Father Tartuffe: An Indigenous Misadventure is playing at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver until March 24th, 2024.

Every now and again I may invite a guest reviewer on this site.  Today it is Paul LeMay who I’ve asked to give his take on “Father Tartuffe” from the opening night at the Arts Club Theatre.  

The arts (theatre, poetry, music, painting, sculpture, literature, dance) done with skill and imagination, are an essential part of life.

Paul’s Review:

“Father Tartuffe: An Indigenous Misadventure“ is built around a play called Tartuffe, or the Impostor, originally written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, who is better known as Molière. Molière, who lived during the reign of France’s King Louis XIV, is often described as France’s Shakespeare. However, unlike the Bard, Molière preferred comedic plays.

And comedy is the operant word here, which is important when one considers the times in which the play is being performed. I refer here to several world headline grabbing allegations made in recent years by certain First Nations spokespeople about the abuses and yes, possible crimes indigenous students allegedly suffered at the hands of unscrupulous clergy in Canada’s various denominational native residential schools. So, given the huge social controversy these stories sparked, what could possibly be considered comedic diving into that terrain?

And perhaps that’s the inescapable point worth mentioning here. Many of European settler ancestry might be inclined to believe this play might be all about pointing many accusatory fingers at the perpetrators of cultural genocide against first nations peoples, and the legacy of harm it unleashed in its wake. And who would want to squirm in their seats for two hours in some in unrelenting guilt fest? I have to admit, these were some of the thoughts that crossed my mind before attending the performance.

Well, I am here to tell you that’s not what indigenous  playwright Herbie Barnes did. Rather, the play took a much more light-hearted aim at the immoral character of an exploitive Montreal priest by the name of Tartuffe, which was entirely in keeping with the original Molière play title. Tartuffe had been invited to live in the home of an extended first nations family, that was itself already in the process of trying to find out what it meant to be an “Indian” in 1967 Canada. Sure, in some respects one could argue that the Tartuffe character was a symbolic stand-in for the duplicitous white man who speaks with forked-tongue. But for many, that allusion might completely escape their immediate recognition.

Yet both the play, and its performers, did not disappoint. In fact, on both counts, both exceeded my original expectations; and it accomplished what it set out to accomplish, namely, to make people laugh.  And laugh we did, even at jokes filled with all manner of culturally riské inuendo, that tastefully never quite crossed the line into taboo land. From my eyes, the play was part situation comedy, part farce, part inside jokes among native people, and together, the mix proved cathartic, if not, therapeutic.

And as the ancient Greeks knew long ago, this can help audience members (society’s members) both explore and release pent up guilts and/or mental tensions around almost any topic, in the hope they realize that we are all flawed individuals trying to make our way through life the best way we can…even screwing up on occasion despite our best of intentions. And this alchemy succeeds because such is the universal human condition. In this respect, this play and its performers, proved both healing and entertaining. What more can one ask of a play? In this regard, it was an evening well spent.

February 28 to March 24:

 To book:

https://artsclub.com/shows/2023-2024/father-tartuffe-an-indigenous-misadventure