Written
by: after Moliére, in a version by Andrew McIlroy
Directed by: Nick Roche
Performed: 4 - 14 December 2002 in "XL Théâtre du Grand
Midi", 7A rue Goffart, 1050 Bruxelles
Information on the play:
In keeping with the ITG's now well-established tradition of providing a
varied diet of theatrical fare - dusting off the Irish classics, staging
exciting contemporary Irish drama and looting the European theatrical archives
for plays that can be translated to an Irish setting - our next production will
be an adaptation of Moliere's satirical comedy "Tartuffe", the tale of how a
religious zealot/bigot/charlatan insinuates himself into the confidence of a
respectable pillar of society and so turns his head that he brings his family to
the brink of disintegration and destitution.
Andrew McIlroy, with the highly successful adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler
already to his credit, has updated Moliere's classic to the present day and
transplanted it to the fertile terrain of the Six Counties, where they know a
thing or two about religious obsession and its consequences. It is directed by
Nick Roche, whose last ITG production was the Playboy of the Western World.
The cast are a mix of familiar faces from recent productions and complete
newcomers, with the added attraction of two blast from the past veterans of ITG
successes dating back to the mid-1980s, Brian Hartnett, in the role of the
paterfamilias who falls victim to the hypocritical wiles of Jonathan Duff's
Tartoof, and Sally Bourdonge as his equally gullible mother, who liberally vents
her disapproval of sin in all its forms, particularly the gay goings-on in the
herbaceous border - yes, this is a modern treatment, and one of which Moliere
would surely have approved.
Tartuffe
In keeping with the ITG's now well-established tradition of providing a
varied diet of theatrical fare - dusting off the Irish classics, staging
exciting contemporary Irish drama and looting the European theatrical archives
for plays that can be translated to an Irish setting - our next production will
be an adaptation of Moliere's satirical comedy "Tartuffe", the tale of how a
religious zealot/bigot/charlatan insinuates himself into the confidence of a
respectable pillar of society and so turns his head that he brings his family to
the brink of disintegration and destitution.
The cast are a mix of familiar faces from recent productions and complete
newcomers, with the added attraction of two blast from the past veterans of ITG
successes dating back to the mid-1980s, Brian Hartnett, in the role of the
paterfamilias who falls victim to the hypocritical wiles of Jonathan Duff's
Tartoof, and Sally Bourdonge as his equally gullible mother, who liberally vents
her disapproval of sin in all its forms, particularly the gay goings-on in the
herbaceous border - yes, this is a modern treatment, and one of which Moliere
would surely have approved.