On the big stage of the National Theater on April 22, for the first time, the Sofia public will be able to see the most spectacular performance of the “Ivan Radoev” Drama and Puppet Theater – “Tartufe” by J. B. Moliere. The performance was awarded the Icarus 2024 nomination for “masterful technical execution”. Behind the large-scale project is the already proven tandem of the director Chris Sharkov and the set designer Nikola Toromanov-Ficho, supported by the original music of the composer Asen Avramov, the multimedia of Petko Tanchev, and the translation and dramaturgical version of Dimitar Kabakov.
Who is Tartuffe? The swindling glutton born 350 years ago or our contemporary? Our reflection or man’s inevitable companion? Nothing is what it seems and no one is who they say they are. Tartuffe is an unexpected and provocative director’s version of the play, for which Moliere was once forced to rewrite three times under the pressure of the clergy. To do this, Moliere turns the image of Tartuffe from a false priest who robs the pious family of the gullible Orgon, into a worldly serial cheat, magically punished in the finale by the hand of the King. These twists and turns in the genesis of the play are probably also the basis of the thousands of interpretations of Tartuffe to this day, moving from political satire, comedy of manners, to psychological family drama. Described as Moliere’s “darkest comedy,” every age stakes its great questions in it.
Chris Sharkov’s directorial reading weaves in fragments from the Old Testament and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem. The performance begins with the story of Jonah from the Old Testament, who, escaping from the commission to preach, was swallowed by a whale and lived in it for three days and three nights. And so Jonah/Tartuffe is cast ashore and taken into Orgon’s home. What next? A mysterious guest takes up residence in the home of the Orgon family, and soon it turns the lives of all the residents of the home upside down. Whether through love or denial, they are all obsessed with Tartuffe. But is Tartuffe a hypocrite, is he the familiar trickster, or is he a reflection of the demons of our society, which has replaced faith with illusions?
“Tartuffe” is a text that seems to have gone beyond its author, says Chris Sharkov. This is not just a moral, a farce about a con man, but a story about a man who comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. We are not dealing with the Tartuffe we know, but the Tartuffe we need, because he is our mirror. We will look not at Tartuffe the deceiver, but at the people who are deceived. Does he change them, or do they change him?” Modern Tartuffe falls like a stone in the quagmire of the Orgon family’s repressed desires. This leads to an ocean of passions, doubts and unexpected cruelty. The only possible ending to this brutal survival game is sacrifice. Anthony Penev, Adrian Filipov, Boryana Manoilova, Valentin Vasilev, Delyan Iliev, Marian Dulchev, Nadia Derderyan, Teona Dimova are participating. “Tartufe” is director Chris Sharkov’s second performance on the stage of Dramatic-Puppet Theater “Ivan Radoev”. In 2014, he staged Ibsen’s Enemy of the People.
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