Hamlet & Tartuffe
October 10 – November 9, 2003
Repertory Theater Returns to the Ohio Theatre for the First Time in 18 Years

Press Release

Hamlet
Performed in repertory with Tartuffe
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Charles Fee

Tartuffe
Performed in repertory with Hamlet
By Moliére
Directed by Drew Barr

September 23, 2003
CLEVELAND, OH – Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) will open its 42nd season with William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet and Moliére’s classic comedy, Tartuffe performed in rotating repertory at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center, October 10 - November 9, 2003. GLTF’s Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee will direct Hamlet and Drew Barr will direct Tartuffe. It is the first time in 18 years that Great Lakes Theater Festival has presented theater in this unique format. The event will feature a single company of nineteen actors performing two plays in alternation on the same stage over five weeks.

“Performing two plays in rotating repertory is an absolute blast,” said Charles Fee, the director of Hamlet and GLTF’s Producing Artistic Director. “It is truly exciting because of the sheer challenge that it presents for the actor in the company and for the thrill that it provides for the audience member experiencing that artist’s nightly transformation. Without a doubt, Hamlet and Tartuffe are two of the greatest plays ever written. They are the very foundation of the Western canon. To see these two plays performed together in rotating repertory is an amazingly enlightening and entertaining experience. Through performing these plays side by side, we are made keenly aware of the dialogue that these plays really can have with one another. At heart, they are both stories about hypocrisy and a family in crisis. Looking at these issues through Shakespeare’s verse and through Moliére’s, suddenly has the effect of illuminating the universal truths of both plays in much deeper ways than if the plays were performed singly on their own. This kind of exploration is immensely rewarding for us as artists as well as for us as audience members. Overall, it really is great fun. It has to be fun or we simply wouldn’t do it.”

Drew Barr, the director of Hamlet’s counterpart Tartuffe echoed Mr. Fee’s sentiments. “I think performing plays in rotating repertory is exciting because it gets down to what is essential to the theater,” said Barr. “It reminds the audience and the actor that this event happens anew every night. Both of these texts are very demanding, so for an actor, rehearsing and performing in repertory is like training for a marathon. But that said, the rehearsals feel relaxed and are quite a lot of fun. It is an interesting dichotomy, really, because the challenge is always very present.”

Indisputably one of the greatest tragedies of all time, Hamlet is the story of a young Prince by the same name who endeavors to uncover the source of what is “rotten in the state of Denmark.” Hamlet’s recently widowed mother has married his uncle while the ghost of Hamlet’s murdered father demands revenge. Forced by circumstance into a world turned upside down by distrust, madness and betrayal, Hamlet spirals through a whirlwind of erratic emotions and behaviors in his relentless pursuit of truth. Shakespeare’s poetic genius dramatizes a family in crisis and a son torn between duty and doubt while raising the profound human question, “can revenge grant us peace?” Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee will direct the Great Lakes Theater Festival production.

Moliére’s comic masterpiece Tartuffe, translated by Richard Wilbur, will complement Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. Intrigue, greed, lechery, betrayal and hypocrisy lay the foundation for great comedy in this hilarious classic. Tartuffe, a shallow swindler with charismatic magnetism, wins the trust of a wealthy merchant by masquerading as a pious prophet. Tartuffe’s charisma serves him well in his plan to separate a family from its money and it women from their virtue. Moliére’s wit takes center stage in one of the theater’s most enduring tales about a conman who discovers that the unattainable is always the most desirable. Great Lakes Theater Festival will welcome back Drew Barr to direct Tartuffe after last season’s acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing.

“One of the most thrilling things about working on Moliére’s plays is discovering the overwhelming life force and joy that infuses his writing. To see it unleashed on stage can be completely invigorating; certainly entertaining and amusing; and always holds the potential to shock us,” said Barr about his work on Tartuffe. “I have been continually surprised by this play throughout the rehearsal process. In Tartuffe, Moliére finds comedy in the way that a family responds to the introduction of a literal conman to their home – a man who disrupts their lives in increasingly serious and troublesome ways. For Moliére, the comedy lives in their anxiety over the situation. There is just so much life in this play. You can see it in Moliére’s original text and in Wilbur’s translation. It can sometimes feel like an incredible jewel in a glass case that you’re trying to unlock so that you can seize the jewel and hold it up to the light to see its brilliant color. However, also locked away in this case, is an incredible sense of wit and humor and the beautifully dynamic, living, breathing, thinking people that inhabit the world of Tartuffe that Moliére creates.”

