exception to
it, and Molière repeatedly insisted, in a petition to his royal patron, that his aim was to
ridicule religious hypocrisy, not religious belief.
Louis XIV as a young man. Painting by
Such was the hue and cry at court, though, from vested religious interests (Louis’ mother,
a devout Catholic, was reportedly among those who were not amused) that the 24-yearold monarch had little choice but to forbid further performances. Molière lay low for a
time, revising the play and reading it aloud among friends—including some well-placed ones
—until he felt confident enough, in 1667, to unveil a modified version called The
Imposter. The new title was manifestly a strategy to defuse criticism of the play on
religious grounds, and the character of Tartuffe, no longer dressed in clerical garb, was
re-named Panulphe.
Charles Le Brun (1619-90).
No dice. The Parisian parliament shut down the play
after a single performance, and the Archbishop of Paris issued an order forbidding anyone “to
perform under whatever title this play, to read it or hear it read, in public or in private, under
pain of excommunication.” Two of Molière’s actors bore another petition to the King, who was
with the army in Flanders, but to no avail. Finally, in 1669, following a third petition, Tartuffe,
or The Imposter was allowed to open in its present form. It was enthusiastically received and
it made more money than any other play Molière wrote, which must have been some balm to
its beleaguered author.
If Tartuffe has found steady employment in the
classical repertoire ever since (and a debt of
gratitude is owed to Richard Wilbur, whose 1963
translation of the play into rhyming English verse
gave American audiences a taste of what they’d
been missing), it has nonetheless continued to raise
fundamental questions about its subject matter,
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style, tone and focus. Who is Tartuffe? Pompous
poseur or charismatic schemer? Malevolent
opportunist or self-loathing striver? And—just as
importantly—who is Orgon, the play’s oftoverlooked center of gravity? Dupe, accomplice,
enabler, alter ego, or none of the above? Molière’s
tabloid tale of a family held hostage by the
machinations of a con man is both enduringly dishy
and gratifyingly malleable—diverting and disturbing
by turns, it probes, with aggressive acumen, the
dynamics of power.
Molière’s second petition to King Louis
XIV regarding the production of Tartuffe.
The play’s magnetic instability has allowed for its
continual re-discovery. It has provided a sturdy star
vehicle for generations of performers at France’s
national theater, the Comédie Française; satisfied
producers in quest of high-concept farce, social
satire or psychological truth; and attracted
pioneering directors attuned to its pathologies. Louis
Jouvet’s landmark 1950 French production, for
Prohibition against The Imposter by the Archbishop of
instance, offered up an introspective, even tortured,
Paris (August 11, 1667)
Tartuffe in the grip of his own obsessions, while a
provocative 1984 staging at Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theatre, directed by Lucian Pintilie, set the play’s duplicities against a backdrop
of state-sponsored totalitarianism.
Roger Planchon, the visionary French director whose own mountings of the play in 1962 and 1973 recast its domestic strife in
a political light, acknowledged the challenge and opportunity of tackling such a well-known piece: “When I decided to stage Tartuffe
I studied all the previous productions. That’s when I realized that there is no such thing as tradition.”
Who’s Who in the Production
ACTING COMPANY:
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Michael Rudko
Christina Rouner
Nick Westrate
Michelle Beck
Daniel Cameron Talbott
ORGON
ELMIRE
DAMIS
MARIANE
VALÈRE
Christopher Donahue
Zach Grenier
Sally Wingert
Andy Paterson
Tom Story
CLÉANTE
TARTUFFE
DORIN
M. LOYAL
A POLICE OFFICER
In association with Yale Repertory Theatre
Emily Mann, Artistic Director/Resident Playwright | Jeffrey Woodward, Managing Director
ARTISTIC STAFF:
Written by
Translated into English verse by
Directed by
Set designer
Costume designer
Lighting designer
Video designer
Sound designer
Dramaturg
Molière
Richard Wilbur
Daniel Fish
John Conklin
Kaye Voyce
Jane Cox
Alexandra Eaton
Karin Graybash
Janice Paran
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Producing director
Director of production
Production stage manager
Casting director
Mara Isaacs
David York
Alison Cote
Laura Stanczyk,
CSA
INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL FISH
Daniel Fish’s work has been seen at theaters across the country and abroad. His recent work
includes The Elliott Smith Project (True Love Productions/Bard Summerscape) and Clifford
Odets’ Rocket to the Moon (Long Wharf Theatre, Bard Summerscape). For McCarter he has
directed Hamlet, Loot, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Learned Ladies. OffBroadway credits include the premiere of True Love by Charles L. Mee (Zipper Theatre), Ghosts
with Amy Irving (CSC), and the US premiere of The Woman Before by Roland
Schimmelpfenning (German Theatre Abroad). He directed the premiere of Poor Beck by
Joanna Laurens for The Royal Shakespeare Company (Stratford and London), Twelfth Night and
The Merry Wives of Windsor for The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC, The Merchant
of Venice, Measure for Measure and Cymbeline for California Shakespeare Theatre. His work
has also been seen at Yale Repertory Theatre, The Wilma Theatre, Baltimore CENTERSTAGE,
Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Court Theatre, The Intiman and The Juilliard School. Daniel Fish
has worked as Associate Director to Sir Peter Hall and Michael Kahn and has taught at The
Yale School of Drama and Princeton University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Department of Performance Studies.
