Tartuffe
Center Stage North
through October 22, 2016

Moliere is famous to this day for his plays where one door opens as another closes, and anything that can go awry seems to do so. His so-called French Bedroom Farces can be found playing around the world any day of the year.

He did stray off a bit in 1664, when he cast a central character as a phony religious figure. The Archbishop of Paris was so irate that he threatened to excommunicate anyone who went to the play or even read the script. It seems to be soooooo poignant today with all the political rubbish being thrown at us 24/7.

Orgon (Jeffrey Bigger) is a well-off chap with quite an estate and he has a daughter he wants to marry off to Tartuffe (Freddy Lynn Watson) who is the imposter living at Orgon’s home. Tartuffe isn’t quite the celibate you might expect. He has an eye for Orgon’s wife, Elmire (Karen Worrell) and comes on to her.

At the same time, Dorine (LeeAnna Lambert) is trying to help get the daughter out of being betrothed to the con artist, and knows she is in love with a younger chap. And things don’t get any easier when Madame Pernelle (Nancy Jensen) takes the stage as she is Moliere’s version of Hyacinth Bucket.

So we find lovers, fakers, and hypocrites coming center stage. Remind you of some family you know, or some of the candidates on the tube? Will everything come right at the end? You’ll have to find that out for yourself. For as I said on many an occasion if one were to look up the word “dysfunctional” in the OED, it should probably say “see family.”

Directed by Jenifer and Kevin Renshaw, the cast, costumes, set and technical aspects are all just fine, and this high energy rant is Jeffrey Bigger’s goodbye opus; as he leaves us after this one for Colorado to enjoy the snow. The theatre is easy to get to, has free parking, and every seat has a good view of the stage. More info at CenterStageNorth.org