Christianity has
its rich share of hypocrites and Moliere’s Tartuffe stands at the pinnacle of
the profession at least in the theatre. Is there any reason to believe that
other religions are suffering from a shortage of them? Not according to Gregory
Doran, the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He asked Anil
Gupta and Richard Pinto if they can update Moliere’s play to present day
Birmingham, set in a Pakistani Muslim family. They did.
The Pervaiz
family was doing just fine until the father, Imran (Simon Nagra), fell under
the influence of the pious fraud Tartuffe (Asif Khan). As in Moliere’s play,
Imran wants his daughter Mariam (Zainab Hasan) to marry Tartuffe. When his son
Damee (Raj Bajaj) catches Tartuffe making untoward advances toward his attractive
stepmother Amira (Sasha Behar) and reports him to his father, he (Damee) is
banished.
The plot
thickens along similar lines of Moliere’s 1664 original. There is no Sun King
in Birmingham, but Gupta and Pinto provide a mouthy, spirited and funny Bosnian
Muslim maid in Darina (Michelle Bonnard) who engineers a happy ending.
The overall
result is funny and highly entertaining. Bonnard, vacuum cleaner in hand,
manages to be hilarious every time she appears. She engages the audience, goes
among them to vacuum and on seeing coats between rows asks if those people have
not heard of a cloakroom. And she can quote the Qu’ran and outtalk Tartuffe.
Nagra as the
idiotic dupe is comical especially when he is forced to hide in a couch while
Tartuffe tries to seduce his pretty wife. Behar is the smart Amira, a woman who
knows what she wants, how to handle a stupid husband and how to do a comic
role.
Sasha Behar as Amira. Photo: Topher McGrillis
Equal kudos to
Hasan, Bajaj and James Clyde as the not-too-bright friend of the family and a
convert to Islam. Amina Zia tended to overdo it as the grandmother, but she got
the laughs.
Asif Khan, beard
approaching his navel, is the perfect holy man who wants nothing for himself
and is serving Allah alone. He does get ownership of Imran’s house and business
and wants his daughter and a piece of his wife but that should not detract from
his honest piety. Caught the first time with Amira in flagrante delicto, using reverse psychology, he
convinces the dunce Imran of his innocence.
Director Iqbal
Khan maintains a good pace and stages the comic business well. He allows a few
Urdu phrases and the odd Bosnian word which may add colour.
The production
uses a band of musicians which plays several types of music and it is supposed
to enhance our pleasure. It does not. It is unnecessary at best and annoying at
worst.
In any event,
this Tartuffe is thoroughly entertaining and a pleasure to see him hoodwink Muslims
as well as he has been doing with Christians for more than three and a half
centuries.
_______________
Tartuffe by Moliere in a new version by Anil
Gupta and Richard Pinto continues until February 23, 2019 at the Swan Theatre,
Stratford-upon-Avon, England. www.rsc.org.uk
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