Secrets, lies and disguised motives drive the plot in Molière’s comedy from 1664, in which a fraud, Tartuffe (Ryan Donaldson), insinuates himself into a wealthy household, manipulating his host by pretending to be penniless and pious. “You are going to be Tartuffed,” the daughter of the house is warned, before her gullible father Orgon (Frank McCusker) tries to marry her off to the live-in impostor.
Director Caitríona McLaughlin’s lavish production emphasises the artifice and insincerity of this decadent milieu, with conversations held for the benefit of hidden listeners, and doors bursting open to reveal huddled eavesdroppers. With its frescoed dining room and receding corridors, Katie Davenport’s set design creates the sense of a formal domain in which privacy is impossible. Family members are swathed in peacock coloured silks, ever ready to make a histrionic entrance, which helps to explain Orgon’s susceptibility to Tartuffe’s faux simplicity.
