Word: orgonized
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...exists to be brought to his senses in Tartuffe is Orgon (Stefan Gierasch), a bluff, well-to-do bourgeois who courts innocence by association. His mind's eye is so befogged that he persistently mistakes sanctimoniousness for sanctity, guile for goodness. His chosen saint in residence, Tartuffe (John Wood), is a monster of false piety, a dark prince of humbug and hypocrisy. More significantly, he is the stinking essence of the world's wisdom: that a crime is no crime unless one gets caught...
TARTUFFE is the story of what happens when a hypocrite moves in with the family. It is also a very funny satire directed at those who oppose 17th-century absolutism. Orgon, a wealthy and respected Parisian and supporter of Louis XIV, is infatuated by the pretended piety of Tartuffe, whom he has observed sweating blood in church. He welcomes him into his family, embracing him first as a brother, then as an heir when he disowns his skeptical son. Apparently hoping that his association with the pseudo-pious Tartuffe will create for himself a public image of God-fearing moral...
...snivveling, lecherous Tartuffe whom you love to hate. Licking his twitching lips and rubbing his hands Uriah Heepishly, he genuflects his way towards inevitable downfall. Bacon dilutes the inherent despicableness of this character with a strong does of the ridiculous, and his Tartuffe becomes a true figure of satire. Orgon, although the personification of another variety of folly, elicits very different reactions. Played by John Cross, he is a pathetic, even pitiable character, grossly misguided in his worship of a false idol...
...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...