He is currently working on the premieres of new plays by Theresa Rebeck and Charles Mee and a film about east Texas.
Daniel Fish
INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL FISH:
For the second play in our theater season, McCarter will present Molière’s Tartuffe. This seventeenth-century classic depicts
a household under the sway of a seductive imposter. Summer artistic intern Joseph P. Cermatori spoke with director Daniel Fish
about his perspective on the play and his goals for this production.
Joseph P. Cermatori: This is your second time directing Tartuffe in ten years—you directed an earlier production at the Court
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Theatre in Chicago. What has brought you back to the play, and what has changed since your last encounter with the play?
Daniel Fish : Well, I’m ten years older. The world’s a whole lot different. Also, I suppose I should start by saying that I’ve always
loved working on Molière’s plays: I love their fierce comedy, their muscularity, I love how intense the people in these plays are,
how strong-willed they are. That’s always been a part of it.
I’m interested in the issues of power and submission. What is it about human nature that allows us--or sometimes even
pathologically requires us--to submit ourselves to a person or a force, be that a political leader, a spouse, a friend, a co-worker,
who’s more powerful?
Joseph P. Cermatori: Why Tartuffe now, in this particular moment?
Daniel Fish: I try to do the play in as personal and as honest a way as I can. So I think certainly these issues of submission and
power are ones that we’re concerned with now, and we’ll always be concerned with them. The compulsion to sometimes see
situations not as they truly are, but in a better light than they are, and to refuse to acknowledge what’s really going on: clearly that’s
an eternal problem. And it’s the basis of a lot of comedy.
I suppose one of those things I’m really grappling with is the issue of the seventeenth century. Most of the classical plays I’ve done
of late have all been done in a way that was very contemporary, and I think that partly comes from my strong belief that the
theater happens now, it’s about the world we’re living in, it cannot but be that. And I still think that’s true with Tartuffe, but it also
didn’t seem right to have the actors walking around in contemporary dress.
So I began to research—and get obsessed with—the 1660s. I have a truly vexed relationship with it. On the one hand, I’m
fascinated with it; fascinated with the excess of it, and the allure of it, but rather than saying ‘Okay, we’re all going to pretend that
we’re in the 1660s , I’m trying to really grapple with the issue of how we look at the past, and how we represent the past onstage,
and how a play can be contemporary and still be obsessed with another world.
Joseph P. Cermatori: And this question actually inspired a trip for you and your partner Kaye Voyce—who is also the
costume designer for the play--to go to France and research at the Musée Carnavalet and the Louvre. Did this trip yield any
particular inspiration for the play?
Daniel Fish: It yielded a lot.. The Musée Carnavalet is a seventeenth-century building. When we went, we found ourselves looking
at the scale of the rooms, and the scale of the doorways, and how light comes into the rooms, and the role played by mirrors, and
then of course the paintings. Frankly we ended up looking at a lot of Dutch painting because Tartuffe is quite a domestic play in
many ways, and of course most of the French painting of the period is of royalty or religious subjects; and so if you want a
domestic scene, you have to go look at Dutch painting.
Also, we had an interest in the culture of the museum itself, and why we go to museums, and why we look at the past, and how
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things are presented there… and also all the stuff that’s around a museum: the cameras, and the shops, and the book stores, and
the cafes, and the ticket booths: all of this is a kind of strange and fascinating way of examining and fetishizing history.
