THIRD year students at the University of York’s theatre, film and television department will present Moliere’s 17th century French comedy Tartuffe on March 7 at 7.30pm and March 8 at 2.30pm.
Written in 1664, Tartuffe depicts a family torn apart by their unwelcome house guest when Orgon, the patriarch of the household, invites the seemingly pious, self-chastising, sermon-preaching Tartuffe into his house after seeing the zealous man’s religious intensity at church.
However, Tartuffe’s presence causes a huge family divide, forcing Orgon’s loved ones to reason with the naïve, confounded and blinded man as they try to make him see the truth that Tartuffe is an imposter.
Traps are set and shenanigans ensue as their efforts lead to a series of unpredictable misfortunes in which deception, seduction and obsession converge with humorous effect.
“Life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think,” Moliere once said. His philosophy still applies 350 years later, as can be discovered in next moth’s performances of Tartuffe in the TFTV Department at the Heslington East campus in Baird Lane.
Please note, the production contains strong language. Mind you, it was not only the language that caused offence initially.
Tartuffe was denounced on its first performance as a sacrilegious outrage and was banned promptly from further public view.
Only after a petition to Louis XIV was the ban lifted five years later, and the play’s trenchant mockery of human frailties has ensured its popularity ever since.
• Tickets cost £8, students £5, online at store.york.ac.uk
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