SEASON ONE '08

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS

MOLIÈRE’S TARTUFFE

ADAPTED BY LOUISE FOX
DIRECTOR MATTHEW LUTTON
COMPANION ARTIST NEIL ARMFIELD
SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER ANNA TREGLOAN
LIGHTING DESIGNER PAUL JACKSON
MUSICAL DIRECTOR PETER FARNAN

CAST LAURA BRENT, MARCUS GRAHAM, FRANCIS GREENSLADE, PETER HOUGHTON, REBECCA MASSEY, BARRY OTTO, EZEKIEL OX, LUKE RYAN, ALISON WHYTE

This is Moliére’s dream of Melbourne 2008, where moneyed family is torn asunder by the arrival of Tartuffe, a charismatic and diabolically witted Rasputin, a holy con-man whose handle for seduction is as firm as his grasp on religious hypocrisy.

During Tartuffe’s 1664 premiere, Moliére’s hilarious and savage satire against power and piety enraged the religious censors, relying on the intervention of King Louis himself to stay playing on the stage. In this outrageously sharp adaptation by Louise Fox, the salons of Enlightenment Paris became the cabana lounges of the new Toorak gentry, Armani suits replaced ruffed collars and doted-on old maids transformed into pampered lap dogs.

Marcus Graham driped wicked as the notorious Tartuffe opposite Barry Otto’s fawning but tyrannous Orgon alongside a troupe of exquisitely cast clowns.