Fun & Rhymes: Tartuffe @ Ghostlight Theatricals

Tartuffe, Ghostlight Theatricals at Odd Fellows Hall
Through April 21, tickets $12/$10 students/seniors

"Ghost Light Theatricals’ mission is to make theatrical theatre by creating bold and imaginative worlds; to tell timeless stories so that they resonate with a modern audience."

Last weekend we went to see Tartuffe, this play by an old French dude named Moliere. And for reals man, we dug it. We forgot that old French dudes used to write their stuff so it rhymed. That almost threw us at first, like it was a kid's story. But then we got into it -- it's about this fake religious dude who's trying to scam this family out of all their money and house and everything -- and it got so we didn't really notice. Except when the old grandma talked, because she hit the rhymes hard. But maybe that's how old French grandmas talked. You know what it made us think of was that movie by that one Rushmore dude about the family where Gene Hackman was the dad and they were all fucked up somehow. You see that flick? This is kinda like that, except there's guy Orgon (played by a dude named Patrick Allcorn) who kinda acts like Carl Spackler, except with a full-on handlebar 'stache, and the dude is clueless as shit. There's a lot of people in the cast, and they're all alright -- this chick Mariane (Colleen Robertson, we looked it up) is in love with this poindexter Valere and holy crap you have got to hear this chick melt down when she hears her dad wants her to marry Tartuffe. You will lose your shit, guaranteed. The religious guy, Tartuffe (Michael Oaks) made us think of like John Waters as that skeezy TV preacher dude Bakker. Awesome. What a freakin hypocrite, always marching around with his cross, and he just wants to bang Carl Spackler's wife. (You won't believe it dude but there's this time he's stiff-legging it after the chick cuz he's got this huge boner!) The furniture was pretty cool, too. You could tell they didn't have a lot of money, they just like getting together to do these old-time plays, but they went all Day-Glo with the colors, and the clothes were sweet. Oh, and Becky Chong is Carl's sister-in-law and she's always giving him advice and she's right but no way dude would you ever listen to a word she says cuz she's totally all up in your face. At the intermission -- we got up and got a chocolate chip cookie and it was awesome so we can recommend you drop some coin there -- some lady sitting in front of us goes, "It's just so timeless, isn't it?" and her husband is there and he goes -- you gotta remember it's Saturday night, he's pissed he's missing the game -- he goes, "It's a lot funnier than I expected." Word, bro. It's a satire, maybe that's why. We read where it was banned when the dude Moliere first tried to put it on, and he had to get the king's okay to show it. That probably explains how it ends -- you'll see. We were like, whoa, didn't see that coming. Oh, last thing, Beth Raas directed the whole thing and we don't know how much the actors made up or what-not, but it all worked which is probably due to her being good at directing -- we noticed even between scenes the actors were timing their moves to the cartoony-type music that was playing, which is pretty impressive, dude. Think about it.