Joseph P. Cermatori: What kind of dialogue do the conventions of the contemporary stage have with those of the
seventeenth- century stage, with seventeenth-century ideas of representation?
Daniel Fish: This is important, and I think it’s a great question. I begin by saying ‘Two really important dates are 1664 and 2007.
Okay. These words come from 1664, these people come from 2007. What happens when you put them in a room together for
four weeks? And what happens when we put another thousand people into the room and watch that?’ That’s the entry point, and I
don’t know the result of that yet. We’ll know something about that after we make the play.
Educators Introduction
Welcome to the McCarter Audience Guide educator materials for Tartuffe. This guide has been assembled to complement both
your students’ theater-going experience and your class curriculum by offering a variety of interesting and edifying activities for both
pre-show and post-performance instruction and enjoyment.
This production of Molière’s classic comedy, as seen through the unique gaze of director Daniel Fish,affords opportunities
for enrichment in historical and cultural studies, language arts, theater and media/visual arts. Students can explore the
themes presented by the playwright in his original work, and consider and critique those themes as emphasized and interpreted by
a contemporary director in a production more than three centuries after the play was first penned; make investigations into the world
of the French Renaissance, the rich historical period in which Molière lived, worked, garnered attention and created
controversy; ponder the work of the theatrical translator and survey different English-language translations of the original French
text; as well as creatively contemplate many of these topics and themes in imaginative, artistic activities. Teachers can also link
their classroom directly with McCarter Theatre via the new McCarter Theatre Blog (www.mccarter.org/blog), which can be used
to pose questions and post comments regarding the production as it moves from pre-production into rehearsal and performance.
Our student audiences are often our favorite audiences at McCarter, and we encourage you and your students to join us for a live
and lively conversation with members of the cast after the performance. Our visiting artists are always impressed with the
preparation and thoughtfulness of McCarter’s young audiences, and the post-performance discussion offers a unique opportunity
for students to engage intellectually with professional theater practitioners. We look forward to seeing all of you for a
wonderful discussion about Tartuffe.
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Core Curriculum Standards
According to the NJ Department of Education, “experience with and knowledge of the arts is a vital part of a complete education.”
Our production of Tartuffe and the activities outlined in this guide are designed to enrich your students’ education by addressing
the following specific Core Curriculum Standards for Visual and Performing Arts:
1.1
All students will acquire knowledge and skills that increase aesthetic awareness in dance,
music, theater and visual arts.
1.2
All students will refine perceptual, intellectual, physical and technical skills through creating
dance, music, theater and/or visual arts.
1.3
All students will demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles of dance,
music, theater, and visual arts.
1.4
All students will demonstrate knowledge of the process of critique.
1.5
All students will identify the various historical, social and cultural influences and traditions
which have generated artistic accomplishments throughout the ages and which continue to
shape contemporary arts.
1.6
All students will develop design skills for planning the form and function of space, structures,
objects, sounds and events.
Viewing Tartuffe and then participating in the pre- and post-show discussions suggested in this audience guide will also address
the following Core Curriculum Standards in Language Arts Literacy:
3.2
All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for
different audiences and purposes.
3.3
All students will speak in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form
for different audiences and purposes.
3.4
All students will listen actively to information from a variety of sources in a variety of situations.
3.5
All students will access, view, evaluate and respond to print, non-print and electronic texts and
resources.
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In addition, the production of Tartuffe as well as the audience guide activities will help to fulfill the following Social Studies
Core Curriculum Standards:
6.1
All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for
different audiences and purposes.
6.6
All students will speak in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form
for different audiences and purposes.
Pre-Show Preparation, Questions for Discussion,
and Activities
Note to Educators: Use the following assignments, questions, and activities to introduce your students to Tartuffe and its
intellectual origin, historical context, and themes, as well as to engage their imaginations and creativity before they see the production.
1. On the Page: Molière's Tartuffe. Have your students read Molière's Tartuffe in translation (the McCarter production utilizes
Richard Wilbur's verse translation) and ask them while they read—either alone to themselves or together aloud as a class—to
imagine what a production of the play would look like on the stage. Following their reading, explore the various avenues of
thematic reflection below through discussion or essay writing.
