Tartuffe at Playhouse, QPAC

Con men don't come any more brazen than Tartuffe. He'll wheedle his way into your life and before you know it, all you had was gone.

The slick swindler's latest mark is the wealthy Orgon, head of a household on the very top rung of society's ladder. Orgon has worked hard to make his fortune and live a lavish life, but something is missing.

Posing as a spiritual advisor, Tartuffe is selling salvation to the successful but soul-sick socialite and has him wrapped around his little finger. The creep intends to ruin Orgon and walk away with his fortune, his wife and his daughter to boot! But fortunately, Orgon's family can see right through this devilish impostor.

Ribald and riotously irreverent, Tartuffe is about the war of wits between a falsely pious fraud and a family conspiring to catch him with his pants around his ankles.

When first performed in the 17th century, French playwright Moliére's sinfully brilliant comedy was damned as such an attack on religious hypocrisy that the Catholic Church called for anyone watching or performing it to be excommunicated. The public, however, loved it – and its pillorying of religious fanaticism and moral weakness will resonate with modern crowds just as keenly.