Tartuffe – there’s more than one hypocrite in the house (Abbey Theatre production at Lyric Theatre until Saturday 29 April)

The curtain rises to reveal a hedonistic scene of dancing in a once well decorated but now slightly dowdy room in a large mansion. As the family and servants throw shapes to the techno soundtrack, in the room next door a shirtless man is worshipping – and perhaps livestreaming – at the altar of a ring light in a slightly more modern space. (The show’s playlist is available on Spotify if you want to recreate the vibe.) The opening dance makes more sense once the characters are established … although that requires buying another ticket to go back and see how it actually foretells the rest of the action!

Right from the start, Tartuffe’s director Caitríona McLaughlin plays with anachronisms, allowing contemporary objects and culture to diffuse through a gap in the space time continuum and enter the decadent seventeenth century setting of the performance. Katie Davenport’s costumes are stunning with sumptuous dresses, coats and trews using garish patterns, with the apparel often twinned with bright sneakers. All these modern nods serve as a reminder that the play’s themes and issues are meant to be contemporary as well as historic.

Written in rhyming couplets by French playwright Molière in 1664, the script has been significantly localised by Frank McGuinness with Ulster/Irish vernacular creeping into the translation. The rhyming is retained, though while some of the cast make it seem so very natural, that’s in contrast with others who sometimes sound like they’re at a poetry recital rather than in a play.

The master of the house, Orgon (Frank McCusker), is very much the son of his mother (Pernelle, played by Geraldine Plunkett) who brilliantly sketches out the weaknesses and foibles of the assembled family and household servants at the start of a first act that zips along.

It’s quite some time before we meet the much talked about houseguest Tartuffe (Ryan Donaldson), whose pious pronouncements and claims of poverty have Orgon wrapped around his finger. The master is so besotted with this ‘man of God’ that he promises the hand of his daughter (Mariane/Emma Rose Creaner who is already betrothed (to the rarely seen Valere/Emmanuel Okoye), along with much, much more. We soon realise that Tartuffe’s lusty eye is looking in a different direction, and after the interval, this leads to the production’s standout scene with Elmire (Aislín McGuckin) helping remove the scales from her husband’s eyes.

Dramaturgically, Molière’s writing is content to give a character a long monologue in one act, and then not return to them for an hour or more. So we hear great things near the start from the cheeky housekeeper Dorine, played brilliantly by Pauline Hutton, only for this interesting character to be backgrounded for much of the rest of the play. Pernelle suffers a similar fate of being sidelined.

While the spread of dialogue and action may not be even, Molière’s ideas and McGuinness’ tweaks provide McLaughlin with a great material for physical comedy. Clare McKenna gets the brunt of the almost cartoonish slapstick throughout the play, with servant Filipote’s makeup having to keep up with the bumps and bruises. Paula O’Reilly’s choreography is not limited to the stylish TikTok-esque dancing, but also gives the servants a distinctive flourish and flowing movement as they slip in and out of the set’s eight or so entrances to set or clear the table.

Tartuffe is a play about religious hypocrisy, devotion to false truths, and how difficult it is to point out that the emperor/holy man is wearing no clothes. And it is obvious that there’s more than one hypocrite in the house. Orgon must pay the heavy price and face the stark consequences for his actions. Unless, there’s another twist up Molière’s sleeve …

This production’s ending hints that it’s the women in the house who rose above the hypocrisy, taking their bows upstage of the duped and duplicitous men. There may be merit in this reading of the play, but it isn’t particularly well signposted or established in the previous two and a half hours and feels like a final flourish too far.

The performances and creative design are very strong: this is a show that will deservedly win multiple theatre awards over the next year. The audience is left to look through a window into a once great but now grimy country house. However, as well as creating entertaining vistas and comedic situations, plays also hold up a mirror to the audience. Given that McGuinness was already taking the opportunity to spruce up – spice up, even – the dialogue, perhaps even more could have been done to gently connect the rhetoric with present-day issues of political chicanery and truth-bending now that religiosity isn’t quite so prevalent?

Abbey Theatre’s production of Tartuffe finishes its run at the Lyric Theatre on Saturday 29 April before moving to Letterkenny and Cork.

Photo credit: Ros Kavanagh

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