GLTF’s rep features a single company of nineteen actors performing roles in both plays. “Top to bottom, this is the finest classical company of actors that I have ever had the opportunity to work with,” said Charles Fee of his repertory ensemble. “This single experience is bringing together Cleveland’s finest actors with the core company of actors that we have been able to build at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. To the person, this cast is experienced, skilled and very, very talented. It really is an amazing company of performers. To have them all together on one stage is a real privilege.”

Hamlet and Tartuffe will both be played by veteran actor Steve Tague; a Delaware-based actor who has performed in many major Shakespeare Festivals throughout the country. He was last seen in Cleveland as George, Duke of Clarence during Great Lakes Theater Festival’s 1998 production of Richard III. A director as well, Steve most recently staged Henry V for the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Mrs. Warren’s Profession for the Professional Theater Training Program at the University of Delaware where he is currently on the faculty.

Eleven of GLTF’s nineteen-member repertory acting company are Cuyahoga County residents. Local actor and Associate Artistic Director for Great Lakes Theater Festival, Andrew May, will play the roles of The Ghost of Hamlet’s Father/The 2nd Gravedigger/The Player King in Hamlet and Orgon in Tartuffe. He was last seen on the GLTF stage as Bottom in the Festival’s 2003 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Laura Perrotta, who plays Gertrude in Hamlet and Dorine in Tartuffe, currently resides in Cleveland Heights and has performed in theaters throughout the Cleveland area including Great Lakes Theater Festival, The Cleveland Play House and Dobama Theatre. Other Great Lakes Theater Festival credits include Gypsy, Macbeth, The Wild Duck, Romeo and Juliet and A Christmas Carol. Another Cleveland Heights resident and a veteran of the local Cleveland theater scene for many years, actress Paula Deusing will make her Great Lakes Theater Festival debut playing the role of Madame Pernelle in Tartuffe. Scott Plate, a ten year resident of Cleveland who has been seen in Great Lakes Theater Festival productions of A Christmas Carol, Travels With My Aunt, Antony and Cleopatra and Twelfth Night, will play the roles of Horatio in Hamlet and the Officer in Tartuffe. Wayne Turney, long-time Cleveland actor, director and educator will tackle the roles of Polonius in Hamlet and Monsieur Loyal in Tartuffe. Wayne has worked with arts organizations throughout northern Ohio and abroad including the Cleveland Play House, Great Lakes Theater Festival, The Cleveland Opera, Actors Summit and the Actors Theatre of Louisville and won an Emmy for his work on the television show Hickory Hideout. Other Cleveland actors in the company include Christopher Bohan, Kevin Brewer, Kato Buss, Bernadette Clemens, Victor D’Altorio and Cat McIntosh.

Aled Davies will return to the GLTF stage to play Claudius in Hamlet and Cléante in Tartuffe. He was last seen in Cleveland as Oberon and Leontes in last season’s Great Lakes Theater Festival productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. Also returning from GLTF’s 2002-2003 season with roles in the fall rep of Hamlet and Tartuffe are: Sara M. Bruner (Raina in Arms and the Man, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) who will tackle the roles of Ophelia in Hamlet and Mariane in Tartuffe; David Anthony Smith (Sergius in Arms and the Man, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing) portraying the roles of Laertes in Hamlet and Damis in Tartuffe; Lynn Robert Berg (Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) who will undertake Guildenstern in Hamlet and Laurent in Tartuffe; Jeffrey C. Hawkins (Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) who will portray the Player Queen/Barnardo in Hamlet and Valère in Tartuffe; Carie Yonekawa (Hero in Much Ado About Nothing, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) who will play an Attendant in Hamlet and Elmire in Tartuffe and Courtney Bohl who will make her Great Lakes Theater Festival debut as an Attendant in Hamlet and as Filpote in Tartuffe. All are veteran company members of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

Scenic designer, Gage Williams has created two vastly different sets for Hamlet and Tartuffe. Mr. Williams returns to GLTF after designing last season’s Arms and the Man and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Festival. His minimalist approach to Hamlet evolves around a single wall upstage with a lone portal that seemingly leads nowhere as a symbol of the abyss and despair that Hamlet struggles with throughout the play. Additional scenic elements give the design a formality and elegance that is both primitive and elegant. Hamlet’s scenic design is contrasted sharply by Williams’ design for the period surroundings of Tartuffe. Featuring a pair of ascending staircases and decidedly French detail, Tartuffe’s set design captures the opulent feel of Orgon’s 17th century dwelling. The neutral palettes for both scenic designs allow for strong contrasts in the costumes and bold lighting effects. Gage Williams was recently selected as a representative of the United States delegation to the 2003 Prague Quadrennial for his Hamlet scenic design.

