University Players bring Molière’s Tartuffe to stage
THE University Players’ latest production, Molière’s hilarious comedy Tartuffe, is set to unfold on stage in a limited engagement at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, University of the West Indies, Mona.
With a strong cast of well-known Jamaican actors such as Alwyn Scott, Munair Zacca, Paul Issa, Teisha Duncan and Joanna Hart in a sparkling new translation directed by Paul Issa, Tartuffe will run for nine performances only, opening next Friday, October 8.
The piece centres around Tartuffe, a beacon of piety who has become the permanent house guest and spiritual advisor of the wealthy merchant, Orgon. But all is not as it seems, and as Orgon falls further under the influence of his new companion the whole town is talking. Is he a friend, a fraud, a saint or a hypocrite?
The family members smell a rat, and amidst the frills and frivolity of seventeenth century society, they hatch a cunning plan to outwit the wily deceiver before he brings their household crashing down.
According to a release from the University Players, although set in Paris in the 1660s, the play’s themes are universal and timeless, and its story is completely relevant to contemporary Jamaica, with its con-artists, dishonest public figures, ponzi schemers and religious frauds.
Regarded as the greatest French writer of comedy, Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664, but the play created such a scandal it was banned following its first performance. It wasn’t until 1669 that it was revived and became one of his greatest successes.