Word: orgon
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Rigault carves his laughs out of the rich lines of iambic pentameter, relying very heavily on the full tone range of his actor's voices, their bodies--especially arm gesturing--and the expanse of the stage. A fine example comes in one of the very first scenes when Orgon, the master of the house, returns from a business trip and asks the maid, Dorine, what has happened during his absence. She answers that his wife has been sick, indeed had to be bled. But Orgon is interested only in hearing about Tartuffe, the religious man he has gathered into...
...then there is some very fine slap-stick. The credit here belongs wholly to de Rigault as Moliere has left vitually no stage directions. The greatest moment comes at the climax of the play when Orgon discovers that the trusted, devout Tartuffe is a hypocritical lecher thirsting after his wife. As Tartuffe lunges forward to embrace her, the virtuous lady steps quickly aside and Tartuffe lands in her husband's no longer quite so fond embrace...
...Orgon's daughter Marianne and her fiancee Valere, the play's romantic young couple, almost lose each other in a bull-headed argument. Finally it is the common-sensical maid, Dorine, who brings them back together...
...characters divide neatly into two groups: the hot-heads, and the intelligent, sensible protagonists who see the other actors and the situations in their true light. On one side are Orgon, his brash young son, and his daughter. On the other, Tartuffe, Orgon's wife Elmire, her brother Cleant, and of course Dorine. It is the forthright servant Dorine who insists on badgering her masters with the truth. And in the final act even Orgon is brought to see the light. (As if to emphasize how important he considers this, Rigault begins the fifth act by having the actors carry...
...actors rush into the play at a disturbingly frenetic rate. But they manage to slow down, with the lead of the earthy, almost scandalously irreverent Dorine (Marcelle Ranson). Miss Ranson along with the easily swayed, emotionally extravagant and insecure Orgon (Gaston Vacchia) and the very slimy Tartuffe (Yves Gasc) give their roles a credibility and life the others lack. But it is true that Moliere has left somewhat flatter other characters: the attractive Elmire (Janine Souchon), the ingenue Marianne (Francine Walter), her brother Damis (Luc Ponette), her fiancee Valere (Pierre Cpustere), and Elmire's brother, Cleante (Michael Favory...