Tartuffe

Constance Congdon's witty verse adaptation of Moliere's timeless classic, in which a religious conman infiltrates the household of a gullible man and his exasperated family, has lent itself to productions set in modern-day Texas, New Orleans, and even The Sopranos' New Jersey. "Constance Congdon slips into Moliere's tricky shoes and the fit is Cinderella-perfect. Congdon's quicksilver wit and breathless urgency coax the dark heart of Tartuffe into glowing with a twenty-first-century heat." -John Guare " The] over-the-top setting for the Two River Theater production of TARTUFFE is a Texas McMansion decorated like a Disney theme park. A spiraling two-story staircase, its iron railing featuring a recurring motif of a lone star nestled in a spur, dominates the space. The sitting area below, done in high Louis-the-Something, has a damask sofa with silver Texas Ranger badges adorning its skirt and pony skin pillows propped in its corners. Looming above the stairwell, a huge cross, operated by remote control, awaits illumination. Eat your heart out, J. R. The director Jane Page has taken Constance Congdon's new rhymed version of Moliere's 1664 satire, based on a translation by Virginia Scott, and plopped it down in Texas (somewhere near a Neiman Marcus, as the shopping bags attest) circa 2006. The conceit works wonderfully, with each of the playwright's comically charged characters slipping naturally into twang and two-step ... It all adds up to a fun-filled Texas-style branding, skewering and roasting of a villain everyone loves to hate. " -Naomi Siegel, New York Times