Tartuffe - Program

tartuffe

WRITTEN BY Molière TRANSLATED BY Ranjit Bolt DIRECTED BY Chris Abraham

jan 13 - 27, 2019 Bluma Appel Theatre

A STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION PRESENTED BY CANADIAN STAGE, CROW’S THEATRE, GROUNDLING THEATRE COMPANY AND DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH PRODUCTIONS

cast

creative

ORGON

DIRECTOR

Graham Abbey

Chris Abraham

DORINE

Translator

Akosua Amo-Adem

Ranjit Bolt

MONSIEUR LOYAL

SET & COSTUME DESIGNER

Rod Beattie

Julie Fox

ELMIRE

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Maev Beaty

Michael Walton

CLEANTE

SOUND DESIGNER

Michael Blake

Thomas Ryder Payne

MME. PERNELLE

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Rosemary Dunsmore

Sarah Kitz

LAURENT

STAGE MANAGER

Gordon S. Miller

Bona Duncan

MARIANE

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

Mercedes Morris

Katherine Arcus

TARTUFFE

Tom Rooney OFFICER

E.B. Smith VALERE

Johnathan Sousa DAMIS

Emilio Vieira

E N G AG E

Approx . 2 hou rs 25 m in ute s (including one intermission) THIS PRODUCTION IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED

BY LAURA DINNER & RICHARD ROONEY This production was originally produced at the Stratford Festival in 2017 TARTUFFE in this translation was first produced at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Stratford Ontario in the summer of 2017.

Season Sponsor

Pre-show chat

Friday, Jan 18 @ 6:15pm

Post-show talkbacks Wednesday, Jan 23 THurday, jan 24

#cstartuffe

Master of Ambiguity

by Chris Abraham As we began rehearsals for Tartuffe in the summer of 2017, a production of Julius Caesar was being given a controversial staging in New York City with the title character resembling the sitting U.S. president. The assassination of this “Trumpian” Caesar by a cadre of his senators provoked an outraged response from the alt-right media and hate mail from Trump supporters, and prompted Delta Airlines and Bank of America to pull their sponsorships from the theatre, with others calling for the production to be banned.

A few hundred years earlier, Molière’s play Tartuffe was denounced “by the then equivalent of today’s religious right, well entrenched in the court, [who] saw it as a seditious attack on their kind of fundamentalism.” (Barry James, The New York Times.) This resulted in a five-year ban on public presentations of the play, issued – or at least reluctantly endorsed – by King Louis XIV himself, who seems to have been interested in placating this powerfully influential group during a time of profound tensions between conservative and less conservative forms of religion.

The complex dynamics of the early reign of France’s most famous king and the various factions struggling for influence all played key parts in the backstage drama of the play’s suppression. Shortly after the ban, Molière began petitioning the king in writing, insisting that his target had been misunderstood and that his true aim had been religious hypocrisy and the false piety of the bourgeoisie, not true religious devotion.

Subsequent revisions to the first draft of the play seem to clarify this position, while also sharpening a broader critique of a society obsessed with wealth, reputation, and positions dependent on the king’s favour.

Even though he had found himself caught out with his first draft of the play, Molière still knew how to speak truth to power without seeming to do so. He was a master of wielding playful and dangerous ambiguities without endangering himself. Acutely conscious of the importance of maintaining the King’s favour, his revision is a tactical masterpiece, slyly flattering a public and a monarch who were tickled to see themselves represented on stage, while at the same time holding a less than flattering and more subversive mirror up to them – all without endangering his own position.

