Shakespeare Theatre Company Presents TARTUFFE, Now thru 7/5

The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) will finish its 2014-2015 season with Molière's Tartuffe. A co-production with South Coast Repertory and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Tartuffe is directed and designed by Dominique Serrand, the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of The Moving Company, a company dedicated to creating new work and reimagining work from the past. Tartuffe will play at the Sidney Harman Hall (601 F Street) from tonight, June 2, 2015 - July 5, 2015.

Orgon has fallen under the spell of the pious fraud Tartuffe, at great cost to his family and household in Tartuffe, Molière's crowning achievement and scathing indictment of religious hypocrisy. The family watches in astonishment as their leader obeys every word of Tartuffe's false piety and divine authority-who meanwhile is stealing secrets and seducing the lady of the house. Only by conspiring, hiding in closets and climbing under tables (all in true French farce fashion) can the family reveal Tartuffe's fake divinity.

"We have never before produced Tartuffe, just as we have (still) never produced The Misanthrope, perhaps Molière's two most well-known plays," says STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn. "The reason is simple. Great plays demand great talent and an even greater vision for their contemporary relevance. Under the direction of Dominique Serrand, Tartuffe takes on unmistakably contemporary overtones."

Director Dominique Serrand is the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of The Moving Company and co-founder and former Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Théâtre de la Jeune Lune. With his production of Tartuffe, Serrand brings a modern feel to Molière's signature masterpiece of religious hypocrisy. The production comes off of critically acclaimed runs at South Coast Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where the San Francisco Chronicle hailed it as "bracingly comic, edgily somber" and "revelatory."

The ensemble is led by Steven Epp as the seemingly pious Tartuffe. Known as one of the finest comic actors in America, Epp has previously appeared at STC in 2012 as Truffaldino in The Servant of Two Masters, earning the 2012 Helen Hayes Award for Best Actor. Epp is joined by Sofia Jean Gomez, playing Elmire, the object of Tartuffe's desire. Gomez returns to STC after her high-flying role as Ariel in this season's production of The Tempest.

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