Monday, March 21, 2011

Essay on Tartuffe Play

Essay on Tartuffe by Molière


Tartuffe was a funny exciting play starring many talented third year students of theatre. The story was about two in love people, Mariane and Valere, and the way they plot against a hypocrite who is trying to break up their family and send them broke. Tartuffe (Hypocrite) played by Damien Robertson played the character wonderfully and created great dramatic intent.

The story started at Orgons house with Madame Pernell leaving to avoid an argument over the character of Tartuffe and continued on to Cleante and Dorine warning Orgon of Tartuffe. In defiance to the advice organ decides to marry Mariane to Tartuffe. Mariane upset and horrified plots together with Valere. Tartuffe is then caught in the act by Damis after overture to Elmeir. Orgon in denial after hearing of Tartuffe’s behavior decides to leave all of his wordily goods to Tartuffe and marry him to Mariane that night. Family and friends resist this seeming madness and persuade Orgon to allow his wife to try to prove the truth by witnessing Tartuffe’s deceit. Orgon realizes Tartuffe’s malicious intent. Tartuffe then uses Orgons personal papers that had been entrusted to him against Orgon in order to claim his house by a deed he had possession of. In the end Tartuffe’s fraudulent character is revealed and an officer of the king arrests him. The plot is used well to keep the audience’s eyes peeled and used great comedy techniques and dramatic techniques to do this.

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The characters played in Tartuffe were:

Orgon, played by Rhys James Rees was the main character who believed Tartuffe couldn’t do a wrong.

  • Madame Pernelle, played by Amy Spruce was Orgons mother.
  • Elmire, played by Renee Mclyntosh played as Orgons wife.
  • Damis, played by Phillip Mclnnes was Orgons son
  • Mariane, played by Karen Roberts was Orgons daughter who was in love with Valere.
  • Valere, played by Paul Ashcroft was in love with Mariane.
  • Cleante, played by Stephen Francis was the brother in law of Orgon.
  • Tartuffe, played by Damien Robertson acted as the hypocrite.
  • Dorine, played by Alexandria Steffensen acted as maid to Mariane
  • My Loyal and Flipote, played by Eleanor Howlett acted as a tipstaff and a maid to Madame pernelle.


Stage space was used well and was occupied most of the time. It consisted of a high stage area, which was centre to the whole stage. The higher stage was placed with stairs left and right and a little door at the front. The higher stage was good as it gave a sense of characters standing on the stage as being superior to people standing below. I thought the stage space could have been spaced out more so that when all of the characters were using the stage at the same time they could be seen from all of the audience’s angles. I thought they used the space well because the characters who were on stage never cluttered in one place. I also think the props on the stage were used well and created a good setting.

Costume design was used wonderfully with creating the setting. The use of the dresses made you see the role in which the females where representing e.g. always having to be covered and coming past the ankles. Males clothing was more the boots and tights which represented the men as ready for battle or to fight e.g. use of the swords. I thought the clothing worked really well with the year it was set in. Lighting also contributed well with the setting and was mainly used to establish the emotions or dramatic scene approaching e.g. the use of flashing light’s to establish a storm or fight. I thought music helped with lighting to establish the scene approaching as it gave you an idea oft the seriousness of the scene.

During Tartuffe I felt as if the scenes before the interval were more interesting as I started to get restless and bored. Before the interval it mainly introduced the characters and the main idea of the play. After the interval more action was used the only problem of this was the audience already new what the characters didn’t so we were basically seeing it all again but with the characters finding out. Overall I thought the begging of the play as the best because this is when we wanted to see more and find out more.

The main theme of the play was that love was to strong to tear Valere and Mariane apart and that lying and hypocrite people won’t leave you as the winner.

Tartuffe was a great dramatic and comedy play, which I really enjoyed. The play was interesting and kept the audience peeled and intrigued most of the time. I would recommend the play to 14 year olds and older and overall showed the social values of the olden days.

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