These days, the objects of Molière’s critique seem certain enough, but in this play, especially through a contemporary lens, he prompts his audience to question their sympathies, to question who is actually being indicted. At its most relevant and timely, the play examines selfdeception, but it also exposes how the victims of power, and conversely, the powerful use our willingness to deceive ourselves to get (and hold on to) exactly what they want.

cast & creative Graham Abbey

Akosua Amo-Adem

Rod Beattie

Maev Beaty

Michael Blake

Rosemary Dunsmore

Gordon S. Miller

Mercedes Morris

Tom Rooney

E.B. Smith

Johnathan Sousa

Emilio Vieira

Chris Abraham

Julie Fox

Michael Walton

Thomas Ryder Payne

Sarah Kitz

Bona Duncan

Katherine Arcus

CAST GRAHAM ABBEY Orgon Graham is the founder and Artistic Director of Groundling Theatre Company. Graham starred for three seasons on the CBC series The Border as Detective Gray Jackson. He has spent 20 seasons at The Stratford Festival, most recently appearing as Aufidius in Robert Lepage’s Coriolanus. Other selected Stratford roles include Macbeth, Henry V, Henry IV, Henry VIII, Iago, Petruchio, and Romeo.

He will return to Stratford next summer to direct The Front Page and play Francis Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Graham has received a Dora award for featured male actor and Groundling’s production of The Winter’s Tale received the award for Outstanding Production of the year under his direction. For more information go to groundlingtheatre.com

AKOSUA AMO-ADEM Dorine Since graduating from York University’s BFA Theatre program in 2009 Akosua Amo-Adem has appeared in a variety of plays around the city as an actor.

Her selected credits include Soulpepper’s For Colored Girls… (as Lady in Green), Father Comes Home From The Wars… (as Leader/ Runaway); The Crucible (as Tituba); Obsidian Theatre’s Venus’ Daughters (Venus/Sarah); Andrea Scotts’ Better Angels: a parable (as Akosua); Company Theatre’s Domesticated (as Talk Show Host); Canadian Stage and Theatre Passe Muraille’s The Middle Place (as Kaaliha/Dee).

She was an assistant director on Harlem Duet at Tarragon Theatre and co-directed Shades, a dance theatre piece by Esie Mensah. Look out for Akosua in the upcoming production of School Girls with Obsidian Theatre Company and Nightwood Theatre this March!

ROD BEATTIE Monsieur Loyal A veteran of 17 seasons and more than 50 productions at the Stratford Festival, he has performed leading roles in most Canadian theatres.

He is best known for playing Walt Wingfield (and all the other characters) in Canada’s longest running series of one-person plays over more than 30 years and almost 5,000 performances, for which he has won a Dora, a Gemini, a Sterling, the Order of Canada and a sidewalk star in his hometown of 40 years, Stratford, Ontario.

MAEV BEATY Elmire Maev Beaty has gathered 50 stage credits from across the country, from the SummerWorks Festival to The Stratford Festival ranging from new plays (she has appeared in 25 Canadian Premieres, including Bunny, Palace of the End, Proud, Terminus, Passion Play, Parfumerie, Montparnasse, Goblin Market and most recently Secret Life of a Mother) to the classics (Goneril, Viola, Hamlet, Helena, Portia and Antigone, among others). She is a TTCA winner, three-time Dora winner and nine-time nominee for both performance and writing. She's been a proud member of huge theatre ensemble endeavors such as Theatrefront's The Mill series,

Volcano Theatre’s Another Africa (Luminato/Canadian Stage) and Nightwood’s The Penelopiad. She recently made her feature film debut in Mouthpiece which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this past September.

MICHAEL BLAKE Cleante Michael was born and raised in Toronto. He began his career on the CBC series Degrassi Junior High shot in Toronto. He then co-hosted a show called YTV Rocks on YTV. He attended Earl Haig Secondary School in North York and was a student in the Claude Watson Program for the Arts. Michael is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

He has worked at Young People’s Theatre, Soulpepper, Simba in Lion King for Mirvish/Disney, Bard on the Beach in Vancouver, National Arts Centre in Ottawa, MTC in Winnipeg, Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Theatre Calgary, Arts Club in Vancouver, Belfrey Theatre in Victoria and most recently has spent seven seasons at the Stratford Festival.

He returns to Stratford to play the title role in Othello for 2019 season.

