Tartuffe at Nationaltheater Mannheim

Tartuffe is one of the most well-known and most popular comedies by the great French playwright Molière, and is also ever-popular on German-speaking stages. Tartuffe, pious only in appearance, has managed to turn the head of prosperous Parisian citizen, Orgon. And very thoroughly at that. Despite all the (admittedly not quite selfless) warnings from his relatives, Orgon invites his new friend to live with him, offers him the hand of his daughter, and eventually makes his entire possessions over to him. Only when Tartuffe has designs on Orgon’s wife does Orgon lose his temper. He wants to throw Tartuffe out. It is just unfortunate that he has previously given away all means of exerting pressure and is now at the mercy of the capriciousness of the sanctimonious imposter. Molière leaves scarcely a doubt at the beginning of the piece that Tartuffe is an especially sophisticated imposter. It is therefore all the more interesting as to which gap in Orgon’s life Tartuffe is actually able to fill with his holy speeches.

Claudia Bauer has directed plays in Chemnitz, Magdeburg, Heidelberg, Wuppertal and at the Schauspiel Hannover. At the SCHAUSPIEL STUTTGART she directed Schiller’s Kabale und Liebe, Shakespeare’s Sturm, Arthur Miller’s Auferstehungsblues and the world première of Vor der Sintflut by the Presnjakow brothers.