Costume designer Star Moxley, who designed the costumes GLTF’s productions of Arms and the Man and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, will create the costumes for Hamlet while Kim Krumm Sorenson, who provided the costume design for Much Ado About Nothing, will design the clothing for Tartuffe. Lighting Designer, Rick Martin, and Sound Designer Peter Still will supply designs for both productions in the rotating repertory. Ken Merckx will restage the Fight Choreography originally conceived by Jamison Jones for GLTF’s production of Hamlet.

Charles Fee will direct Hamlet. Fee, GLTF’s Producing Artistic Director, joined Great Lakes Theater Festival in July, 2002. During his first season with the Festival, he directed acclaimed productions of Arms and the Man and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (nominated for a Northern Ohio Live Award of Achievement). He has strengthened the Festival’s partnership with Playhouse Square Center Foundation, setting in motion plans for a downtown Cleveland summer Shakespeare Festival in 2004. Mr. Fee is also the producing artistic director for the Idaho Shakespeare Festival (ISF), a position he has held since December, 1991. For the five years prior to joining the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Charlie held the position of artistic director at the Sierra Repertory Theatre in northern California. He has worked with such companies as The Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, the Milwaukee and Missouri Repertory Theaters, Actor’s Theatre of Phoenix and the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival. He received his Bachelors degree from the University of the Pacific and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego.

Drew Barr will direct Tartuffe. Barr returns to Great Lakes Theater Festival after directing last season’s Much Ado About Nothing. He arrives in Cleveland having just finished staging a production of The Fantasticks at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. Previously for ISF, Drew has directed Much Ado About Nothing and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Other recent credits include Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession for NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and Donald Margulies’ Dinner With Friends for PlayMakers Repertory Company, where Drew is an artistic associate and where he has directed productions of Wit, Side Man and Violet. Barr has worked for a host of arts organizations across the country including: Portland Stage Company in Maine, and the University of Washington’s School of Drama. His New York credits include Off-Broadway premieres of Adam Bock’s The Typographer’s Dream (Clubbed Thumb at HERE) and Steve Murray’s This Passion Thing (The Working Group at MCC), revivals of Harry Kondoleon’s Christmas On Mars and Self-Torture and Strenuous Exercise (Producers Club Theater), a workshop of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a grown-up version of A.A. Milne’s play for children The Ugly Duckling (both for the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab). He has directed for New York Stage and Film, the HB Playwright’s Foundation, P-73 Productions, the West Bank Café Theater and the Young Playwrights Festival. Drew received his BA from Stanford University and his MFA from the Graduate Acting Program of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

The performance schedule for Hamlet and Tartuffe includes preview performances on Friday, October 10 (Hamlet) and Friday, October 17 (Tartuffe) at 7:30 p.m., with Opening Nights scheduled for Saturday, October 11 (Hamlet) and Saturday, October 18 (Tartuffe) at 7:30 p.m. Performances are scheduled for Thursday through Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m. Saturday matinees begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday matinees begin at 3:00 p.m. Sign interpreted performances are offered on Sunday, October 19 at 3:00 p.m. (Tartuffe) and Sunday, October 26 at 3:00 p.m. (Hamlet). Audio described performances are offered on Sunday, November 2 at 3:00 p.m. (Tartuffe) and Sunday, November 9 at 3:00 p.m. (Hamlet). A complete list of performance dates and times is also available on our Season Calendar.

Tickets range from $11 - $45. For tickets call (216) 241-6000 or order online. Discounts for students, educators and groups of 10 or more are available by calling (216) 241-5490 x318.
Since 1962, Great Lakes Theater Festival has brought the power, pleasure and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in Northern Ohio.

