WGBH'S JARED BOWEN REVIEWS TARTUFFE
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Read the transcript of the interview:
"Fantastic, sharp & smart!"
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Jared Bowen: Just last night Tartuffe opened at the Huntington Theatre Company. This plays through December 10. This is a really, really fantastic, sharp, smart production of the classic Molière comedy Tartuffe, where you have this hypocritical pious religious person who has complete sway over this man Orgon. He is the patriarch of this bourgeois family, and somehow he’s able to completely take hold of him as companion, confidante, and mentor. Suddenly Orgon loses all reason and this family cannot understand how their entire household has been upended. Molière wrote this in 1664, and I think we’ve seen this over and over again throughout history, how someone can come in with these strong view points and sway an entire population or sway an entire society. I will mention that this is set in a penthouse with gilt gold all over the furniture, so there are echoes to today. It’s a really fantastic production. Frank Wood, the Tony winner, plays Orgon. Brett Gellman plays Tartuffe, you might see him in “Stranger Things” right now. It’s told in verse: rest assured it is no goof / to fall under the spell of this Tartuffe.
Fascinating!
A grippling hour and a half.