`TARTUFFE': SKEWERING HYPOCRISY

The problem: How to present a 300-year-old French play in verse, one of the stage's greatest satires, to audiences accustomed to realistic acting.

The solution: Transplant Moliere's "Tartuffe" to late 19th century middle America.

"I thought it would make it fresh for the audience, that it wouldn't make a museum piece out of the play," said Donald Schulte, the play's director.

Fortunately or not, the target of "Tartuffe's" rapier -- religious hypocrisy -- plays in any day and age.

The play will open at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Rose Theatre at Southeast Missouri State University. The production will continue at 8 p.m. Feb. 22, 23, 24, and at 2 p.m. Feb. 25.

"Tartuffe" combines Three Stooges-style slapstick with Moliere's clever wit in a work that is good fun and "will send the audience home thinking," Schulte said.

The translation is by Richard Wilbur, America's second poet laureate.

The play was banned for five years upon its publication in 1669, primarily because Moliere challenged the Catholic hierarchy. "Moliere had a specific group in mind," Schulte said. "He was convinced the Jesuits were the worst of hypocrites."

Schulte has weeded out such specifics and topical references. "It's not anti-religious, it's anti-hypocrisy," he said of the play. "It was opposed by people who thought they specifically were being pinpointed."

Tartuffe is a religious con man who wheedles his way into the graces of a rich family by playing on the patriarch's increasingly desperate sense of piety.

"It's especially despicable to take advantage of people who are not only innocent but faithful," Schulte said.

The director restrained himself from completely modernizing "Tartuffe," afraid a present-day treatment would drain some of the play's theatricality.

"The style of acting has changed so much in the last 100 years," he said.

What has evolved is a style that lies somewhere between Moliere and a realistic style, Schulte said.

Besides updating the play, Schulte also has taken liberties with the final scene, which in its original form blatantly panders to King Louis XIV.

"I just cut most of it," he said, "and I don't think it hurts it one bit."

The cast includes Beth Blomquist, Jeremy Welch, Kim Westrich, Ryan Burkett, Jessica Wilson, Scott Mercer, Steve Ruppel, Bob Clubbs, Laura Leyes, Joe Brewer, Jason Green and Marsha Bollinger.

Dennis C. Seyer is the production's scenic designer, lighting designer and technical director.

The production stage manager is Don Marler and Marsha Bollinger is the assistant director.