Events

A Liverpool literary legend meets a 17th century French playwright in one of the highlights of Capital of Culture year.

Poet Roger McGough has re-versioned Tartuffe, a play by French writer Moliere, for Liverpool’s Playhouse theatre.

McGough’s version has been written in verse for a run of performances that begin on Friday, 9th May, 2008.

For all his writing skills Roger was initially reluctant when Everyman Playhouse Artistic Director, Gemma Bodinetz suggested the idea of reworking Tartuffe, “When Gemma asked me to do it I was a bit overawed in that Liverpool way of “I can’t do that”.

“But Gemma was encouraging and said “Of course you can, I’d love you to do it”, and the reasons she gave I could understand really, and the idea of doing a Moliere I really liked.”

European theme

Part of the attraction for McGough was to mark Capital of Culture year with a continental theme, “I like the idea that people will be coming to Liverpool to see something that they may recognise from another context, a European play, a standard, a classic.”

Moliere’s Tartuffe, first performed in 1664, tells the story of a bourgoise family in France headed by Orgon who when meeting a vagrant Tartuffe becomes convinced, unlike the rest of his family, that Tartuffe is a pious religious man.

As the play progresses, Tartuffe gains increasing influence over Orgon, to the extent that he is offered Orgon’s daughter Mariane hand in marriage.

The cast of Tartuffe

“It’s a funny play and hopefully people will enjoy it and it will make them laugh, but retain Moliere’s truth and dignity, says Roger McGough

To return to a book that he had last picked up at school and rework the script was however a tricky endeavour, “I was first put off because I worked from the prose translation of it and it’s quite difficult to be honest.

“A lot goes on and there is a lot of long speeches.

“I was writing it and writing it in to verse, and seeing it ahead of me in these huge blank pages and pages of nothing but words, and I thought “What am I doing?”

“But it all came back, because it’s making sense and it all moves from one thing to another and they’re funny characters.”

The play’s seeming attack on religion led to it being banned for a time when it was first performed in France.

A Liverpool heartbeat

Everyman Playhouse Artistic Directo Gemma Bodinetz, who will also direct Tartuffe, says that Roger McGough was an obvious choice when she was looking to commission works for 2008, “I’d wanted to do a European classic but like everything in Capital of Culture I thought it was important to have a Liverpool heartbeat.

“Having said that it was actually reading another version of Tartuffe where the idea of Roger sprung in to my head.

McGough performed at the Everyman in the 1960s

“There was just something about Roger’s writing and Roger that instinctively felt right.

“The two together have an honest use of language, both wit and joy.”

“If people like reading Roger’s poetry then they’ll really enjoy Tartuffe.”

For Roger, used to writing poetry from scratch, the chance to revise an existing work for his hometown theatre was an interesting opportunity, “When I write poetry normally you don’t know what’s going to happen, and even in my excursions in to writing plays I don’t think that I’m very good at structure.

“What I’m good at is language and words, so here Moliere’s done it for me.

“The structure’s there and I know it works, all I’ve got to do is keep it in the air.”

Tartuffe is at Liverpool Playhouse from 9 to 31 May, 2008.