Tartuffe

Let's see how crafty a picture you paint. You're making a demon out of a saint. In this spectacular dramatic comedy, the villainous Tartuffe shocks and enthrals with his deceptive powers. Charming to some, a danger to others, one family risks losing everything if he gets his way. Molière's exuberant seventeenth-century classic is brought back to life in an audacious contemporary Irish version by Frank McGuinness. Tartuffe premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in March 2023.

Frank McGuinness was born in Buncrana, Co. Donegal, and now lives in Dublin and lectures in English at University College Dublin. His plays include: The Factory Girls (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 1982), Baglady (Abbey, 1985), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Abbey, 1985; Hampstead Theatre, London, 1986), Innocence (Gate Theatre, Dublin, 1986), Carthaginians (Abbey, 1988; Hampstead, 1989), Mary and Lizzie (RSC, 1989), The Bread Man (Gate, 1991), Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (Hampstead, West End and Broadway, 1992), The Bird Sanctuary (Abbey, 1994), Mutabilitie (NT, 1997), Dolly West's Kitchen (Abbey, 1999; Old Vic, 2000), Gates of Gold (Gate, 2002), Speaking Like Magpies (Swan, Stratford, 2005), There Came a Gypsy Riding (Almeida, London, 2007), Greta Garbo Came to Donegal (Tricycle Theatre, London, 2010), The Match Box (Liverpool Playhouse Studio, 2012), The Hanging Gardens (Abbey, 2013), Donegal (Abbey, 2016), The Visiting Hour (Gate, 2021) and Dinner With Groucho (The Civic, Belfast, 2022). His widely performed versions include Ibsen's Rosmersholm (1987), Peer Gynt (1988), Hedda Gabler (1994), A Doll's House (1997), The Lady from the Sea (2008) and John Gabriel Borkman (2010); Chekhov's Three Sisters (1990) and Uncle Vanya (1995); Lorca's Yerma (1987); Brecht's The Threepenny Opera (1991) and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1997); Sophocles' Electra (1998) and Oedipus (2008); Strindberg's Miss Julie (2000); Euripides' Hecuba (2004) and Helen (2009); Racine's Phaedra (2006); Tirso de Molina's Damned by Despair (2012); James Joyce's The Dead (2013); and Molière's Tartuffe (2023).