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Ask your students to discuss the central themes of the play, which include: familial discord and generational conflicts;
thwarted young love; hypocrisy and deception; appearance vs. reality; and the all-consuming and potentially destructive
power of extremism in its many forms (e.g., obsession, zealotry or fanaticism). Have them select moments from the play in
which these themes are dramatically presented.
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Ask your students if any of these themes seem more important to them than others. Urge them to explain their
responses. Can they identify any other themes?
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Discuss other plays or works of literature your students have read or studied with similar themes.
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Molière wrote Tartuffe in the comic mode, and although he entertained and charmed both royal and public audiences, not
everyone found the play to be funny—in fact, the original version of the play was condemned by the court clergy,
censored, and suppressed. Ask your students to consider why some audience members might have considered Tartuffe
unfunny, offensive, and/or worthy of condemnation.
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Have your students put on critical reading glasses to consider Tartuffe as 1) a political parable, and/or 2) a critique of
religious fanaticism.
2. Designing Tartuffe: Character Collage. Theatrical visual designers, such as those who create a play
production’s scenery, costumes, makeup, and lights must find ways to communicate their preliminary design ideas to the director
with whom they collaborate. One form of visual communication is collage, in which cutout images and text, material/fabric, and
other small objects are glued to a piece of paper to symbolize the world of the play, its inhabitants, and/or its themes. Ask
your students make a character collage of the character from Molière’s Tartuffe that they find the most compelling or interesting.
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They will need an 8½” x 11” sheet of paper (either colored paper or paper that can be painted), magazines with visual
images/photographs, scissors, additional color paper for cutouts, colored pencils or paint for a background, and glue.
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They should think about how they might use color, images, and text to symbolize the character and what happens to him
or her in the course of the play
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Educators might also opt for their students to create electronic collages by utilizing PowerPoint technology and images
gleaned from the Internet.
■
Students should be given time to show their finished collages to the class and to explain how the objects and images in
their collages express and symbolize their favorite character from Tartuffe.
3. Qui était Molière?: Molière and the French Renaissance. To prepare your students for Molière's Tartuffe and to deepen their
level of understanding of and appreciation for the period in which it was written, have your students research, either in groups
or individually, the life, times and works of Molière. Topics for a study of Molière and seventeenth-century France and French
culture might include:
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Molière (born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin)
birth, family and education
early career
rise to prominence
Louis XIV
Cardinal Richelieu
The French Academy
French Neoclassical tragedy
French farce
Pierre Corneille
Jean Racine
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Hôtel du Bourgogne
Théâtre Italien (commedia dell'arte)
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Alexandrine verse
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Jansenism
The School for Wives
The Misanthrope
The Would-be Gentlemen
The Imaginary Invalid
Have your students teach one another about their individual or group topics vial oral and illustrated (i.e., posters or PowerPoint)
reports. Following the presentations ask your students to reflect upon their research process and discoveries.
4. Dueling Translations in Performance. Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur was originally written by Molière in French rhymed verse.
Translating a foreign language play for an English-speaking audience is a challenging task, because it requires a translator to
consider the literal meaning of the playwright's dialogue and then to find a balance between accuracy (the meaning of the
original words) and performability (how the words will be effectively communicated to the audience by the actor). Translators
of Molière must also choose whether or not take on the even greater challenge of writing their translations in poetic verse—it is
here where accuracy does battle with both performability and poetry.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Wilbur took on the challenge of writing a poetic translation of Molère's Tartuffe. For his efforts,
he won the prestigious Bollingen Poetry Translation Prize and his translation continues to be one of the most read and performed
translations of the play in the English-speaking world—it is the translation chosen for McCarter's production. Although Wilbur's is
not a literal translation of Molière's French text, his work captures the rhythm, style, theatricality, intentions and humor of the
original.
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Introduce your students to the linguistic and theatrical complexity of the play translator by having them prepare and
perform scenes (either readings, staged readings, or full performances) from Wilbur's verse translation and various
prose translations of Tartuffe (i.e., Christopher Hampton, Maya Slater, Morris Bishop, Curtis Hidden Page, etc.).
You might choose three groups to prepare the same scene from three different translations. If you have any
students in the class who are Francophones or who are studying French at a relatively advanced level, you might
ask them to prepare a scene or scenes from Molière's original text.
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Follow up the readings or performances by discussing the differences in the translations; urge your students to
focus their analysis and critique on the translations/texts and not the performances. Ask your students if there was
a translation that they thought was best. Ask them to explain why it is that they found it to be superior to the other
play texts in translation.