ROSEMARY DUNSMORE Mme. Pernelle Rosemary is an award winning actress, director and teacher whose career has taken her across Canada, the United States and Europe. She was awarded the Actra Award in 2009 for best female performance for her work in the independent feature The Baby Formula, and was awarded the Masque Award in Quebec for her performance in Wit, the first English speaking actress to be so honoured. She won a Dora

for Straight Ahead/Blind Dancers.

In television, she’s known for her recurring role of Susan Duncan in the hit series Orphan Black. And most recently, Rosemary has appeared as a recurring role in the new CBC series called Street Legal, as well as a recurring in the new FOX 21 Television series called Hot Zone.

GORDON S. MILLER Laurent Originally from Lower Truro, Nova Scotia, Gordon is excited to be making his Canadian Stage debut.

He has spent 12 seasons at the Stratford Festival, most recently as James Tyrone, Jr. in Long Day’s Journey Into Night and God the Son in Erin Shields’ Paradise Lost.

Previous credits include Pentheus (Bakkhai), Biondello (The Taming of the Shrew), Scrub (The Beaux’ Stratagem), Andrei (Three Sisters).

A&R Angels (Crow’s Theatre); Pride and Prejudice, Robin Hood (Globe Theatre); A Doll’s House (TNB/ Montgomery Theatre). For TV: Dmitri in Season 1 of Fargo, Suits, Republic of Doyle. A graduate of the National Theatre School and Birmingham Conservatory, he is a recipient of 3 Guthrie Awards, the John Hirsch Award, and the Richard Monette Travel Grant. Gordon returns to Stratford in 2019 to play Iago (Othello).

MERCEDES MORRIS Mariane Mercedes Morris is an established multi-disciplinary artist hailing from Scarborough.

Training: Wexford Performing Arts Program. Joint Theatre and Drama Studies Program at Sheridan College and University of Toronto. Most recent credits

include: The School for Scandal, Twelfth Night, Tartuffe (Stratford Festival), and Cordelia in Lear (Groundling Theatre). Her film and television credits include: Killjoys (Temple Street Productions), Between (CityTV/ Netflix), Eyewitness (USA Network), Odd Squad (PBS) and most recently in a lead role on the popular Netflix series Slasher Season 3.

Online: @im2fancy_ on Twitter and Instagram. Et cetera: To my family and friends, thanks for your continued support. “Love you lots!”

Stay blessed and enjoy the show!

TOM ROONEY Tartuffe Tom played the titular role in the 2017 Stratford Festival production of Tartuffe. He has been a member of the Stratford Festival company for 11 years. For Canadian Stage: Rice Boy, My Mother’s Feet, Homechild. Other theatre credits include: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Citadel Theatre - Sterling Award Best Actor); Someone Else (Dora Award Best Actor), The Seagull, The Wedding Party (Crow’s Theatre); Hairspray (Toronto and Broadway); Benevolence, Courageous (Tarragon Theatre); Hamlet (National Arts Centre); Robert Lepage’s Romeo et Juliette (Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan). Film/TV: This Is Wonderland (Two Gemini nominations for Best Supporting Actor); The Gilda Radner Story, The Day After Tomorrow, Everest ’82.

Upcoming: Titular role in Cyrano de Bergerac, Shaw Festival 2019.

E.B. SMITH Officer Theatre Credits: The Mountaintop, Art (Grand Theatre); Coriolanus, Tempest, All My Sons, Mother Courage, King John, Mary Stuart, Measure for Measure, Cymbeline, Elektra, Richard III, Titus Andronicus (Stratford Festival); Gone With the Wind (RMTC); Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); King Hedley II, Dream on Monkey Mountain (Karamu House Theatre). Other credits: Cleveland Play House, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Theater Wit in Chicago and Great Lakes Theater Festival. Film and TV: The Beast (Sony Pictures Television); Maybe By Then, Thunder Bay (PBS-TV). Other: E.B. trained at Ohio University and The Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre.

