Director Jacqueline Youm puts an indelible stamp on Silver Spring Stage’s scintillating modern-dress production of Jeffrey D. Hoeper’s lively translation of Molière’s Tartuffe. Under her direction, the ensemble maintains a consistently high level of physical acting that perfectly fits and defines the playwright’s exaggerated stock characters.
Examples abound. The title character, con man Tartuffe (Mike Kroboth), is all slovenliness. His mark, Orgon (Joseph Coracle), is all quick, self-important movement, utterly convinced of the righteousness of his feelings and his right to tell family members what to do. Orgon’s mother, Madame Pernelle (Tracye Brewer), who is fooled by Tartuffe even longer than Orgon, dramatizes her will to family power by loudly snapping her fan.
Orgon’s wife, Elmire (Erin Gallalee), is at her best when feigning attraction toward the lecherous Tartuffe, striking odalisque-like poses. One of the funniest moments in the show occurs when Elmire, sitting on a sofa, seductively flirts with Tartuffe, while repeatedly shooing her hot-tempered stepson, Damis (Joshua Prescott), back inside a door. The self-absorbed Tartuffe never notices.
Youm herself plays a key character, the all-knowing maid Dorine. It’s a perfect role for a director, since Dorine acts as a sort of director for many of the other characters. Her dominating physical presence emphasizes who, regardless of social class position, runs the show in Orgon’s household.
It seems odd to talk of Molière and Arthur Miller in the same paragraph, but the reasonable man character in Tartuffe, Cléante (Chevell Thomas), occupies a role analogous to Charley in Death of a Salesman or Alfieri in A View from the Bridge. Each speaks reason and moderation to a main character who is blinded by his passions, failing to sway the main character from his path to destruction. But for the intervention of Prince at the end of Tartuffe, Orgon would be as ruined as Eddie Carbone. Standing tall, Thomas portrays Cléante with dignity and gravitas.
The play’s script is written in rhymed couplets, which the actors handle with aplomb, keeping the verbal rhythm going fluidly even through the frequent physical hijinks. One good example is Cléante’s heroic-length first-act monologue: Dorine at one point brings out a lectern to help him continue.
There is a romantic subplot involving Orgon’s daughter, Marianne (Syd Johnson), and her beau, Valère (Justin Meyer). The relationship is never fully developed in the script, serving mainly as a plot device as Orgon tries to make Marianne marry Tartuffe against her wishes. Marianne and Valère have one amusing romcom-like scene, in which they quarrel and Valère repeatedly leaves, turns around, and comes back.
Two minor characters deserve mention for their physical acting. Filpote (Meagan Hinton), Madam Pernelle’s maid, manifests in intentionally over-the-top form everything her mistress, or sometimes Tartuffe, says. Laurent (Maggie Murphy), Tartuffe’s uber-subservient servant, bows and scrapes obsequiously enough to qualify for a post in the Trump cabinet.
A major theme of the play, of course, is how easy it is for someone, despite all the evidence, to be taken in by a hypocritically pious poseur. Kroboth channels the Jimmy Swaggart type of religious charlatan, laid-on-thick Southern accent and all.
Douglas Becker’s set creates a refined living space appropriate to Orgon’s wealth, with white sofas and a highly significant table on a black-and-white checkered floor. The walls are covered in anodyne art set in elegant black squares, just the sort of space that would invite the greed of a grifter.
Olivia Binder’s costumes are as varied as the characters that wear them. Orgon is in a natty suit, Tartuffe in sloppy white pants and a sloppy white shirt, Elmire in a tight-fitting green dress, Valère in a preppyish sport coat. It makes for colorful stage pictures. Youm’s choices for pre-show and intermission music — mostly well-known classical pieces — did not seem particularly related to the action.
Youm’s precise blocking, with an assist from movement specialist Chelsea Dee and fight coordinator Julia Rabson Harris, kept the action crisp throughout. There was a delightful moment when almost all the characters got into a melee that almost, but not quite, involved them coming to blows.
This is a funny, well-paced production that does full credit to a theater classic, without a trace of the cobwebs that can sometimes encumber a production of a classic. It’s well worth seeing, a show that should attract attention at WATCH award time.
Running Time: Two hours and 20 minutes, including one intermission.
Tartuffe, or The Hypocrite plays through November 16, 2025 (Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm), at Silver Spring Stage, 10145 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD. Purchase tickets ($28; $25 for students and seniors) at the door, online, or by contacting the Box Office at boxoffice@ssstage.org or 301-593-6036.
Tartuffe, or The Hypocrite
By Molière
Directed by Jacqueline Youm
CAST
Syd Johnson: Marianne
Justin Meyer: Valère
Joshua Presscott: Damis
Erin Gallalee: Elmire
Chevell Thomas: Cléante
Mike Kroboth: Tartuffe
Tracye Brewer: Madame Pernelle
Joseph Coracle: Orgon
Zach Shields: M. Loyal
Jaylen Shode: Police officer
Megan Hinton: Flipote
Maggie Murphy: Laurent
Jacqueline Youm: Dorine
UNDERSTUDIES
Kimberly-Elise Recas: Dorine, Mariane, Flipote
Megan Hinton: Police officer, Elmire
Cristian Hernandez: M. Loyal, Laurent, M. Orgon, Tartuffe
Zach Shields: Valère, Damis
Maggie Murphy : Cléante, Mme Pernelle
Lillian Hall: Mariane
