"Let's start with what's incontestably true: Molière was a stone-cold baddie. More than a hundred years before the French Revolution, his riotous, scathing satires dared to speak truth to some of the most absolute power in the world. He walked the tightrope of the Sun King's favor while pulling the Rococo rug out from under hypocrisy, stupidity, sanctimony, and greed."
"We need new translations, and- grâce à Dieu!-now we've got one. At New York Theatre Workshop, Lucas Hnath has approached Molière's Tartuffe with a strut in his step, a streak of irreverence that the French showman would likely appreciate. Under Sarah Benson's characteristically light yet merciless direction, and in the hands of an ensemble of turbo-powered comic talents, Hnath's translation snaps and sizzles and, crucially, genuinely entertains."
Molière produced provocative, scathing satires that challenged absolute power, wrote 35 plays, performed in almost 100, and died after hemorrhaging onstage during The Imaginary Invalid in 1673. Modern American productions often emphasize period costume and farce while losing the plays' sharp, subversive edge. Decades of reliance on Richard Wilbur's translations have flattened Molière's Alexandrine verse into sing-song couplets that obscure the originals' poetic melody. Hearing Molière in French reveals rhymes tucked into a sly, subversive tumble and flow that translations must recapture. Lucas Hnath's new translation of Tartuffe at New York Theatre Workshop, directed by Sarah Benson, restores snap, sizzle, irreverence, and genuine entertainment. The production combines turbo-powered comic performances with merciless direction to deliver both laugh-out-loud humor and piercing satirical impact.
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