Tartuffe [House of the Redeemer] – 27 October 2025

A venue rarely used for performance, House of the Redeemer’s historic library opens its doors to Andre De Shields and a full cast of characters for Tartuffe. The show boasts a pre-show of modern ballads before its descent into comedic, lilting rhyme scheme, drawing out Moliere’s themes about righteousness and power. Much of the humor is derived from characters roles having more or less power than one would normally attribute to their stations. For example, the most vocal, interesting woman is not the lady of the house, Elmire (Amber Iman), the landowner’s sister, Cleante (Hannah Beck), or the prized daughter, Mariane (Alexandra Socha), but rather the maid, Dorinne (Phoebe Dunn), who speaks her mind freely and meddles in affairs of the estate. As for the men, the seat of power lies not with the rich head of the household, Orgon (Chris Hahn), but with his underprivileged guest, Tartuffe (Andre De Shields), who is using false piety to gain favor so he can steal land, wealth, and even Orgon’s wife.

The rhyme scheme gave the performance a rather sing song quality, interrupted by Andre De Shields’ highly unique performance style, which leaned into everything from music to push ups. De Shields stopped the show, and the show leaned into that star power with emphatic lighting (Yang Yu) used nowhere else in the show. A lot of the characters are portrayed as ignorant and foolish, particularly Orgon himself; the lovers, Mariane and Valere (Charlie Lubeck); and Orgon’s mother, Madame Pernelle (Todd Buonopane). Tartuffe’s character prays on this ignorance and foolishness, yet De Shields also performs the role with a high level of absurdity, suggesting that everyone in the world is mad to various degrees, and that power and money can make a person so. Amber Iman’s portrayal of Elmire was level headed and even keeled, making her the most reasonable, rational character on stage. This might be because she will maintain her station no matter who triumphs between her husband Orgon and the doting Tartuffe. Elmire is able to expose the truth because she is unaffected by whether or not the truth becomes known; it gives her the courage to act.

Stylistically, the immersive nature of the show sometimes worked well, and at other times made it difficult for the audience to focus. For example, there were moments when actors stood behind seating banks and made small, ad libbed commentaries on what was going on in the center of the room. This was distracting and served no purpose. In scenes with many characters, there were times when it was difficult to tell where to look; a lot of audience members are accustomed to using lighting for this, but the choice to leave the general light cue (which included the house lights) on and to reserve lighting cues only for Andre De Shields seemed like a waste of potential, especially when De Shields’s star power speaks for itself. The entire cast is highly enthusiastic, but leans so heavily into the rhyme scheme that sometimes the message of the content is lost; De Shields is largely free of that, so I question director Keaton Wooden’s choice not to allow lighting to emphasize or highlight other moments of the show. The themes might have come through clearer with a little assistance from lighting or more assistance from sound (Bill Toles), though music director/score writer Drew Wutke does an excellent job of balancing being emphatic and getting out of the way when needed.

Tartuffe is high energy, and its site specific nature at House of the Redeemer elevates the production’s ambiance. The cast does an excellent job of moving around each other and deliberately missing each other’s meanings, as was Moliere’s intent. Playing on themes of mindlessness and mindfulness, this production brings dynamic energy to a timeless classic.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Boneau/Bryan-Brown.