THEATRE REVIEW

MARCH 2024 | Volume 237

 

Production image

Quelemia Sparrow and Aidan Correia in Father Tartuffe: An Indigenous Misadventure, 2024: set design by Ted Roberts; costunme design by Jolane Houle; lighting design by Jillian White; projection design by Bracken Hanuse Corlett; photo by Moonrider Productions for the Arts Club Theatre Company.

Father Tartuffe: An Indigenous Misadventure
by Herbie Barnes
Arts Club Theatre Company & Touchstone Theatre
Granville Island Stage
Feb. 22-Mar. 24
From $29
www.artsclub.com or 604-687-1644
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Molière’s 1664 comedy Tartuffe, or The Hypocrite has had a long, successful life. The story of a wealthy man who falls under the spell of a con artist pretend-priest, to the horror of his family, has gotten regular productions and adaptations right up to the present. The themes of hypocrisy and gullibility are timeless, and the climactic scene, where the wife tries to show her husband that not-really-pious Tartuffe wants to seduce her, is classic sex farce. Molière wrote the play in rhymed couplets, and Richard Wilbur’s brilliant rhymed English translation provides another level of fun and inspiration for adapters.

Herbie Barnes’ new adaptation, Father Tartuffe: An Indigenous Misadventure, sets the story within an Indigenous family in 1967 Canada, on the eve of Expo. Co-directed by Quelemia Sparrow and Roy Surette, this Arts Club-Touchstone Theatre co-production finds a pretty perfect parallel in the ways the white priest, Father Tartuffe (Aidan Correia), cons the Indigenous patriarch, Orin (Sam Bob), who is desperate, in his own words, to “make it in the white man’s world.” The family’s attempts to resist Tartuffe and de-colonise Orin are as much political as personal and economic.

Tip-toeing on the edge of cartoonish, the witty script and tight production manage to combine solid acting with excellent physical comedy (Ted Roberts’ living room set has four doors) and Indigenous political themes in a sometimes uneasy but mostly successful hybrid. Sound designer Russell Wallace’s period pop music adds another nice dimension to the show.

Orin, played with breathless naivety by Bob, is only too ready to discard his Indigenous language and culture: “What has being Indian ever done for any of us?” But he gets plenty of blowback from his family, including angry Dennis (Braiden Houle) and feminist Darlene (Samantha Alexandra).The rhyme, used relentlessly at the start of the play, results in some clever combinations (e.g., baloney and matrimony) and the play’s moral, addressed to Orin by his sister Cathy (Cheri Maracle):

You were born a red man and that’s how you’ll die.
You can’t be a white man no matter how hard you try.

Despite everything, Orin is ready to hand over to Tartuffe his money, the deed to his house, and even daughter Maryanne (Danica Charlie), who is engaged to Métis boyfriend, Valant (Frankie Cottrell). When Orin’s wife Lisette (Quelemia Sparrow) realizes that Tartuffe wants to have sex with her, she arranges to hide Orin so he can overhear the seduction attempt.Rubber-limbed Correia excels in the physical comedy and Sparrow matches him blow for blow while somehow maintaining Lisette’s elegance.

Molière’s Tartuffe ends with a deus ex machina messenger as the King miraculously bails out M. Gullible and returns all the worldly goods Tartuffe has scammed from him. This production’s fabulous version of that ending combines Expo, a TV set, and the Royal Family and Marshall Vielle as the messenger in a true coup de théâtre.

 

 

 

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Vancouver's arts and culture website providing theatre news, previews and reviews