Reviews: Hamlet

Scene Magazine
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
The Mad Prince
Denmark’s favorite son murders and mopes in a fine Hamlet.
By Christine Howey

It’s Halloween month, so what better time to cozy up with a dandy ghost story, replete with treachery, stabbings, poisonings, madness, and, oddly enough, quite a few laughs. No, it isn’t Scary Movie 5; it’s none other than Hamlet, now being performed in repertory with Tartuffe at the Great Lakes Theater Festival. This elegantly straightforward production of old Will’s most famous tragedy features a number of excellent performances, a startlingly effective minimalist set, and diction-perfect delivery of the Bard’s rich language.

But what if you’re not a Shakespeare buff? What if you find his Elizabethan language damned near impossible to understand? Indeed, what if you’d rather undergo three hours of gum surgery than spend the same time watching the Prince of Denmark? Well, get a grip. Nobody outside of a doctoral presentation can follow all of Shakespeare’s language word for word, but the plot of Hamlet is pretty basic (revenge for a murdered father), so you could probably get the drift even without a word being spoken. But when the words are intoned, you suddenly encounter the real power of the English language, a force not evidenced in the weekly scripts of According to Jim. And here’s a tip: Instead of attending a Shakespeare play and expecting to understand every phrase as it’s uttered, approach the play as if you were watching a superb word-jazz orchestra. Don’t fight it, go with the flow, and you’ll discover an exciting way of interacting with the language we casually butcher every day.

Chief among the pleasures of this production is Steve Tague as college-boy Hamlet (given Tague’s thirtysomething age, Hamlet is apparently a professional student), who turns in a precisely nuanced performance as the gaunt and black-clad prince. By turns impish and imperious, Tague’s Hamlet is consumed with hatred for his uncle, the new King Claudius. That’s because Claudius is sitting on the throne with Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude (Laura Perrotta), on his lap -- mere weeks after the death of her husband, the king. In short: Dad’s dead, mom’s playing kissy-face with Uncle Claude, and, to make matters worse, Dad’s ghost appears to finger Claudius himself as the assassin. This is clearly more family trauma than Dr. Phil could handle, even in back-to-back episodes, but Shakespeare turns it into eternally quotable commentaries on Hamlet’s brink-of-suicide confusion and despair (“To be or not to be . . .”) and his diabolical plot to get even.

Of course, any playwright as gifted as our Bill knows that such heavy fare requires some lighter interludes. Enter Polonius, father of Hamlet’s best girl, Ophelia (a delicate and affecting Sara M. Bruner), and the strapping Laertes (played with rigid righteousness by David Anthony Smith). As Polonius, Wayne Turney cagily bleeds every laugh from the old man’s meandering investigation into Hamlet’s apparently psychotic melancholy. The laughter fades, however, when Hamlet stabs the eavesdropping Polonius to death in Gertrude’s chamber, sending Ophelia reeling into madness and setting Hamlet and Laertes on their fatally doomed course. Toward the end, the inveterately entertaining Turney returns, poor Yorick’s skull in hand, as the comically perceptive gravedigger.

As good as it is, the production occasionally falters because of a couple of unfortunate choices. Hamlet and his close buddy, Horatio, seem an odd pairing, with Scott Plate’s open, puppy-dog characterization of Horatio clanging against Tague’s brooding Prince. Also, Aled Davies is rather too soft and dweebish for the villainous uncle, never establishing the venomous relationship between himself and his nephew. The very capable Andrew May plays the ghost of the late King, but since his sepulchral voice is fed through an echo chamber, it renders his acting talents moot. Finally, the execution of the climactic sword duel between Hamlet and Laertes, although well choreographed, lacks the spontaneity and rapier-sharp violence that would make it a properly breathtaking dénouement.

Still, Director Charles Fee has created a powerful, no-nonsense Hamlet, without resorting to the sometimes quirky conceptual tweaks of modern dress or arcane interpretations. His vision is buttressed by scenic designer Gage Williams’s set, which features a single upstage stone wall, a mystically elevated doorway, and a large, flowing square of fabric that creates waves and ground fog and then disappears in a flash beneath the stage. The feeling of serene simplicity amid the plot line’s tumult is enhanced by Star Moxley’s rich but restrained costumes.
However, Fee’s most admirable achievement is in making Shakespeare’s formidable words the real star of the production. His players not only enunciate spectacularly well; they imbue each exchange and soliloquy with the passion and playfulness, the insight and angst that have made Hamlet the most frequently performed play in the world.

