Gulfshore Playhouse / Live Professional Theater / Naples, Florida

April 9, 2009

Review: Gulfshore Playhouse has nice take on 'Tartuffe'

CHARLES RUNNELLS

The title character in "Tartuffe" doesn't take the stage until more than halfway through Gulfshore Playhouse's newest production. But when he does, he's more than worth the wait.

After building up suspense in Act 1 - in which the other characters discuss exactly how they feel about the possibly pious, possibly fraudulent house guest -actor Richard Crawford enters and rewards the audience's patience with a wonderfully sly, oily performance. He rivets with every crafty gesture, every oozing word, every flicker of his expressive, lustful eyes.

Oh yes, Tartuffe knows the sins of the flesh.

Here's the thing, though: The marvel of this show is that almost every other performance rises to that same level of comic brilliance. Especially Anna Stone as the wise maid Dorine (played with sly deadpan, comic wit and an expert use of the feather duster).

April 9, 2009

'Tartuffe': Holier than thou and funny as hell

Nancy STETSON

Moliere may have lived four centuries ago, but he'd give a knowing nod to many of today's figures in recent news: a politician who advocates abstinence-only sex education, even though her own teenage daughter is an unwed mother. A politician who votes against equal rights for gays yet is caught soliciting other men in an airport restroom. Televangelists who preach a strict interpretation of God's word, yet live according to a different set of rules, both sexually and financially.

Throughout the years, religious hypocrisy hasn't changed. It just wears different outfits.

"Tartuffe," one of Moliere's mostperformed plays, looks religious hypocrisy full in the face and mocks it. (Its actors also spit at the very mention of the perpetrator's name.)

April 6, 2009

Review: Amusing 'Tartuffe' pokes fun at French folks' foibles

By CHRIS SILK

Director Kristen Coury takes audiences on a thrill ride through the Parisian aristocracy in Gulfshore Playhouse's latest offering, "Tartuffe." The play is wickedly funny even as it continually exposes the faults and foibles of the "upper class" and comes stacked with actors able to navigate the stage whilst maneuvering through the loopy dialogue and even more outlandish costumes of the day.

"Tartuffe," from the pen of French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (better known as Molière), comes from the 17th century. It was written and performed (and immediately censored) in 1664 for King Louis XIV at Versailles; its satirical poking at religion caused an unholy hullabaloo among the saintly factions at the French court. The production uses a translation from Richard Wilbur.

April 2, 2009

Fox 4 Morning Blend

Gulfshore Playhouse is Naples' first and finest self producing-professional theatre company, currently producing exclusively at the Norris Center in downtown Naples. Gulfshore Playhouse is passionately devoted to creating nationally noteworthy professional theatre - from the powerful and inspiring classics, to innovative new works. It is unwaveringly committed to bringing the best theatre professionals.