[For more Tartuffe translation information and activities, see Northern Virginia Community College Professor Emerita Victoria
Poulakis’ interesting translation themed web site entitled “Translation: What Difference Does It Make,” http://www.nvcc.edu/
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home/vpoulakis/Translation/home.htm.]
5. BBT: Blogging Before Tartuffe. Either as a class or individually, have your students access McCarter's web site (http://
www.mccarter.org) to investigate the new McCarter Theatre Blog (http://www.mccarter.org/blog/index.php). The blog has
been designed to connect McCarter Theatre and its staff (production, literary, artistic, education, etc.) with subscribers,
students, educators and anyone interested in reading and writing about theater, and it provides an up-to-the-minute forum for
news and information on McCarter plays in pre-production, rehearsal, and performance. Post a comment or pose a question based
on either previous bloggers' entries or on your own pre-show preparatory studies.
Post-Show Questions for Discussion and Activities
Note to Educators: Use the following assignments, questions, and activities to have students evaluate their experience of
the performance of Tartuffe, as well as to encourage their own imaginative and artistic projects through further exploration of the play
in production. Consider also that some of the pre-show activities might enhance your students’ experience following the performance.
1. Tartuffe: A Discussion. Following their attendance at the performance of Tartuffe, ask your students to reflect on the
questions below. You might choose to have them answer each individually or you may divide students into groups for roundtable discussions. Have them consider each question, record their answers and then share their responses with the rest of the class.
Questions to Ask Your Students About the Play in Production
a. What was your overall reaction to Tartuffe? Did you find the production compelling? Stimulating? Intriguing?
Challenging? Memorable? Confusing? Evocative? Unique? Delightful? Meaningful? Explain your reactions.
b. Did experiencing the play heighten your awareness or understanding of the play’s themes? [e.g., familial discord
and generational conflicts; thwarted young love; hypocrisy and deception; appearance vs. reality; and the allconsuming and potentially destructive power of extremism in its many forms (i.e., obsession, zealotry or
fanaticism)] What themes were made even more apparent in performance? Explain your responses.
c. Do you think that the pace and tempo of the production were effective and appropriate? Explain your opinion.
Questions to Ask Your Students About the Characters
a. Did you personally identify with any of the characters in Tartuffe? Who? Why?
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b. What qualities were revealed by the action and speech of the characters? Explain your ideas.
c. Did any characters develop or undergo a transformation during the course of the play? Who? How? Why?
d. In what ways did the characters reveal the themes of the play? Explain your responses.
Questions to Ask Your Students About the Style and Design of the Production
a. Was there a moment in Tartuffe that was so compelling or intriguing that it remains with you in your mind’s
eye? Can you write a vivid description of that moment? As you write your description, pretend that you are
writing about the moment for someone who was unable to experience the performance.
b. Did the style and design elements of the production enhance the performance? Did anything specifically
stand out to you? Explain your reaction.
c. How did the production style and design reflect the themes of the play?
d. What mood or atmosphere did the lighting design establish or achieve? Explain your experience.
e. How did the sound design enhance your overall experience?
f. Did the design of the costumes and makeup serve to illuminate the characters, themes, and style of the
play? How?
2. Directorial Choices: Daniel Fish’s Tartuffe. Director Daniel Fish has garnered international attention, acclaim and
occasional controversy for his compelling unconventional productions of classical and contemporary plays, from
Shakespeare and Molière to Stoppard and Mee. Fish excells as an “auteur” director in that, after rigorous textual analysis,
he applies his personal creative vision or unique interpretation to a play via thematic emphases and visual and
performance styles and draws connections and authors new meanings beyond the playwright’s original intentions.
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If your students have not already read Molière’s classic French comedy Tartuffe, have them do so. (The McCarter
production utilizes Richard Wilbur's verse translation.)
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Then ask them to identify aspects of McCarter’s production that can be attributed to Daniel Fish’s creative vision.
The following questions might be helpful as jumping off points:
a. Are there particular themes that Fish emphasizes or initiates?
b. Do Fish and his collaborative team of designers employ a particular visual style with the design of the play?
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What mood, thoughts or feelings does design aesthetic invoke?
c. Fish and his ensemble of actors apply a particular performance style to the piece? If so, how does this
style influence your perception or reception of the play?
d. Are there any particular connections that the director makes that transcend Moliere’s original time and place
to speak to a contemporary audience? Can you attempt to explain how these fit into Daniel Fish’s overall
directorial concept?