The Cleveland Jewish News
Friday, October 17, 2003
‘A palpable hit’ at GLTF
By Fran Heller, Freelance Writer

In the second scene of Shakespeare’s great tragedy, “Hamlet,” the newly married king, his queen and court are celebrating their nuptials.
All are cloaked in crimson.

Since the audience will soon learn that the crown was usurped by a murder, with more bloodshed to come, it is the visual spectacle of red, the color of blood, that seizes our imagination from the outset and never lets go.

Young Hamlet, dressed in black mourning clothes, lurks in the background, curled up against the wall and almost invisible. Suddenly he unfolds, bursting upon the revelry. The two colors, black and red, suggest a checkerboard in which the antagonists play out their strategies.

Charles Fee, artistic director of Great Lakes Theater Festival and director of “Hamlet” scores a hit, “a palpable hit,” indeed, to borrow a line from the play, with this brilliant opening and a production that is quite good and at times even splendid. While there are some misses as well, it is thrilling to see classical theatre return to Cleveland and to witness the birth of a repertory company* that in time, can only get better.

At first, Steve Tague seems too weathered for the role of Hamlet, a university student who has returned home upon the death of his father. But Tague quickly compensates for his lack of youthful appearance with a Hamlet that is in turn moody, violent, vengeful, antic and tragic - in a word, larger than life.

One of the few disappointments is Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, “to be or not to be,” in which a melancholic Hamlet contemplates suicide. Tague’s monologue suffers from the distracting presence of Ophelia, wordlessly watching Hamlet throughout the peroration. It’s the one speech that falls flat in Tague’s otherwise soaring performance.

As the usurper, Claudius, Aled Davies makes it hard to believe that Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, would fall for such a wimp. Davies’ performance lacks the conviction of a man, now king, who, obsessed with ambition, has ruthlessly clawed and murdered his way to the top.

The scene in which a morally conflicted Claudius tries to repent through prayer is muted in Davies’ lackluster emotional struggle. In the same vignette, Rick Martin’s lighting illuminates the stage in the shape of the cross. It’s a nice touch.

The lovely Laura Perrotta is a fitting Queen Gertrude, a warmhearted, albeit weak woman who remains innocent of the cause of her first husband’s death. She is tender and loving to her son, and Hamlet’s rejection is visibly more than she can bear.

A white-faced Andrew May (terrific makeup job) is the ghost of King Hamlet, who appears from an opening in the parapet before the night watch, and then to Horatio and Hamlet. Costumer Star Moxley drapes May in kingly robes, while Peter John Still’s sound design amplifies his voice like the wrath of God. Gage Williams’ billowy set implies, alternately, Purgatory or the clouds of heaven.

The hand-held curtains marking scene changes work at times, but at other times are distracting They are extremely effective in the last scene, when the king is literally trapped by the drapery before he is undone. The clothesline bisecting the stage from which black curtains serve as a hiding place, is intrusive and annoying.

The closing scene, including the duel between Hamlet and Laertes, and Gertrude’s drinking of the poison, is as mesmerizing as the opener. Director Fee, aided by fight choreographer Ken Merckx, masterfully builds the tension towards the bloody climax.

As Ophelia, Sara M. Bruner starts off weakly, but grows into the part of the sweet, docile girl who loves Hamlet, yet remains dominated by her father, Polonius. Bruner’s performance as the “mad” Ophelia is a triumph.

And what a piece of work is Wayne Turney’s rich characterization of the meddlesome and garrulous Polonius! Polonius provides much of the drama’s comic relief; from the platitudinous advice he gives his departing son, Laertes, to his fatuous claims of understanding Hamlet’s malaise and his unsavory spying, which leads to his undoing. Turney’s star also rises as the comical gravedigger matched by Andrew May’s droll performance as the gravedigger’s companion.

Dressed as twins, Rosencrantz (Kevin Brewer) and Guildenstern, (Lynn Robert Berg) are portrayed as lowbrow comic characters and witless dupes. Hamlet’s interaction with his disloyal friends smacks of The Three Stooges, a bit too broad for this viewer’s tastes.

