Walking into Memorial Auditorium I was slightly nervous, hoping that there were still enough seats available. Even though it was only a Thursday night, I was concerned that the fifty seats available would not leave many options to see the show, especially since you did not purchase tickets before hand. Luckily, arriving a bit early, I was given ticket forty-six, with only ten seats left. I kept thinking to myself, “Why would they want such a small amount of audience members? Surely there has to be a way to squeeze a few more seats in there.” After being lead into the theater, and onto the stage, I quickly understood why.
Arriving on the stage, with classical music playing in the background, we were greeted with one set of seats on risers towards what usually would be the downstage area, and a simple room with three walls, a dining room table and a chandelier upstage. On either side, there were sets of chairs where the actors were seated when they were not performing. This dimly lit, quick and almost hushed seating made it feel like this small group of audience members were specifically chosen to see something secret, something speakeasy-esque, something special. As the show began, the crowd grew silent almost simultaneously with the music that had been playing in the background, the lights dimmed and when they came back on, we were all transported back in time to the seventeenth century.
Another interesting form of semiology I took from the show was the use of gestures throughout. It was almost like the entirety of the show was also a dance. Anytime someone mentioned the word “Heaven”, the character made a certain hand gesture and looked up to the same place. Whether it be for comical use or to keep the flow of the show going, it really worked well. Every time it was done, it got funnier and funnier. There were many other movement-like phrases that went along with the show as well. For example, the scene between Mariane and Valere. While they were extremely funny portraying the typical, love sick teenagers, their movement made the text even more melodramatic. It was as if we were watching a waltz. Whenever one dramatically moved to the other side of the stage, the other followed, with Dorine in between. Specifically, when Mariane says, “No no. Nothing you say will keep me here. Let go!” to which Valere responds, “She cannot bear my presence I perceive. To spare her further torment, I shall leave.”
While they are both saying this, they are both pretending to be leaving either side of the stage, and Dorine is in the middle of them wrangling them to keep them there. As soon as she takes both of their hands and puts them together, they seem to melt together and the feud that lasted the entire scene is suddenly over. The use of iambic pentameter made it all the more interesting with the use of movement.
Speaking of the puppy love young couple, Mariane and Valere seemed to be one of the only “typical” gender roles happening for this time. In addition, both the male and the female were equally overreacting about their love for each other, making them both seem a little bit insane. Unlike the last show were just saw, Pride and Prejudice, where it was mostly just the women who were shown to be “crazy.” This time, it is the Father, who is blinded by his obsession with Tartuffe. Instead of being the wise, head of the household, all within one day he makes several bad decisions based solely off of his love for Tartuffe.
While it is not made clear where this obsession came from, it does affect the entire family. Even though everyone is trying to tell him that Tartuffe is a fraud, he will not listen. It is not until the very end where it is said by Dorine, “It is your turn now, Sir not to be listened to; You’d not trust us, and now she won’t trust you.” Finally, Orgon gets the same treatment from Madam Pernelle which he gave everyone else for the entire show. The character of Dorine is also an interesting one, when it comes to gender. Not only is she a woman, but she is the “help” of the house, yet the whole show she seems to be smarter than everyone else. Another female character who’s plan is used to eventually out Tartuffe, is Elmire. Though she is Orgon’s second wife, and clearly much younger than he, she is more than a simple “trophy wife,” because she is wise as well.
An interesting part that caught my attention was when she is attempting to seduce Tartuffe, so Orgon could see him for the true hypocrite he is. After she asks him to speak in private Tartuffe asks, “Madam, your words confuse me. Not long ago, You spoke in quite a different style you know”. It is to this that Elmire responds, “Ah, Sir, if that refusal made you smart, It’s little that you know of woman’s heart, Or what that heart is trying to convey when it resists in such a feeble way! Always, at first, our modesty prevents, the frank avowal of tender sentiments; However high the passion which inflames us, still, confess its power somehow shames us. Thus, we reluct, at first, yet in a tone which tells you that our heart is overthrown, That what our lips deny, our pulse confesses, and that, in time, all noes will turn to yesses”. Though in the context, I completely understand why she is saying this, and it is funny in the time, I could not help but think about it even after the play. Here, she is telling Tartuffe, “I might say no, but that’s only because I am embarrassed to say I want that as well."
Coming from a world where women definitely have many more privileges and rights than back then, it would be interesting to see if something like this was said in todays time where a very popular slogan is quite literally “No means No,” referring to rape culture, whereas here she is saying “No only means no while my husband is around, then no means yes.” Again, while in context it makes complete sense, especially because she clearly does not want to have sex with him and is only doing so to prove a point. Even as the scene continues, a funny scene indeed, another quote arises that stuck with me.
While Elmire is waiting for her husband to pop out from under the table, which he is not doing like they agreed, and Tartuffe is getting closer and closer, Elmire says, “I see nothing for it now, but to comply. If this is sinful, if I’m wrong to do it, so much worse for him who drove me to it. The fault can surely not be charged to me.” Again, instead of taking initiative, she is basically saying that she cannot be held responsible for anything that happens to her or what she does, because she has no other option over her own body. Again, this text is from a completely different time, but it is really interesting to see how much can change from a scene that we still laugh at, from a show that everyone can still relate to, and how different that scene would have been if it were in today’s world.
All in all, this workshop production was just as good, if not better, than any other show put on at Montclair State. The actors were fabulous, handled the text astonishingly (especially with such a short rehearsal time) and professionally. The director clearly took what she was given and ran with it, because otherwise it would not have come out so wonderfully. I am extremely upset I was only able to see it one time, but I am thankful that I did get to see it at all. As the saying goes, "Resources are the enemy of imagination," and I think this show was one of the many smaller productions put on at Montclair that proved just that.
