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Theatre Department produces Moliere masterpiece
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The Department of Theatre Arts spring performance of “Tartuffe” opens Thursday night in Stage II of The Morrison Center.
Written in 1664 by Jean-Baptiste Poquilin also known as Moliere, the play was banned by the King of France because it mocked the Catholic Church.
Over 300 years later, “Tartuffe” is still being performed on stage, and is currently one of the most popular plays in America.
“The central challenge of doing a play by Moliere, because it’s set in the time of King Louis XIV, is the conflict that we [the audience] don’t get is that it’s a mannered society they live in. Everything is about manners. I set it in a dining room, it makes it feel like a room in Versailles, that it has a set of manners, and the characters are trying to break of that role. That is the central idea,” Theatre Arts professor Philip Atlakson said, who is the set designer for the play.
“The set is very traditional and grounded so that the play can fly off from there. Setting up an uptight set, so that the characters can break out has been a lot of fun. We set the play in the round, [when the stage is surrounded on three sides by the audience] when you do that it brings the audience in closer to focus on the details, and then there is nothing but details. There may not be a whole lot of set, but there are details. There is a real oak floor, everything is treated, ornate, and full of d