Yes, that’s right folks: “Tartuffe,” which ran from Oct. 23-25 in Kirby Theater, was truly enjoyable. Not just “good in spite of student actors,” or “not completely boring,” but fun and entertaining, thanks to the superb performances of the main cast (yes, student actors!) and the talents of the translator, Playwright-in-Residence Constance Congdon, who rendered the Molière comedy in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets that offers pulse to dialogue that could have been dead on arrival given the age of the classic.
“Tartuffe” tells the tale of a family in turmoil. The well-to-do father Orgon (Elias Johansson-Miller ’12), has taken in a vagrant holy man, the infamous Tartuffe, who enthralls him with his supposed piety and wisdom. As for Orgon’s wife, brother-in-law, and two children (not to mention their outspoken maid)—well, they’re not having any of it. Tartuffe has brought with him a new regime to the household, and with it, sparked derision in everyone but Orgon and his insufferable mother (Andrea Kristinsdottir). In fact, Orgon is so smitten with the svengali that he is willing to betroth his young daughter Mariane (Michelle Escobar ’12) to him, despite the fact that she is already engaged to a Very Nice Boy (Vincent Benavides ’11). Things only escalate when Orgon’s son Damis (Daniel Freije ’11) catches Tartuffe declaring his love (read: lust) for Orgon’s wife, and upon reporting to his father, is accused of lying and prominently banished from the household. Now it is up to Mariane to grow a backbone (with the help of the family’s acerbic maid, Dorine —a hilarious Sarah Skeist ’09) and stand up to her father, while the rest of the family plots to sabotage the hallowed hypocrite.
Congdon’s humor and gift for crafting spoken rhythm enliven the otherwise weakly-plotted play, which caused quite the scandal when it debuted at Versailles in 1664 because of its disparaging depiction of a man of the cloth. Of course, this attitude towards the clergy is nothing new for modern audiences, who have seen such men and their institutions skewered in both fiction and reality. In fact, the play is particularly striking now since the Catholic Church sex abuse controversy, which catalyzed the first Great Moral Panic of the 2000s. Yet, beyond its politics, morals and Congdon’s talent, rests the show’s true vitality—its performances.
While members of the cast excelled in varying roles, the performances of Johansson-Miller, Skeist and Justin Redfearn ’09, as the eponymous villain were particularly exceptional. Johansson-Miller, only but a first-year, drew the most laughs of any character, playing Orgon as a bombastic buffoon whose myopia towards his family is both disturbing and riotous. (In a monumental supporting role that would win the Tony for Best Inanimate Object if such an award existed, Johansson-Miller’s tiny, gray mustache managed to bring gravitas to what could have been an otherwise banal costume choice.) Johansson-Miller is a gem of a performer and I expect him to go far in the College’s theater community. Skeist delivers an equally uproarious performance as sardonic Dorine, whose frequent (and often astute) bon motes serve to aid the family in its predicament and also rile idiotic Orgon. She chews scenery—even while delivering her lines in an odd, but pleasing faux-New York accent—and exudes uncommon maturity for someone in their early 20s. Redfearn, in his senior acting thesis, was a pure delight, playing Tartuffe with a crazy-eyed mania that would have been harder to pull off for a less talented, but equally attractive actor. That is to say, Tartuffe has often been depicted as a creepy fat man, which helps qualify the character’s wickedness, and in this case, the naturally handsome Redfearn needed to work harder in order to show this. He succeeded by miles. (Of course, Redfearn was still out-staged by his own brother during the final show when the toddler cooed “What’s he gonna do?” during a silent moment towards the end of the play. The moment was priceless, eliciting guffaws from the audience, and even a few twitching smiles from those on stage.)
The show was not without its weak points. The characters of Damis and Mariane were annoying at best, the son a grating hothead, the daughter a whiny mess, to the point that I was almost rooting for Tartuffe to outsmart their kvetching tuchases. Of course, the worst thing he could have done would have been to evict the family from their estate, a relatively tame threat for modern audiences (or maybe not so in today’s economic climate).