E.B. dedicates his work to his parents and grandmother, and to the memory of his Papa, always in the front row.

JOhNATHAN SOUSA Valere Three seasons at Stratford Festival.

Selected credits include: Lieutenant in Robert Lepage’s Coriolanus, Amadeo in Napoli Milionaria, Hotspur in Breath of Kings: Rebellion. Elsewhere: Charlie Breathing Corpses (Coal Mine Theatre).

Film/TV: Rookie Blue (Global TV), The Animal Project (Principal), Relative Happiness (Lead), What We Have (Lead), Kidnap Capital (Lead). Training: Ryerson Theatre School (2010), Norman Jewison Canadian Film Centre Actors’ Conservatory. Awards: Lou Taube Memorial Award, 2013 Toronto International Film Festival Rising Star, John Hirsch Award. Online: Instagram: @jsous29. Thanks to Alicia Jeffery, my family and friends, and My wife Brittany for always supporting me.

EMILIO VIEIRA Damis Emilio Vieira is a Toronto-based performer returning home after a 3-year stint at the Stratford Festival.

Festival credits: Coriolanus, Napoli Milionaria!, The Tempest, Tartuffe, School for Scandal, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, All My Sons and Bunny.

Canadian Stage: Shakespeare in High Park (2014) Titus Andronicus and As You Like It. Training: Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre (2015-16), York University (2014), Rapier Wit (2014). Emilio would like to thank Chris and Graham for giving this show a second life in Toronto, and to his family, friends, loved ones, and Angela Wright for their unending support and guidance.

CREATIVE TEAM CHRIS ABRAHAM Director Chris Abraham is a multi-award winning theatre and film director, dramaturg, and teacher who has worked with Canada’s foremost artists and theatres, including the Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Tarragon Theatre, Centaur Theatre, and Soulpepper among many others. Chris has been the Artistic Director of Crow’s Theatre in Toronto since 2007. At Crow’s he has directed numerous award-winning plays, including The Watershed, The Seagull, Winners and Losers, Someone Else, Eternal Hydra, I, Claudia, Boxhead, and The Country. In 2003, Chris directed the film adaptation of Kristen Thomson’s award winning hit I, Claudia for which he won a Gemini award. A

graduate of the National Theatre School’s directing program, Chris later served as co-director of the school’s renowned directing program (2006–10). In 2013, Chris was awarded the Siminovitch Prize, the most prestigious prize for Canadian performing arts.

RANJIT BOLT Translator Born in Manchester, England, in 1959, Ranjit Bolt is the nephew of playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt. After studying at Oxford University, he worked for eight years as a stockbroker before turning to writing full time. His books include The Art of Translation (2010) and the verse novel Losing It (2000).

Besides Tartuffe, his translations and adaptations for the theatre include Molière’s The Misanthrope, The School for Wives, and The Sisterhood (Les précieuses ridicules); Pierre Corneille’s The Illusions, The Liar and Le Cid; Aristophanes’ Lysistrata; Bertolt Brecht’s Arturo Ui; Jean Anouilh’s The Waltz of the Toreadors; Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac; and musical versions of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and Charles Dickens’ Hard Times. His most recent adaptation, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, is of Ben Jonson’s Volpone.

JULIE FOX Set & Costume Designer Julie Fox has been a production designer for theatre, dance and opera in Canada for over 20 years. Theatre credits include: Stratford Festival, Electric Company,

Soulpepper, Crow’s Theatre, Why Not Theatre, Tarragon, Buddies in Bad Times, Necessary Angel, Theatre Passe Muraille, Volcano, Segal Centre, Citadel, Theatre Junction, Manitoba Theatre Centre. She has received four Dora Awards for outstanding set design, the Virginia Cooper Award for costume design, and been nominated for Sterling and Meta awards. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, where she also teaches.