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Next ask your students to consider themselves auteurs of their own personal production of Tartuffe.
a. What creative vision or interpretation would they pursue as their directorial concept? What is it that they
want to say through their Tartuffe?
b. What particular themes would they emphasize in or initiate with their production?
c. What connections would they like to make to historical or contemporary persons, places or events? Would
they change the setting (i.e., time, location) or situation? Would they alter any of the characterizations to
draw important political or social parallels?
d. What would their design approach be? What mood, thoughts or feelings would they like to evoke from their
audience and how would they go about accomplishing their aesthetic goals?
3. Molière’s Dramatic Art. The following are questions for discussion and activities that relate specifically to Molière’s work
as a playwright:
The Art of Comedy
Molière as a comic playwright was influenced both by traditional French farce ( an unscripted popular form of
comedy which featured robust attitudes and vulgar ways, and emphasized a strong physical style of performance)
and commedia dell’arte (an Italian comedy style that features improvisational skills, highly physical playing,
clowning and the use of masks). Ask your students:
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Where in the course of the play are these influences apparent? Have your students select scenes to
support their opinions.
Where else can humor be found in the course of Tartuffe?
What feature makes it specifically a comedy in the generic sense?
The Art of Suspense, Anticipation and Expectation
Ask your students to consider why Tartuffe, the title character of the play does not appear until the third act.
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Why does Molière delay the entrance of Tartuffe for so long?
How is Tartuffe’s first entrance anticipated (what are we prepared to think or believe about him) and what is
its effect upon the audience?
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Did Tartuffe meet your expectations (as they were set up by the descriptions of him by the other characters
in the play and the debates)?
The Art Challenge of the Ending
At the climax of Tartuffe, Orgon and his family are suddenly saved from certain ruin by an outside influence. This
kind of ending in dramaturgical/playwriting terms is called a deus ex machina (or "god from the machine"). In the
theatre of the Ancient Greeks, tragedies were often resolved by the entrance of a god who arrived on stage via
machinery just in time to save the good or wronged or to punish evil. Today, the term is used to refer to the
resolution of a conflict through the intervention of a person or thing from outside of the dramatic action; it is often
used critically to suggest an inorganic/artificial or less than dramatically compelling resolution. Ask your students to
describe the turn of events in Tartuffe that can be categorized as a deus ex machine.
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Do you think it is a compelling or suitable resolution to the action and ending of the play? Why or why not?
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Why do you think Molière may have chosen to end the play this way?
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If it is not already common knowledge, alert your students to the fact that the original production/script of
Tartuffe was condemned and censored by religious members of the court. The version of the play that has
survived has a revised ending which was not Molière's original artistic intention.
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Ask your students to consider a better, perhaps more artful or organic, way of ending Tartuffe. Have them
script their own versions of the play from Act V, scene iv on to the end. In a subsequent class meeting
have them cast their classmates in roles for lively reading of the new endings. Discuss the joys and
challenges of trying to improve upon the great French dramatist's art.
4. "Dear Dad, Have You Gone Mad?!" Have each of your students take on the persona of either Damis or Mariane to write
a letter to his or her father, Orgon. The letter must be imperative in nature, address the familial discord in the house of
late, offer opinion as to the source of the conflict, and attempt to offer remedies or advice on how to resolve the situation
and return family to its previous state of harmony. Students should feel that they have free-reign to update or relocate the
dramatic scenario, although they should stay true to general ideas of the world of the play.
Students’ letters may be read aloud for the class and discussed for the merits of their argument, attention to
dramatic detail and imagination and originality of their authors.
5. Imposter Improv. (Adapted from the National Theatre, UK.) The following activity is an interesting and revealing
experiment in the power of persuasion and deception. (Some preparation is required. Blank index cards are required as
well as a red marking pen. Educators should read through the instructions a number of times before conducting the
exercise.)
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Ask your students to form a circle. Each member of the group should be given an index card with a number written
on it—cards should be numbered from 1 to 10 (duplication of numbers will be necessary for larger classes. The
class should be told that some of the numbers are written in blue and some in red. Nobody is to see anyone else’s
number.)
