Remembering TARTUFFE

I directed a production of TARTUFFE myself in November of 2004, with my own son playing the title character! Reading over the note I wrote for the program, I see we chose to use the subtitle "The Imposter" rather than "The Hypocrite." It seems that "I found the play to be very apt given the overheated atmosphere of [that year's] election season" (President Bush vs. Senator Kerry, you may recall). My note concludes, "The play may be about an imposter, but it is also about family and friends whose true loyalty and love prove to be greater than the hypocrisy of one who tries to destroy them. Truth trumps fiction. It must."