Tartuffe needs more remixing

MAYER WAKEFIELD is entertained but let down by an audacious production that, sadly, doesn't ring true

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DARREN RAYMOND’s remix of Moliere’s 1664 farce is a family affair on a number of levels. Not only does this larger-than-life reimagining take place in the build-up to a Jamaican-Nigerian London wedding, but the bond between writer, director and lead actor Mark Rylance goes back to a workshop given in HMP Brixton over 20 years ago.

Raymond, then an inmate, discovered a love for theatre and his company, Intermission Youth, has flourished ever since, with Rylance and his late wife among its stalwart supporters. It is the first time Rylance has graced a stage since her passing early last year and he recently said of this production that it’s a chance to ask himself the question: “What’s the story of my life without her?”

With that in mind, it is good to see him relishing his role as Pastor Blake, more accurately referred to as “Pastor Fake,” equipped with an excessively protruding set of false teeth. It is a choice which is indicative of this audacious production. Set among Ultz’s flashy, auburn design and ordained with some startling wedding clothes designed by Shola Ajayi, it holds little back. Sometimes that’s for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Almost entirely in rhyming couplets, like the original, at its best the text has a dextrous lyricality. But not all the cast manage to unearth it and there are times when it feels a little forced. Special mention must go to newcomer Morenike Onajobi, playing the bride-to-be’s best friend Kemi, for her ability to allow her strident character to shine through the structure of the language.

However, what really stops this entertaining evening from truly taking flight is a plot which requires too much suspended disbelief to truly get on board with. Rylance’s Pastor is every bit the creep, “a dutty white man” to the core, with his power seemingly existing in a vacuum.

The idea that these two families would become so enraptured in his schemes just does not ring true, and that becomes increasingly hard to look beyond as the play progresses. When a few late glimpses of the surreal appear towards the conclusion, you leave wishing that Raymond had taken more liberties with this classic and made more of his remixing powers.

Runs until October 24. Box office: 020 7723 7984, marylebonetheatre.com 

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