The threat of war and terror permeates our lives. During our rehearsals for this show, we had a brief but unexpected visit from another cast member at a late hour in the theatre while we were going over a quiet scene. The steps of our unseen visitor came up the ramp with purpose: loud and ominous. After the visiting actor completed his business and left, one of the other cast members remarked with a smile, that she thought it sounded as though some madman were coming into the space with a rifle, ready to mow us all down. We laughed, but I immediately recognized her reaction as my own. While she was able to identify and vocalize her feeling, albeit jokingly, I had already gritted my teeth and forced the image away, in order to continue our work. I think many of us experience this heightened awareness to some extent these days we 're living in, and we search as people have done in the past, for images that will help us feel safe in such unsettling times.
A holy man with tears in his eyes clutching a Bible, a microbus hand painted with peace signs and filled with conscientious objectors gathering signatures, or a single man waving a flag and passionately touting nationalism are images among many others, that might and have in the past offered comfort, or a set of ideals for facing problems.
Facing a midlife crisis, and terrified that he is no longer in control of his own house, our hero. Organ embraces the image that Tartuffe offers him, one that flatters him and shows him off (he thinks) as a man of piety. And even by the end of the play does he really learn that he should be a little vigilant, a little wary, a little patient before he embraces another extreme image without the use of reason? Will we?