MEDIA RELEASES
ContactJessica Mackinnon
jmack@dom.edu
(708) 524-6289
Performing Arts Series Presents Tartuffe
Dominican University’s Performing Arts Series will present a theatre arts lab production of Molière’s classic French farce Tartuffe on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m. and on Sunday, April 10 at 3:00 p.m. in the Eloise Martin Recital Hall, 7900 W. Division Street, River Forest. The play will be directed by Greg Kolack, co-artistic director of the acclaimed Circle Theatre in Forest Park.
Banned in 1664 by Louis XIV, Tartuffe rails against religious fanatics, hypocrisy and bourgeois manners, making it just as suitable for today’s audience as it was 300 years ago. When the play opened, Molière was accused of undermining religion as well as royalty and his theatre was closed by the Chief of Police and his actors were threatened with excommunication by the Archbishop of Paris. It wasn’t until 1669 that the king allowed the play to be performed in public.
The comedy relates the story of Tartuffe, an odious hypocrite whose apparent piety has charmed the gullible Orgon and his mother Madame Pernelle. Believing that his pious example will be good for other members of the family, Tartuffe has been taken into Orgon’s home. But everyone else in the family quickly sees through the impostor. Orgon’s wife devises a plan for exposing Tartuffe’s hypocrisy—but the attempt is too late as Orgon has already assigned everything he owns to the swindler. Tartuffe banishes the family from the home that he now owns but, by order of the King, is arrested and hauled off to prison.
Tickets for this production are $15. For more information, call the box office at (708) 524- 6942.
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