Bitef

»l’âme en paix « comme disait un bon auteur que vous citez; les autres, qu’ils battent des mains ou m’adressent des lettres d’injures, c’est leur affaire. On ne peut pas leur parler, ils ont au départ décidé qu’ils n’écouteraient pas. Mais je m’aperçois brusquement que nous venons de jouer tous deux le ler1 er acte de Tartuffe. Vous avez magnifiquement interprété la réplique d’ Organ:

» Mon frère, ce discours sent le libertinage Vous en êtes un peu dans votre âme entiché,«

Et je vous ai (Pardon!) comme Cléante répondu longuement, trop longument:

» Voilà de vos pareils le dicours ordinaire Ils veulent que chacun soit aveugle comme eux. C’est être libertion que d’avoir de bons yeux « ... Ce soir ainsi que les autres soirs, Madame, lorsque les comédiens articuleront ces phrases je penserai à nous deux et je ne doute pas qu’un sourire naîtra sur les lèvres de Molière même s’il est en enfer od l’Archevêque de Paris à voulu l’envoyer.

Pourquoi ce sourire indicible sur ses lèvres? Parce qu’il sait que la vérité ne se trouve ni chez Organ ni chez Cléante. Ce n’est pas de »vérité« que le théâtre nous abreuve. Dans ses meilleurs moments il tente de nous le faire pressentir. Orgon et Cléante sur scène sont condamnés à se déchirer. Les personnages de théâtre ne peuvent que se déchirer afin que peu à peu on pressente que l’intérêt se trouve dans l’ensemble qu’ils forment. Comprendre un conflit de théâtre, c’est avancer vers cette ouverture poétique.

Recevez, Madame, mes salutations. Roger Planchón

P.S. Il va de soi que toutes les explications que l’on donne pour justifier un spectacle sont risibles, parce que superflues. Les plus savantes sont irrésistibles. Imperturbable, celui qui les fournit se doit de laisser les areres cacher la forêt.

planchon’s

Paris, June 18 '(IHT). » Tartuffe «

masterly

at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is one of Roger Planchón’ s most striking and

view o f

>searching productions an absorbing, provocative theatrical evening.

, What Planchón i has attempted is to give not only the play, but also a hint of the play

‘ tartuffe ‘

behind the play. »Tartuffe« has been a battle cry of freedom for 300 years. A sociological study of the corrosive influence of smothering religiosity, it caused the

bitterest literary controversy of the 17th century. In the 1880 s Léon Bloy declared that it was »the repercussions in the brain of a clown of the pietistic bellyrumbling of an ignoble age«.. In our own time. François Mauriac solemnly suggested that only Molière’ s Christian death excuses him for having writen it.

For his searing satire on the spritual Gestapo that bedeviled the France of his day, Molière selected as a clinical example a particular unit of the community on which it operated its chicanery—the family, a prosperous, middle-class family in the reign of Louis XIV. There is Organ, the middle-class husband; his young second wife; the two children of his first marriage the headstrong Damis and the timid Marianne, in love with Valere and nearly sacrificed to the intruding ogre; the puritanical mother-in-law; the urbane, reasoning

brother-in-law, and the common-sense maid, representative of the people, who sees through all. Into this bourgeois household the oily Tartuffe worms his way under the cloak of pious uplift. His saintly pose is the perfect mask for his machinations as he tries to cheat the gullible host of his possessions, seduce his wife and marry the daughter.

Planchón’ s production, retaining the text ir tota, embroiders the play with startling directorial and scenic innovations. Organ’s home is still under construction. The opening scenes take place amid debris and scaffolding and in the laundry. Curtains give way to curtains as we penetrate the interior of the house (and of the drama). The furniture and statuary of the main hall are under dust covers and the frescoes on the wall are unfinished. The inference is that this is the home

of a nouveau riche, who is credulous, generous and untutored in protective skepticism. Organ, by his very position in society, is in French argot » une belle poire«, a sucker. The details of the décor are explanations of the situation as the action discloses the cruel temper of the autocratic state in the shadows of which opportunists find rich pastures.

The production moves at a leisurely, almost stately pace, but the magic of the direction holds one rapt. Tempo and text are only at odds in the last act when the forlorn family finds its worst fears realized. Certain passages are brilliantly managed the lovers’ quarrel in the second act with Dorine, the outspoken maid, serving as referee; Tartiffe’s first thwarted attempt on Elmire; and the great scene in which, though at last unmasked, he beseeches pardon with abject humility. The thunderclap police raid is a smashing coup de theatre. It delivers the family from their oppressor, but one senses the terror will be remembered.

Planchón, the director, and Planchón, the actor, are artists of different caliber. As a director he has provided a fascinating production, vivid, vital and profound in its historical and sociological probing. In playing Tartuffe, however, he seems to have mistaken the role on occasion fo, that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and indulges Irimself in alarming quick changes as he transforms himself from stonefaced bigot to writhing wretch.

In contrast there is the finely measured Organ of Guy