Laertes (David Anthony Smith) is in many ways Hamlet’s foil, a son who also hankers for revenge of a slain father. Smith is over the top as Laertes in a one-note performance that lacks subtlety. Scott Plate bestows Horatio with the appropriate restraint of Hamlet’s best friend.

What a pleasure to have actors whose elocution pays due homage to the magnificence of Shakespeare’s language. At curtain’s close, I felt I had been privy to something special. The standing ovation Hamlet and company received on opening night proved I was not alone.

* “The Tragedy of Hamlet” can be seen in rotating repertory with Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of Moliere’s classic comedy, “Tartuffe,” at the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square Center through November 9. Tartuffe, opening Sat., Oct 18, will be reviewed in next week’s CJN.

Reviews: Tartuffe

Plain Dealer
Monday, October 20, 2003
Yum! What Delicious Treats Await Watchers
By Tony Brown

“Tartuffe” means “truffle,” a hidden delicacy. That’s an apt definition for the Great Lakes Theater Festival production of Moliere’s great comedy that opened over the weekend at the Ohio Theatre.

What a tasty morsel is unearthed by Great Lakes, director Drew Barr and, standing astride the whole thing like a benevolent acting god, performer Andrew May, who leaves no nook or cranny of goofiness unexplored as the gullible Orgon.

“Tartuffe,” a mid-17th century French comic bauble about a wily hypocrite who poses as a pious

preacher to insinuate himself into the bosom of a wealthy family, serves as a nearly perfect foil for “Hamlet,” an early 17th-century English tragedy.

Great Lakes uses the same cast to present both plays in repertory though Nov. 9. Barr does little to explore or deepen Moliere’s darker questions about religious piety and the hypocrites who profit by it, or to connect Tartuffe and his deceptions to today’s televangelists and proponents of faith-based initiatives.

But such things can often be taken too far. Sometimes it’s just best to play Moliere for pure froth and let the audience members, who are laughing too hard to realize they’re being taught something, make their own connections.

Thankfully, Great Lakes doesn’t foolishly go off in search of some modern translation. No other English version will ever be necessary, thanks to Richard Wilbur, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose succinct couplets capture Moliere’s playful tartness.

Barr, who directed the fall- down funny, big band-era “Much Ado About Nothing” at Great Lakes last season, sticks with the broad brush, rarely passing up any opportunity for a nudge- nudge sight gag or outrageous line reading.

Set designer Gage Williams provides a huge canvas, a tall, wide foyer framed by a grand stair. An enormous window seems slightly anachronistic beside Kim Sorenson’s late-Renaissance costumes, but it also brings to mind an apt adage about glass houses.

And as Barr’s clown-in-chief, May conducts a one-man master class on how far a comic role can be pushed. Mars, he demonstrates, isn’t far enough.

Students of May’s work who thought he could never equal his hambonery in “I Hate Hamlet,” his facial contortions in “The Infinite Regress of Human Vanity” or the silliness of his Nick Bottom will be delighted to find themselves proven wrong.

May’s Orgon, the blindly believing host who welcomes the thieving Tartuffe, never misses a chance to be deluded. Just when it seems that May will go overboard, he does - sighing, grim acing, yelping - and somehow makes it work beautifully.

No one else in the 15-member cast flies at this altitude, which is probably best. But several achieve moments that wrench attention from Orgon, if only momentarily.

As Moliere’s clever servant, Dorine, Laura Perrotta goes toe- to-comic-toe with May in several spats, giving us a preview of their upcoming face-off in “Private Lives.”

And in the title role, Steve Tague, a technically superb actor who also plays Hamlet, quietly skulks as a rat-faced, razor-thin Tartuffe. But his subtle approach to slime lacks an intensity of purpose that would lift his end of the comedy higher.

This and other shortcomings are minor compared to the major enjoyment this delicious stage concoction brings. If “Tartuffe” is a truffle, it’s the chocolate kind, dusted with irony, rich with buffoonery and fat with frivolity.

If May were writing this review, he would take that as his cue to belch.

Bon appetit.

© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.

The Cleveland Jewish News
Tartuffe a triumph at Great Lakes
By Fran Heller, Freelance Writer

Move over Stratford, Canada, and make room for Great Lakes Theater Festival, a hot “new” classical repertory company making a splash with a passing good “Hamlet,” and now, a tidal wave with Moliere’s “Tartuffe.”

The latter is, in a word, awesome.

