Simon Ward reviews Tartuffe (Remixed) at the Marylebone Theatre

For many years Darren Raymond, the writer and director of Tartuffe (Remixed), has been adapting classic theatrical works to bring them alive for new, diverse audiences. Since 2008, Intermission Youth has been engaging young people in the creative possibilities opened up by delving into performance, and many alumni of the programme appear in the cast tonight. This show is Raymond’s latest foray, taking on one of Molière’s greatest, and most controversial, works. The character of Tartuffe himself, in particular, is a masterful portrayal of false modesty and rank hypocrisy. In Raymond’s version, this part is taken by none other than Mark Rylance, who brings the oleaginous charm of the classic English vicar to the role of Pastor Blake – his mouth overstuffed with teeth, a slight lisping delivery, his face permanently locked in a simpering smile. Rylance is of course outstanding, but this is an ensemble piece, and everyone has their chance to shine.

Blake has managed to win the unquestioning loyalty and devotion of the Nigerian patriarch Oga (Usifu Jalloh), whom we meet as he and his family prepare for the wedding of his daughter Adanna (Sara Mokonen).

Designer Ultz has included a subtle nod to the play’s origins in 17th century France with a pair of gaudy Louis XIV style throne-like armchairs taking centre stage. The costumes are a feast for the eyes throughout, with Ultz collaborating with Associate Costume Designer Maybelle Laye as well as Shola Ajayi for the elaborately worked Wedding Clothes, echoing of the careful coiffure and high fashion of the French court in the heyday of the ancien régime.

Raymond adds a further dimension to the drama by making Sinclair (Ivandro Da Cruz Leite) Adanna’s husband-to-be Jamaican, leading to comedic scenes of mutual incomprehension between the two families. There is a tension too between the older generations, who cling hard to tradition, as GG (Blanche Williams) and Grandma (Suzette Llewellyn) do, and the younger family members like Adanna’s brother D-Miz (Christopher Mbaki) and her best friend Kemi (Morenike Onajobi) who acknowledge tradition but who also want more freedom. Delroy (Craig Blake), as father of the groom, sits somewhere between the two.

As Pastor Blake’s conniving becomes increasingly blatant, both Adannah’s mother Elmire (Nakeba Buchanan) and Grandmother get tangled up in his web of lies. Blake’s hubristic self-importance is the ultimate source of his undoing but Elmire’s impassioned repudiation goes a long way to help bring him down. Molière notoriously resorted to one of the earliest deployments of a deus ex machina ending to finally bring Tartuffe to justice. As we anticipate what Raymond is going to do, he toys with us by giving us some more or less implausible choices of ending, not missing the chance to call out institutional racism while he’s at it. The finale, when it does come, is as satisfyingly cathartic as Blake himself demands, having at last thrown all dissimulation to the winds.

Tartuffe (Remixed) is running at the Marylebone Theatre, Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London NW1 6XT until Saturday 24th October