Tartuffe
Synopsis
Orgon’s family is up in arms because Orgon and his mother have fallen under the influence of Tartuffe, a pious fraud (and a vagrant prior to Orgon’s help). Tartuffe pretends to be pious and to speak with divine authority, and Orgon and his mother no longer take any action without first consulting him. Tartuffe’s antics do not fool the rest of the family or their friends; they detest him. Orgon raises the stakes when he announces that he will marry Tartuffe to his daughter Mariane (already engaged to Valère).
Mariane, of course, feels very upset at this news, and the rest of the family realizes how deeply Tartuffe has embedded himself into the family. In an effort to show Orgon how awful Tartuffe really is, the family devises a scheme to trap Tartuffe into confessing to Elmire his desire for her. As a pious man and a guest, he should have no such feelings for the lady of the house, and the family hopes that after such a confession, Orgon will throw Tartuffe out of the house. Indeed, Tartuffe does try to seduce Elmire, but their interview is interrupted when Orgon’s son Damis, who has been eavesdropping, is no longer able to control his boiling indignation and jumps out of his hiding place to denounce Tartuffe. Tartuffe is at first shocked but recovers very well. When Orgon enters the room and Damis triumphantly tells him what happened, Tartuffe uses reverse psychology and accuses himself of being the worst sinner. Orgon is convinced that Damis was lying and banishes him from the house. Tartuffe even gets Orgon to order that, to teach Damis a lesson, Tartuffe should be around Elmire more than ever. As a gift to Tartuffe and further punishment to Damis and the rest of his family, Orgon signs over all his worldly possessions to Tartuffe.
In a later scene, Elmire takes up the charge again and challenges Orgon to be witness to a meeting between herself and Tartuffe. Orgon, ever easily convinced, decides to hide under a table in the same room, confident that Elmire is wrong. He overhears, of course, Elmire resisting Tartuffe’s very forward advances. When Tartuffe has incriminated himself beyond all help and is dangerously close to violating Elmire, Orgon comes out from under the table and orders Tartuffe out of his house. But this wily guest means to stay, he at first resists being thrown out of the house. But finally when nothing works, reminds Orgon about him transferring all his earthly possessions to Tartuff and orders him out of the house.
But finally, the kind and just king of the time, invalidates the deed that gave Tartuffe possession of the house and all Orgon’s possessions.
Source: Tartuffe – Wikipedia
About Tirugata
Tirugata is a repertory of Ninasam established in 1985. A group of 20 ex-students of Ninasam Theatre Institute formed every July, rehearse that season’s plays and travel all over the state for almost a year. Performing almost every day with roughly 120 shows in 140 days, Tirugata has over 85 productions so far with more than 3400 shows and has catered to over 20-lakh audiences. 80% of the shows have been conducted in small towns, and have covered all districts of Karnataka. Plays vary from Western to Indian, and directors are invited from Karnataka and as well outside.
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Ninasam Plays Documentation Project 2015 by Sanchi Foundation, Bengaluru is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Tartuffe Crew
We thank Ninasam community, Heggodu
All who helped this project Directly and indirectlyDocumentation Sponsors
Ashoka Vardhana | Ila S. Bhat | M. T. Hebbar | H. Sundara Rao | Dr. Krishna Mohan Prabhu | Dr. Nisarga | Prasanna K.R | Vachan Shetty| Shailaja S. Bhat
Sanchi Foundation Documentation team
Camera – Vishnu Prasad, Lakshman Nayak, Somanatha | Camera assistant – Avinash | Sound design – Jamie DSilva | Additional Sound – Shishira K.V | Editing of plays – Prashanth Pandith | Interviews – NAM Ismail | Editing of interviews – Abhaya Simha | Internet technology – Omshivaprakash | Subtitles – Avinash G. | Photograph – Pavithra, Omshivaprakash | Documentation Direction – Abhaya Simha
Ninasam Tirugata 2015
Tartuffe
Written by – Molière | Translation – A.N Murthy Rao | Costume Design , Music – Jagadisha | Design , Direction – M. Ganesh | Tartuffe Actors – Avinash Rai M.K (Valère), Chandan M. (Cléante), Dayanand Pallavagere (Damis, Police, Flipote), Nagaraja Shirasi (Tartuffe), Bindu Rakshidi (Elmire), Manoj Sukhdev (Damis, Police, Flipote), Mohan Sheni (Orgon), Manju Sirigeri (Loyal), Sharath S.(Madame Pernelle), Shilpa (Mariane), Shruthi V. Tipaturu (Dorine), Hanumappa Chalavadi (Laurent) | Lighting – Avinash Rai M.K, Dayanand Pallavagere, Nagaraja Sirasi | Light management – Manju Sirigeri | Stage design – Mohan Sheni, Manoj Sukhdev, Sharath S., Shubhakara | Costumes – Shruti V., Chandan M. | Makeup – Shilpa S.| Equipments – Bindu Rakshidi | Music/sound – Ravikumar B. | Stage manager – Avinash Rai M.K | Stage movement – Suraj B.R| Dance design – Vinith Kumar | Costumes – Vidya Hegde| Light design – Krishnamurthi M.M
Technical management
Tour manager – Hanumappa Chandappa Chalavadi | Office maintenance – Shrikantha G.R | Planning and execution – Shripada T. Bhagavath
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