John O’Brien was invited to review Tartuffe at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and here is his opinion piece:-
Moliere is the French Shakespeare and Tartuffe (the hypocrite or impostor) is his most famous play and the greatest play in the French language. It is brought wonderfully to life for our enjoyment for the next ten weeks at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in a superb production written by Christopher Hampton (famous for ‘Les Liasions Dangereuses”) and the leading French director Gerald Garutti.
Tartuffe is a conman. A grotesque mixture of the bogus religiosity of Rasputin, the sexual charisma of Charles Manson and the financial guile of Bernard Madoff. Paul Anderson (of Peaky Blinders) gives a compelling performance of Tartuffe as a religious holy man in contemporary Los Angeles who has utterly beguiled a billionaire businessman Orgon (Sebastian Roche). Think Scientology and Hollywood.
Paul Anderson is superb. Wearing white robes and carrying Rosary beads, covered in tattoos (he has a giant cross the length of his back) and speaking in a Southern drawl he is utterly convincing as the amoral conman who will do anything to get power, money and sex. Sebastian Roche convincingly portrays the gullibility and credulity of the guilty rich. Whenever someone says something critical of Tartuffe his stock reply is “poor boy”. He has convinced himself that Tartuffe is a holy man and nothing will convince him otherwise. I found this psychologically persuasive and compelling. It reminded me of women who refuse to believe that they have been the victim of a romance fraud.
To show his devotion to Tartuffe, Orgon decides to let him marry his Daughter Marine (Olivia Ross), disown his son Damis (George Blagden) and give him free access to his second wife Elmire (the wonderful Audrey Fleurot). As if that were not enough he also throws in all his worldly wealth for good measure, including his Los Angeles mansion. In a last ditch attempt to get Orgon to see sense, Elmire makes him a proposal. Watch how far Tartuffe goes in his seduction of me and see him for what he is. A version of the film of “Indecent Proposal” in reverse. In the play’s best scene we see Elmire and Tartuffe in a glass box, lit up in orange like an Amsterdam brothel window. Stubbornly sticking to his delusional state Orgon refuses to intervene, as Tartuffe goes further and further, only as he mounts her does he break and shout stop. It’s a brilliant scene. Worth the ticket price alone.
Orgon now finds himself in even greater danger because, not only does Tartuffe order him to leave his house, it now belongs to him of course, but threatens him with conspiracy to betray the state. In the original French production in 1669 it was at this point that the Sun King Louis X1V made a dramatic entry and showed his Kingly wisdom by pardoning Orgon and imprisoning Tartuffe. In this version we see not the Sun King but the Suntan King, Donald Trump. He calls everyone to order, reveals that he has been watching it all on twitter, will make America Great Again and condemns Tartuffe for grabbing Elmire “by the pussy”. He releases Orgon from the charges of conspiring with the Russians, restores his wealth, invites everyone to his palace at Mar –a- Lago (the new Versailles) and imprisons Tartuffe. The analogy of Louis X1V and Donald Trump is inspired.
This production is highly inventive and original. Again and again it finds contemporary equivalences for the 1669 version. So for example when Tartuffe and Elmire are first discovered flirting, Damis captures them on mobile. When Tartuffe and Elmire are making love in the glass box the window steams up and a hand is pressed against the window in homage to that famous Titanic scene. When Tartuffe is at once tormenting Damis whist flattering Orgon he uses the middle finger gesture behind Orgon’s back to goad Damis. In these and countless other subtle touches this production brings Tartuffe gloriously alive for us to enjoy and revel in.
