Constance Congdon's witty verse adaptation of Moli�re's timeless classic, in which a religious conman infiltrates the household of a gullible man and his exasperated family, has lent itself to productions set in modern-day Texas, New Orleans, and even The Sopranos' New Jersey. "Constance Congdon slips into Moli�re's tricky shoes and the fit is Cinderella-perfect. Congdon's quicksilver wit and breathless urgency coax the dark heart of Tartuffe into glowing with a twenty-first-century heat." -John Guare "[The] over-the ...
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Constance Congdon's witty verse adaptation of Moli�re's timeless classic, in which a religious conman infiltrates the household of a gullible man and his exasperated family, has lent itself to productions set in modern-day Texas, New Orleans, and even The Sopranos' New Jersey. "Constance Congdon slips into Moli�re's tricky shoes and the fit is Cinderella-perfect. Congdon's quicksilver wit and breathless urgency coax the dark heart of Tartuffe into glowing with a twenty-first-century heat." -John Guare "[The] over-the-top setting for the Two River Theater production of TARTUFFE is a Texas McMansion decorated like a Disney theme park. A spiraling two-story staircase, its iron railing featuring a recurring motif of a lone star nestled in a spur, dominates the space. The sitting area below, done in high Louis-the-Something, has a damask sofa with silver Texas Ranger badges adorning its skirt and pony skin pillows propped in its corners. Looming above the stairwell, a huge cross, operated by remote control, awaits illumination. Eat your heart out, J. R. The director Jane Page has taken Constance Congdon's new rhymed version of Moli�re's 1664 satire, based on a translation by Virginia Scott, and plopped it down in Texas (somewhere near a Neiman Marcus, as the shopping bags attest) circa 2006. The conceit works wonderfully, with each of the playwright's comically charged characters slipping naturally into twang and two-step ... It all adds up to a fun-filled Texas-style branding, skewering and roasting of a villain everyone loves to hate. " -Naomi Siegel, New York Times
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