The show is a delicious confection of acting, directing and designing and an impeccable adaptation of Moliere’s classic comedy about religious hypocrisy. I still can’t stop laughing.

For starters, Moliere is one of literature’s greatest comic geniuses, whose plays, written more than 300 years ago, reflect a profound understanding of human nature. The brilliant translation by Richard Wilbur is a veritable delight of rhyming couplets that sharpen both the humor and the wit.

Director Drew Barr sparks the poetry of Moliere and Wilbur with some fireworks of his own, including a dynamite ensemble whose synchronized sighing and swaying makes it seem as if they have been working together all their lives. These well-versed actors are having an absolute blast on stage, radiating energy and charisma.

Scenic designer Gage Williams creates the perfect milieu for this farce with a majestic rococo staircase and a gigantic picture window that overlooks serene Mother Nature outside and the follies of human nature within.

As the play begins, Tartuffe, an imposter and religious poseur, has already insinuated himself into the heart and household of gullible Orgon, a wealthy bourgeois whose midlife crisis has forced him to take leave of his good senses and don the cloak of religious piety.

Eschewing wife, children and worldly pleasures, Orgon’s infatuation with Tartuffe, the hypocrite, reaches crisis proportions when he disinherits his son and insists that his daughter, promised to another, become the wife of Tartuffe.

In “Tartuffe,” Moliere is not attacking religion per se, but religious hypocrisy and the misuse of religion for personal gain. The play also exemplifies the eternal conflict between youth and age and that of a jealous older parent who sees life slipping by and younger offspring for whom life is just beginning.

The titters begin with the hypercritical Madame Pernelle, Orgon’s puritanical old mother, lambasting her jovial young daughter-in-law and adult grandchildren about their unseemly frivolity. The gravel voice of Paula Duesing suits this scold of a woman who doesn’t let anyone get a word in edgewise.

Draped in costumer Kim Krumm Sorenson’s somber black, which fits her dour character, the grim Madame Pernelle is a stark contrast to the colorful attire of her younger and more cheerful counterparts.

Andrew May, one of Cleveland’s finest actors, is at his comic best as the doddering old fool, Orgon, who worships Tartuffe to the point of idolatry. Fearing the passing of his youth, and the diminishment of his authority, Orgon reasserts himself under the mantle of his newfound religious convictions.

May’s exaggerated, hilarious portrait of Orgon is that of an old man going through a second childhood, as he stomps and bellows in a household that virtually ignores him.

While Orgon has taken leave of his senses, the maid, Dorine, is full of good sense, and her impertinence drives much of the play’s humor. Laura Perrotta gives a standout performance as the witty and saucy servant girl who stands up to her misguided master in an effort to help him see the light.

Tartuffe is the ultimate con man, played like a weasel by consummate actor Steve Tague, whose bald pate, gaunt features, and flowing red robe take on the mien of a Buddhist monk. The two attempted seduction scenes in which an oily Tartuffe paws his way into the affections of Orgon’s much younger, second wife, Elmire, are priceless. Elmire is played with a demure and artful cunning by the lovely Carie Yonekawa.

Like Dorine, Cleante, Elmire’s brother, is also a fount of wisdom, but he’s so longwinded, nobody pays attention to him. Aled Davies gives the garrulous Cleante just the right affectation and foppishness.

David Anthony Smith plays Orgon’s hot-headed son, Damis, who tries to blow the whistle on Tartuffe. Sara M. Bruner is appropriately timid as the spineless daughter, Mariane, who agrees to wed Tartuffe as her father orders, instead of standing by Valere, the one she really loves.

An antic Jeffrey C. Hawkins, as the consummate gentleman Valere, attempts to leave Mariane in one of the comedy’s funniest scenes.

Even the minor characters are portrayed with virtuosity. These include Wayne Turney as Monsieur Loyal, a bailiff who serves the eviction order, and Scott Plate as an officer of the king, who restores grace to a worshipful household.

I can’t wait to see “Tartuffe” – again!

