TARTUFFE. By Molière. Directed by Sylvaine Strike. With Neil McCarthy, Khutjo Green, Craig Morris, Vanessa Cooke, Anele Situlweni, Vuyelwa Maluleke, Adrian Alper and Camilla Waldman. Set design by Sasha Ehlers and Chen Nakar, costume design by Sasha Ehlers, lighting design by Oliver Hauser, musical composition by Dean Barrett and choreography by Owen Lonzar. Baxter Flipside.
Review: MEGAN FURNISS
My head is buzzing with that feeling of great-theatre craziness since returning home from being immersed in two hours of Tartuffe. Sylvaine Strike and her extraordinary cast have made such magic with this production that I am filled up with how wonderful, mad, exciting and inspiring, not to mention completely hilarious, brilliant theatre can be.
I had a few teeny doubts as I entered the Baxter’s Flipside. First, the usher warned us that it was two hours without an interval, and if we needed bathroom facilities we should go before it started. Then I read the programme note and was reminded of the story of Tartuffe, with flashes back to having to study the text, or seeing bits of it performed at drama school, without ever understanding what it was all about.
My concerns wafted away like wind in the net curtains of the quirky set (designed by Sasha Ehlers and Chen Nakar), as the lights dimmed, the music rose and the craziness began.
Right from the very first moment we are introduced to the vocabulary of this world, and it is delicious. Sylvaine’s vision of this physical and visual expression is perfected in these early moments, and then it persists throughout. I loved this world, with its long legs and arched backs, strange looks and sounds, and incredible physical discipline. I loved this world of strange yet pretty clothes in French pastry colours, and mostly I loved this world of the word, spoken in Seuss-esque rhyming couplets. In fact, now that I think about it, this is a strange, pastel, French Seuss world altogether.
Unsettling play about the weak being manipulated by the dangerous
Tartuffe is an unsettling play about how a weak man is completely manipulated by a dangerous one. Tartuffe infiltrates Orgon’s house and life and has a profound influence on him, making him doubt his family, who cannot get him to see the light. The beauty about this production is that the discomfort is matched perfectly with hilariousness.
While Sylvaine has made this play funny and beautiful and strange, her real stroke of genius is in its casting. Every cast member is perfect. She has played around with gender in some of the roles; Craig Morris does a dragonesque drag with Madam Pernelle, and Camilla Waldman is utterly superb as Cleante, Orgon’s sister (usually brother). Camilla has huge chunks of chastising monologue, and philosophy and moral debate to wrangle with, and I hung on to every word. She is mesmerising and moving. She is also totally hilarious in her gorgeous suit and brogues.
Khutjo Green is an amazing matriarch with a control and a sexiness that gives her such power. Adrian Alper and Vuyelwa Maluleke as Orgon’s son and daughter, and Anele Situlweni as the young suitor are all delightful and connected and committed. They are a pleasure to watch. Craig Morris as Tartuffe is masterful. He is mercurial, mad, simpering, conniving and evil, and he is delicious. Vanessa Cooke as the servant Dorine is totally quirky and ditzy, with a welcome and balancing lightness. William Harding plays his three little parts perfectly and they are like little French cartoon sketches; instantly recognisable and clever.
McCarthy stole my heart
But it is Neil McCarthy who stole my heart. From his first extra-long straight-legged lean, to his pouty face of distain, from his blubbering “Tartuffe, poor fellow” to his idiotic rubbery limbed collapse, he was the epitome of delight to watch. Even though Orgon’s ridiculous belief in Tartuffe is moronic, I was completely taken in by every word, sigh and feeling of this silly, silly man. And those legs. And hands. And cheeks. And fingers.
Tartuffe is a theatrical delight. It is drinking from the pool of perfect performance and being submerged in a creative explosion of directorial vision. I feel restored to my theatre loving self.
What: Tartuffe
Where: Baxter Flipside
When: Until 29 April.
Book: Computicket or 0861 915 8000
Visit: www.baxter.co.za/
WS
