Tartuffe - April 2019

Written in 1664, Tartuffe was difficult to produce for years. The religious community of Paris was incensed over the portrayal of a man of God as a manipulative hypocrite. Today, we are not quite naïve. We are all too aware of the Tartuffes of our day. Whether in religion, politics, business or the entertainment industry, we read about these celebrities in the daily news and follow them n social media.

For Tartuffe, religion is simply a means to an end. The part he plays is of vital importance to him; it assures his celebrity status, material needs and secures his domination over his followers.

When I last directed this play in 1989, we had just lived through the indiscretions of televangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker, among others. It was easy to point the finger at the perpetrator - to pass judgement and smugly move comfortably back into our virtuous lives.

Moving into the play in 2018, I am much more interested in exploring the culture that seems to perpetuate this myth of celebrity worship. In the age of fake news and alternative facts it is hard to know whom to believe. Perhaps it is just easier to find support for our own perspectives. We are guaranteed that the algorithms will supply us with this essential flow of information.

Our choices often center on idolizing and admiring from afar. If a person tells us what we want to hear, promises to give us what we most need and creates an image that is winning accolades - we are likely to skip the needed questions of veracity.

How is it that we choose to keep ourselves in the dark? We tend to practice willful blindness, suggesting that one can’t always believe what they see. This captivated spirit obscures what may be obvious, dangerous, or even absurd. If we begin to suspect that our reality appears a bit askew, we often remain silent and thereby become complicit to the ongoing masquerade.

When I chose to direct this play over a year ago, we had not moved into the season of #MeToo. Now this abuse has taken over the news, daily documenting countless stories as we watch the powerful fall. Moliere deals with this pervasive contemporary problem in this classic play. I chose to focus on the willful blindness that perpetuates this action, rather than laying all the blame on the perpetrator. We are all part of the problem. Margaret Heffernan suggests in her book, Willful Blindness, “That we make ourselves powerless when we choose not to know. But we give ourselves hope when we insist on looking.”