Cleveland Scene
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Pious Hilarity
Rousing Tartuffe punctures a purveyor of spiritual humbug.
By Christine Howey

With all the vein-popping arguments about whether a southern judge should plop a two-ton boulder bearing the inscription of the Ten Commandments at his courthouse and whether kids should dutifully recite “One nation under God” in their morning pledge of allegiance, it’s good to remember that religion and hypocrisy often are inextricably entwined. Can anyone count the number of famous people who, while they eagerly describe themselves as church-going, have demonstrated an inability to make their real lives particularly devout? Can you say Bubba, Newt, and Rush? One wonders what the genius playwright Molière would have made of such scoundrels, had he managed not to have his head explode from the über-hypocrisy currently afoot.

Fortunately, Molière hit upon this topic three centuries ago in his classic Tartuffe, which is being given a rollicking rendition by the Great Lakes Theater Festival. In it, the affable and wealthy Orgon is held in a trance and taken huge advantage of by his houseguest, the seemingly righteous but conniving Tartuffe. Part of the fun is that Tartuffe’s mask is ripped off long before he even arrives onstage, as lady’s maid Dorine (a feisty Laura Perrotta) regales the household with tales of the man’s true and lowly nature. Eventually, she and Orgon’s wife (Carie Yonekawa) devise a plan to show Orgon just what a scuzzball Tartuffe is, but that’s just the beginning of the twists and turns in this frothy romp.

Usually, this play relies on great performances of Orgon and Tartuffe to float all the frivolity. And Andrew May as Orgon is a thorough delight, as he morphs from Tartuffe’s enthralled dittohead to his scandalized foe. Constantly one-upped by his relatives and staff, May’s creation is a comical party favor, bursting with momentary impulses and wayward intuitions. But May and director Drew Barr never allow Orgon to descend into pure burlesque or slapstick. And, to prove how strong the entire ensemble is, the production manages to withstand the capable but dour presence of Steve Tague in the title role. Tartuffe should be a sensualist, who uses the illusion of self-denial to indulge in monumental feasts -- gustatory and otherwise. Instead, Tague looks like a genuine ascetic: anorexically thin, with dark, hooded eyes. Moreover, Tague’s interpretation is so raw and morose, it’s hard to imagine how he ever ingratiated himself with even so hapless a dupe as Orgon. That said, Tague is a fearsome enemy, once he’s revealed to his benefactor, setting up the deus-ex-machina ending, which comes complete with a white knight entering in a silver cloud.

Richard Wilbur’s reliable translation of Molière’s language, even with the avalanche of rhymed couplets, sounds as fresh and frisky as if it had been written last year. Here’s the dense Orgon’s reasoning, as he tries to convince his resistant daughter to marry Tartuffe: “The more you loathe and dread him/The more ennobling it will be to wed him!” Great stuff, at least until the play about Rush gets written.

Photos: Hamlet

Actor Steve Tague plays Hamlet in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s season opener at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center. Photo by Roger Mastroianni		Steve Tague (Hamlet, above) and Aled Davies (Claudius, below) star in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of Hamlet at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center. Photo by Roger Mastroianni
Kevin Brewer (Rosencrantz, left), Steve Tague (Hamlet, center) and Lynn Robert Berg (Guildenstern, right) in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of Hamlet playing at the Ohio Theatre through November 9,2003. Photo by Roger Mastroianni Scott Plate (Horatio, above) and Steve Tague (Hamlet, below) star in GreatLakes Theater Festival’s production of Hamlet at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center. Photo by Roger Mastroianni

Photos: Tartuffe

Steve Tague (Tartuffe, above) and Andrew May (Orgon, below) in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of Tartuffe playing in rotating repertory with Hamlet at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center through November 9, 2003. Photo by Roger Mastroianni		Carie Yonekawa (Elmire) and Steve Tague (Tartuffe) star in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of Tartuffe playing in rotating repertory with Hamlet at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center through November 9, 2003. Photo by Roger Mastroianni
Andrew May (Orgon, left), Sara M. Bruner (Mariane, seated) and Laura Perrotta (Dorine, standing) in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of Tartuffe playing in rotating repertory with Hamlet at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center through November 9, 2003. Photo by Roger Mastroianni Carie Yonekawa (Elmire) and Steve Tague (Tartuffe) star in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of Tartuffe playing in rotating repertory with Hamlet at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center through November 9, 2003. Photo by Roger Mastroianni Carie Yonekawa (Elmire, left), Andrew May (Orgon, center) and David Anthony Smith (Damis, right) in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of Tartuffe playing in rotating repertory with Hamlet at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center through November 9, 2003. Photo by Roger Mastroianni