Tartuffe
How far should a wife go to prove to her disbelieving husband that his favorite friend is actually a seducer? That’s the question in “Tartuffe,” now at the Sacramento Theatre Company.
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(Sacramento, CA)
Monday, February 7, 2005
“Tartuffe” is a wickedly funny play, which has been tickling and teasing audiences for more than 300 years. It got the playwright Moliere into a heap trouble with the church back in the 1600s, and it can still turn people’s heads. It’s about a guy named Tartuffe, an exceedingly pious, penniless gent who’s forever doing good deeds, invariably in public. But get Tartuffe behind closed doors, alone with his benefactor’s wife, and a different side comes out…
(soundbite)
You can catch the drift. This charlatan’s rise and fall is one of the great comedies in all of theater – one that’s still as sharp as a razor, if it’s done right. And the Sacramento Theater Company is presenting it in a fast-paced, compulsively watchable, totally accessible production. “Tartuffe” may be a play you heard about at college, but it is and always has been a sex farce of the first order. And director Gina Kaufmann delivers it with snappy physicality and verbal acrobatics. It’s the funniest show on the Sacramento Theater Company’s Main Stage in years. “Tartuffe” continues through February 20. Jeff Hudson, KXJZ news.