TARTUFFE Comes to the Laguna Playhouse Next Month!

Laguna Playhouse will present a transfer production from North Coast Repertory Theatre of their critically-acclaimed production of TARTUFFE, written by Molière, translated into English verse by Richard Wilbur, and directed by Richard Baird. TARTUFFE will begin previews on Wednesday, April 17 (with a press opening on Sunday, April 21 at 5:30pm) and run through Sunday, May 5 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Dr. in Laguna Beach.

 For years, Laguna Playhouse has been making audiences laugh with a wide variety of comedies and now they deliver one of the most enduring comedic masterpieces of all time, TARTUFFE. This astonishingly clever adaptation bursts with fun as the charlatan Tartuffe worms his way into a wealthy family causing disruption and pandemonium. With wicked precision and brilliantly rhyming verses, this highly satiric comedy skewers religious hypocrisy, duplicity, lust, and self-inflicted chaos. Anyone who loves watching a fraud get his due will revel in this classic comedy!                                                                                

MORE ABOUT “TARTUFFE”

Director Richard Baird notes, “Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was born in 1622 in Paris, the son of the Royal Upholsterer (a respected if unusual title). Instead of following in his father’s line as the next upholsterer to the King, young Poquelin ran off to join the theatre. To save his family from this embarrassment, he took the nom de plume of an infamous libertine, Molière. While he had yearned to be a great tragedian, he found that the audience was disposed to laugh at him. Ever the shrewd producer, Molière adjusted to comedy, finding his voice in writing great satiric comedies that focused on human weaknesses: jealousy, misanthropy, miserliness and in Tartuffe’s case: hypocrisy. The play was originally titled Tartuffe, The Hypocrite. (The word hypocrite found its way to the English language circa 1200 with the meaning “the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness.”) 

TARTUFFE shocked the religious circles of Paris by presenting a charlatan in priest’s clothes. After the very first reading of TARTUFFE in 1664, the church and jealous rivals called for the immediate banning of TARTUFFE.  Molière’s response? He added two more acts, new characters and further proof of Tartuffe’s villainy to convince King Louis XIV that the play was not in fact anti-religious, but anti-hypocrite.  Still, it wasn’t until 1669 (5 years later), after many rewrites and supplications to the King, that TARTUFFE was finally allowed to be performed for the public for twenty-five performances starring Molière himself as “Orgon,” the patriarch of the family, gulled by Tartuffe. And to ward off detractors, TARTUFFE was presented under the new title, Tartuffe, The Imposter. 

It was a massive hit.

 We really have Richard Wilbur to thank for the success of Molière in the English-speaking world today. Before his hysterical and buoyant translations premiered, the English-speaking world had not yet embraced Molière. Now, Wilbur’s translations have inspired hundreds of other English translations.  2022 celebrated the 400th anniversary of Molière’s birth, and his plays continue to delight audiences and hold the mirror up to our human foibles. And through that reflection, he invites us to laugh, and laugh and laugh.”