MICHAEL WALTON Lighting Designer For Canadian Stage: Liv Stein, Julie, Harper Regan, The Other Place, Venus in Fur, Cruel and Tender. Selected credits include: The Rocky Horror Show, The Music Man, The Tempest, Napoli Millionaria, Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, Tartuffe, The School for Scandal, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Sound of Music, Oedipus Rex (Stratford Festival); Così Fan Tutte (Canadian Opera Company); Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Sideways (La Jolla Playhouse); Jenufa, Maria Stuarda (Pacific Opera Victoria); A Word or Two with Christopher Plummer (CTG/Stratford, Los Angeles); The Little Prince – The Musical, Mary Poppins (Theatre Calgary); Anne of Green Gables, Jesus Christ Superstar, Million Dollar Quartet, Mamma Mia (Charlottetown Festival); A Christmas Carol, Enron, The Year of Magical Thinking (National Arts Centre); Million Dollar Quartet, The Rocky Horror Show (Citadel); The Humans (Canadian Stage and The Citadel).

THOMAS RYDER PAYNE Sound Designer Thomas Ryder Payne is a composer and sound designer for theatre, dance and film. Selected past work includes designs for Stratford, Shaw, Mirvish, Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, Tarragon, Factory, TPM, YPT, Crow’s, Modern Times, Aluna, BIBT, Nightwood, Toronto Dance Theatre, NAC, Theatre Calgary, GCTC, RMTC and many others.

Thomas has received 2 Dora awards and 19 nominations.

SARAH KITZ Assistant Director Sarah has participated in the Michael Langham Workshop at Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival’s Neil Munro Intern Directors Project, and is a member of Directors Lab North in participation with Lincoln Centre.

She has worked at Luminato Festival, Shakespeare In The Ruins, Tarragon, Passe Muraille, Crow’s Theatre, Next Stage Festival, SummerWorks, Pandemic Theatre, The Canadian Music Theatre Project, and across Canada. She’s extensively involved with the AMY Project, which supports the creative trajectories of young women and non-binary youth in Toronto through arts mentorship.

In 2017, Sarah was awarded Crow’s Theatre’s RBC Emerging Director Prize. To date, Sarah’s twin focus lies in re-visioning classical works for contemporary interpretation, and in new creation. Next up, Sarah joins the cast of Behaviour at GCTC.

BONA DUNCAN

KATHERINE ARCUS

Stage Manager Bona was a resident stage manager at Canadian Stage from 19951999 and is very pleased to return to the company that holds such a significant place in her life and career. She left Canadian Stage to stage manage at the Stratford Festival and this production of Tartuffe is one of her favourites of her time there. She has also worked at The Grand Theatre, The National Arts Centre, Tarragon, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Citadel, The Banff Centre, Theatre Calgary and, long ago, The Piggery Theatre. She is a graduate of Bishop’s University and the National Theatre School of Canada. Bona lives in Stratford, Ontario with her husband and daughter (and a dog and 2 cats!).

Assistant Stage Manager Katherine is thrilled to be making her Canadian Stage debut. Select credits include: Coriolanus, The Tempest, School for Scandal, Tartuffe, Breath of Kings, The Last Wife, Mother Courage, Elektra (Stratford Festival); Blue Remembered Hills (Northern Stage, UK); Anne of Green Gables, The Full Monty (Charlottetown Festival); Head à Tête (Theatre Direct); Sound of Music (Mirvish); Cinderella (Ross Petty Productions). In television she has worked as writers’ assistant for Kids in the Hall (CBC) and story coordinator for Less Than Kind (HBO Canada), Picnicface (Comedy Network), and Zerby Derby (TVO). She is a graduate of the technical theatre program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Thank you to mom and dad for all your love and support.

Thank you to our donors

Your gifts to our annual fund ensure that Canadian Stage continues to be recognized around the world as a home for innovative live performance while providing vital education and training programs in our communities.

Together with your support, we are creating the future at Canadian Stage.

To make a donation, please visit canadianstage.com or email donate@canadianstage.com.

Donations of $10 or more will receive a charitable tax receipt.

