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Tartuffe review – bilingual production squanders Molière's wit and wisdom

Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
Christopher Hampton’s erratic California-set adaptation features strong performances by Audrey Fleurot and Paul Anderson, but its lack of coherence is not just linguistic

On paper, it might have seemed like a good idea. In practice, this bilingual version of Molière’s great comedy, played in both French and English, proves erratic and confusing. Even with a skilled adapter in Christopher Hampton, a good cast that includes Paul Anderson from Peaky Blinders and Audrey Fleurot from Spiral and an array of surtitle screens, the subtlety of Molière’s exposure of self-delusion gets lost.

Hampton and the director, Gérald Garutti, justify the approach on various grounds. The action has now been shifted to California, where Tartuffe is a fanatical, white-robed guru who has taken over spiritual possession of his billionaire French host, Orgon. The fact that the pair, when together, speak English is a sign of Tartuffe’s successful imposition of his will. The rest of the household is linguistically divided on class and generational lines: Orgon’s children seem Americanised while his outspoken maid, Dorine, and his elderly mother instinctively speak French. Characters even switch from one tongue to another in the course of a single scene.

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