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originally published: 03/22/2023 

(BROOKLYN, NY) -- Molière in the Park, in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance and LeFrak Center at Lakeside, will present the English language world premiere of Molière’s Tartuffe Or The Hypocrite, reconstructed by Georges Forestier, translated by Maya Slater, and directed by Molière in the Park’s Founding Artistic Director Lucie Tiberghien. Tartuffe Or The Hypocrite runs May 6-27, 2023 in a limited engagement at Prospect Park’s LeFrak Center in Brooklyn.

Presenting a never seen before “Tartuffe” seems unimaginable. Yet, that’s what audiences will get a chance to see in Prospect Park this May when Molière in the Park stages the English language world premiere of Molière's original “Tartuffe,” written in 1664, and immediately banned by the King of France.

Lost to history, this original play was reconstructed by Georges Forestier, a renowned French historian, through a process of historical genetics, and premiered at La Comédie Française in Paris in 2022. Now, it will be presented in English for the first time ever on the Molière in the Park stage. Join MIP for a more confrontational but just as hilarious Tartuffe Or The Hypocrite, censored and lost because it dared to expose the willful denialism and folly of extreme religiosity.

A bible-thumping slug enters the home of a puritan bug, mix in love, power, and fleshly fantasies by the hour, and call it Molière’s original plug!

If ever a play, plumed back in the day, knew exactly with what we’d be dealing. THIS tale by Molière, might be older fare, but the story’s even more… revealing.

 

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Lucie Tiberghien states, “I never thought I’d be able to say Molière in the Park is presenting a new play by Molière. Yet this is what we’re doing, at a time when the two factors that led to the banning and disappearance of the original script have re-emerged in the U.S. with furious energy: censorship, and willful denialism. Theater for all, as free entertainment, as a catalyst for empathy in our communities and as a conduit for political and social discourse is what we set out to offer when founding Molière in the Park. This English language world premiere, penned 359 years ago, gives us a distinct and immediate chance at providing all 3; an exciting AND terrifying prospect because… how exactly have we evolved in those 359 years?”

Moliere in the Park co-founders Garth Belcon & Lucie Tiberghien - photo by Russ Rowland.

Produced by MIP Co-Founding Executive Producer Garth Belcon. The production team includes Alex Jourdan (Set Design), Stoli Stolnack (Lighting Design), Jessica Irvin (Costume Design) and Madison Lane (Production Stage Manager).

Cast to be announced at a later date.

Tartuffe Or The Hypocrite runs May 6 - 27, 2023 in a limited engagement at Prospect Park’s LeFrak Center in Brooklyn. Enter at 171 East Drive between Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Road. Previews begin May 6 for a May 11 opening.

Post-show Q&A’s with the artists follow matinee performances on May 10, 17, 18, 23 and 24. Tickets are free. Schedule varies - for exact days and times, and to reserve seats, click here.

The mission of Molière in the Park (MIP) is to foster empathy and unity within the diverse communities in Brooklyn through the arts. They offer free opportunities for all to come together in Prospect Park and experience the benefits of theater. MIP’s vision is of a Brooklyn where all communities can benefit equally from access to theater and the arts. Molière in the Park is an inclusive and antiracist theater organization, and their casting, hiring, and programming decisions reflect these values.

Georges Forestier, author of Tartuffe or The Hypocrite, is professor emeritus at Sorbonne University, where he held the chair of “Seventeenth Century Theater Studies” from 1986 to 2020. He has published numerous works on the theater of this period, in particular on Corneille, Racine and Molière. His texts include the library of the Pleiades, Jean Racine Theater and Poetry (Gallimard, 1999), and Molière (complete work, volume, co-direction with Claude Bourqui, Gallimard, 2010). He is the author of two biographies published in the NRF collection, Jean Racine (Gallimard, 2006) and Molière (Gallimard, 2018).

Maya Slater’s verse translations of Molière, The Misanthrope and Tartuffe and Other Plays are published by Oxford Word’s Classics. She has published other translations of French plays and in collaboration with her husband, Nicolas Pasternak Slater, of Russian literature. She’s currently working on Anna Karenina. Slater is a senior research fellow of Queen Mary, University of London. She has written several books on French writers, and a novel, The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy.

A Brooklynite since 2001, Lucie Tiberghien was raised in France and Switzerland. Specializing in new work, she spent 15 years developing and directing new plays in New York City and all over the country. In 2018 she founded Molière in the Park, wishing to fulfill her vision of a Brooklyn where all would have equal access to the theater. In 2021 she was awarded the prestigious designation of chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

Garth Belcon is an independent feature film writer and producer, and a theater producer and production manager. Garth was raised in the Bronx but has called Brooklyn home for more than 15 years. His films, which include Whiteboys and Jails Hospitals & Hip-Hop, have been distributed by media companies such as 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Studio Canal Plus, Samuel Goldwyn Classics, STARZ Entertainment and HBO. His theater works have been presented at the Kennedy Center, Sydney Opera House and International Theater Festival of Havana.

This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

 

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