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Moliere's Tartuffe (Wilbur)
Moliere's Tartuffe (Wilbur)
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Author: Moliere Translated by: Richard Wilbur Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 101 Pub. Date: 1988 ISBN-10: 0822211114 ISBN-13: 9780822211112 Cast Size: 5 female, 7 male
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About
the Play:
Tartuffe is a full-length comedy by Molière,
translated into English verse by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard
Wilbur. When a religious con
man worms his way into a wealthy family and manipulates the bigoted
and prudish patriarch into giving up his fortune, it's up to his
family to expose the truth before they end up in the poor house.
Lechery, egotism, young love, deception, and delusion collide in
Tartuffe, Molière's
classic work that skewers religious hypocrisy and self-inflated
egotism.
Initially banned in France by
King Louis, Molière's
celebrated social satire Tartuffe exposes
false piety and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church. The story
takes place in the home of the wealthy Orgon, where Tartuffe – a
fraud and a pious imposter – has insinuated himself. He succeeds
magnificently in winning the respect and devotion of the head of the
house and then tries to marry his daughter and seduce his wife and
scrounge the deed to the property. He nearly gets away with it, but
an emissary from King Louis XIV arrives in time to recover the
property, free Monsieur Orgon and haul Tartuffe off to jail. And so
his duplicity is finally exposed and punished. But not before the
author has mercilessly examined the evil that men can commit in the
guise of religious fervour and the dangers that imperil those who
would believe only what they choose to believe despite a mountain of
evidence to the contrary.
Tartuffe was first performed in three acts for King Louis
XIV at a festival in Versailles in 1664. In 1669, after years of
being banned due to pressure from clergy, a five-act version opened
at the Palais-Royal. Richard Wilbur's
celebrated translation was a resounding
success in its production by the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center.
Since then the play
had regional premieres at professional theatres across the US and has
been mounted by high schools, colleges, and community theatres.
Cast: 5 female, 7 male
What people say:
"…an astonishingly
delightful romp…." — New York Post
"Stylish, bright, saucy."
— New York Journal-American
"…a rollicking evening of
grace and fun." — New York Newsday
"…Richard Wilbur's supremely elegant verse translation of Molière's ever-relevant tale of a monstrously hypocritical preacher ... As always, Mr. Wilbur favors dry wit over knockdown comedy, but his version of Tartuffe is more than funny enough to lend itself to the raucous touches of physical comedy." — Wall Street Journal
About the Playwright:
Molière was the stage
name of Jean Baptiste Molière (1622-1673). His plays achieved great
success and elicited enormous controversy with their religious
irreverence.
Richard
Wilbur (1921-2017) was an acclaimed American poet and literary
translator. A former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and
United States Poet Laureate, he is one the 20th century's most
eminent American poets and literary translators. He won the Pulitzer
Prize for Poetry – twice – among many other awards. He also
established himself as the finest translator of Molière and other
French playwrights. His playful, rhyming couplets of Moliere's
Tartuffe and The Misanthrope were often called the
definitive editions of the classic 17th-century satires.
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Molière, translated by Richard Wilbur
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Molière, translated by Richard Wilbur
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