STRATFORD FESTIVAL

GROUNDLING THEATRE COMPANY

The Stratford Festival, in picturesque Stratford, Ontario, has been setting the standard for classical theatre in North America for more than 65 years. It presents a seven-month season of a dozen or more plays, together with a Forum of about 150 other events, all designed to enrich, engage and entertain. The Festival presents an eclectic variety of Shakespeare, large-scale musicals, classic comedy and drama, as well as newly commissioned works.

Since its first season in 1953, it has welcomed more than 28 million theatregoers from around the world, people who flock to this small Canadian town for one reason: an unparalleled quality of performance.

Founded in 2011 by Artistic Director Graham Abbey, Groundling Theatre Company is a Toronto-based company committed to producing imaginative, original and accessible productions of the classical canon, focusing primarily on the works of, or inspired by, William Shakespeare.

Groundling’s first full production was The Winter’s Tale at Coal Mine Theatre, which received five Dora Award nominations and was awarded the Dora for Outstanding Production of the year. The inaugural season was followed by a remount of The Winter’s Tale playing in rep with Measure for Measure at Toronto’s historic Winter Garden Theatre.

Groundling’s most recent production was Shakespeare’s Lear starring Seana McKenna at Harbourfront Centre Theatre. For more information please go to groundlingtheatre.com.

CROW’S THEATRE Crow’s Theatre is a leading force in the Canadian theatre landscape, known for provocative and award-winning new work. Since 2007, Artistic Director Chris Abraham has increased Crow’s focus on the support of emerging and mid-career Canadian playwrights through commissions, residencies, and extended play development.

Notable world-premieres include Eternal Hydra, Instructions to Any Socialist Government Wishing to Abolish Christmas, SEEDS, Someone Else, Winners and Losers, and The Watershed. In 2017, Crow’s Theatre and Streetcar Developments partnered to open Streetcar Crowsnest, a major cultural hub at Dundas and Carlaw. Housing three venues for theatre and events, Streetcar Crowsnest was created to strengthen our east end community, serve residents and their families, and fortify the role of the arts and artists in Toronto.

Canadian Stage Canadian Stage is one of the country’s leading not-for-profit contemporary performing arts organizations. The company produces, presents, commissions, and collaborates with multiple partners on cross-disciplinary work with a focus on performance styles that integrate theatre, dance, film, visual arts and more. Sharing innovative and vibrant performance work from Canada and around the world, it stages performances at three Toronto venues: The Bluma Appel Theatre at Civic Theatres Toronto; The Berkeley Street Theatre; and the High Park Amphitheatre. In 2018, Brendan Healy was appointed Artistic Director and Monica Esteves joined the team as Executive Director.

JOIN US APRIL THROUGH NOVEMBER! Othello Billy Elliot the Musical The Merry Wives of Windsor The Front Page

Little Shop of Horrors Private Lives The Neverending Story The Crucible

Henry VIII Mother’s Daughter Nathan the Wise Birds of a Kind

stratfordfestival.ca THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. DIRECTED BY ANTONI CIMOLINO. WITH GERAINT WYN DAVIES, SOPHIA WALKER, BRIGIT WILSON, GRAHAM ABBEY, MICHAEL BLAKE, LUCY PEACOCK

Production support is generously provided by Jane Petersen Burfield & family, by Dr. Desta Leavine in memory of Pauline Leavine and by Dr. M. Lee Myers Photo: Brigit Wilson (left), Sophia Walker, Geraint Wyn Davies (magazine cover)

B e r k e le y S tr e e t Co m pa n y- i n - R e s i d e n c e

prince hamlet W h y N o t T h e at r e

Adapted + Directed by

Ravi Jain

‘‘ This is no ordinary Hamlet ’’ - T o r o n t o S ta r

Best of 2017 Dawn Jani Birley, Christine Horne photo: Bronwen Sharp

- T o r o n t o S ta r , N OW Maga z i ne

Feb 6 - 24

Company-in-Residence supported by