Dramaturge Research As the Dramaturge, the first thing that I did was to find different pictures from other productions of Tartuffe. These pictures represented the different costumes, set designs, furniture and decorations that have been used over time. I thought that these would be important for my team members in order for them to have a visual idea of what has been done before, so that we know how to proceed in our own production. It also important to note that since we had changed our production to being set in the 18th Century France, I tried to limit the furniture and decoration examples to what was popular in that time period. Attached are the pictures that I sent out to my team at the beginning in order for them to know how to precede in their own research. In addition to this, I also did a historical research on Tartuffe. On this, I focused on what was happening in France at the time and how the Tartuffe was received. Some of the main things I found out were:
Contrary to what one might think on first reading the play, Moliere did not write Tartuffe in an attempt to highlight any hypocrisy that was going on in the Church at that time. In fact, he was completely surprised with the negative criticism that the Catholic Church had to Tartuffe because he had not intended to target the Church. Unlike the current 5-Act play that it is, the first play was a 3-Act play that was first produced in 1664. It was performed in front of the King who approved of the play even though he was able to discern that the play was about hypocrisy. However, King Louis XIV later banned the play from being performed in France due to the strong opposition by the Church. He later allowed the play to be performed for the public after increasing pressure from the elite.
Between 1664-1669, Moliere attempted to change Tartuffe at least three times in order to have its ban lifted. In one of the attempts, Moliere actually changed the name of the play and that of Tartuffe as well. He tried to pass this version off to the public while the King was away from France but the Archbishop banned it.
It was interesting to note that this was not the first play performed in France with a “religious hypocrisy” theme. In fact, multiple Italian plays with the same theme had been performed in French theatres although the main difference is that the plays portrayed comic hypocrisy in Heaven. Moliere’s hypocrisy was targeted towards members of the church, hence such a negative reaction.
Certain changes were made in the play from the original version. One such change was