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Each person should prepare themselves to tell the rest of the class some fact about their life. The number one has
indicates the importance of the fact to the teller—so if a student has a 1, s/he might tell what s/he had for breakfast,
while if s/he has a 10, s/he might relate his or her worst fear or happiest memory. Allow time for thought and
preparation here. Questions will be asked about what each person decides to say, so they need to be ready.
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Instruct students that if their numbers are blue, their facts must be true. If they are red, then they must tell an
untruth.
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Make it clear to everyone that no one will be made to tell whether what they say is true or false at any time during
the exercise or after it is over.
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Now go round the circle and get each student to share their fact or story.
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Once everyone has spoken, return to the first person and allow questions from anyone who wants to ask them. The
class should work together to decide which stories they believe. Move on to the next person whenever the class
seems to reach a consensus or unanimity about each fact/story.
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Educators should be sure to guide the class so that no adversarial atmosphere develops. The interest of this
experiment lies in why we believe or not. Is it because of the teller’s manner? Our prior knowledge of them? The
appropriateness of the purported fact to that particular teller? Preconceptions or prejudices? The class does not
necessarily need to come to definite conclusions.
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When the exercise appears to be more or less over, reveal to students that all the numbers are actually red (which
they should all be). As the realization sinks in that everyone has been lying throughout, revisit those stories which
were most readily believed and look again at why
6. BAT: Blogging After Tartuffe. Either as a class or individually, have your students access McCarter's web site (http://
www.mccarter.org) to investigate the new McCarter Theatre Blog (http://www.mccarter.org/blog/index.php). The blog
has been designed to connect McCarter Theatre and its staff (production, literary, artistic, education, etc.) with subscribers,
students, educators and anyone interested in reading and writing about theater, and it provides an up-to-the-minute forum
for news and information on McCarter plays in pre-production, rehearsal, and performance. Access the blog by creating
individual accounts or a classroom account and log in. Select "Tartuffe" under "Categories" and read archived and recent
postings. Allow your students to post a comment or pose a question based on either previous bloggers' entries or on their
own experience of the play in production.
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7. Tartuffe: The Review. Have your students take on the role of theater critic by writing a review of McCarter Theatre’s
production of Molière's Tartuffe. A theater critic or reviewer is essentially a “professional audience member,” whose job is
to provide reportage of a play’s production and performance through active and descriptive language for a target audience
of readers (e.g., their peers, their community or those interested in the arts). Critics/reviewers provide analysis of the
theatrical event to provide clearer understanding of the artistic ambitions and intentions of a play and its production;
reviewers often ask themselves, “What is the playwright and this production attempting to do?” And, finally, the critic offers
personal judgment as to whether the artistic intentions of a production were achieved, effective and worthwhile. Things to
consider before writing:
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Theater critics/reviewers always should back up their opinions with reasons, evidence and details.
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The elements of production that can be discussed in a theatrical review are the play text or script (and its themes,
plot, characters, etc.), scenic elements, costumes, lighting, sound, music, acting and direction (i.e., how all of these
elements are put together). [See the Theater Reviewer’s Checklist.]
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Educators may want to provide their students with sample theater reviews from a variety of newspapers.
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Encourage your students to submit their reviews to the school newspaper for publication.
Additional Resources
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de Sales, Saint Francis. Introduction to the Devout Life, translated by John K. Ryan. New York: Harper & Brothers,
Publishers, 1950.
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Gossman, Lionel. “Le Tartuffe.” In Men and Masks. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1963.
●
Lough, John. An Introduction to Seventeenth Century France. New York: David McKay Company, 1954.
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Maland, David. Culture and Society in Seventeenth Century France. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1970.
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Pardailhe-Galabrun, Annik. The Birth of Intimacy. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.
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Toporkov, Vasily Osipovich. “Tartuffe.” In Stanislavski in Rehearsal, translated by Christine Edwards. New York: Theatre
Arts Books, 1979.
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Trout, Andrew. City on the Seine. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
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Wilbur, Richard. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993.
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A McCarter Theatre production | Venue: Berlind Theatre | AUDIENCE GUIDE STAFF : Editor for Literary Content: Carrie
Hughes | Editor for Education Content: Paula Alekson | Editorial Administrator: Francine Schiffman | Web Design: Dimple
Parmar | Contributors: Elizabeth Edwards, Carrie Hughes, Adam Immerwahr, Mara Isaacs, Emily Mann, Janice
Paran, Christopher Parks.
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