Moliere’s 17th-century play, Tartuffe, has been given a modern-day twist by writing partnership Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto. Directed by Iqbal Khan, the show opens at the Birmingham Rep this month following a highly acclaimed pre-pandemic run at the Royal Shakespeare Company. What’s On recently caught up with Iqbal to find out more...

It has been a busy year for Iqbal Khan since he was named associate director of Birmingham Rep. 
He directed the 25th anniversary revival of the comedy East Is East, which played to full houses both in Birmingham and at the National Theatre in London. He was artistic director of the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, which was watched by millions worldwide. And he is currently in rehearsal for a revival of his hit comedy, Tartuffe - previously seen at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in 2019 - which is opening in its spiritual home of Birmingham at The Rep mid-month.

An updated version of the classic 17th-century French comedy by Molière, the play tells the story of fraudster Tartuffe, who inveigles his way into a family, duping them with his false piety. But where the original Tartuffe is an apparently good Roman Catholic, in this new adaptation, the story is transferred to a modern Pakistani Muslim family living in Sparkhill in Birmingham.

Adapted by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto, whose CVs include television’s Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars At No 42, Citizen Khan and The Office, the show premiered at Stratford-upon-Avon to critical and audience acclaim.

Iqbal, who directed the Stratford show and returns to the production for Birmingham, says its success lies both in Molière’s story and its timely update.

“I think the original play is the first great sitcom, or comedy that has a sitcom structure, because it’s the perfect satire of family - all the various tensions within a family, it does that brilliantly. 

“But it’s quite a dangerous satire because the religious framing of it makes the line that the comedy walks quite edgy. I think what we did when moving it to a modern Islamic community in Birmingham gives it that kind of tension that releases both the danger within the play but also its humour.

“It worked really well in Stratford because it felt like it did speak to the world at that moment. And what was really gratifying about that audience in Stratford was that many of them didn’t have the experience we were portraying in the play. They were international or older white people coming to see it, but they seemed to really identify with the human story of the play. 

“This is a family which is fractured, and into that fracture comes this figure, Tartuffe, who exploits everyone’s weakness. That’s a story which I think anyone from whatever community or heritage can identify with.”

The show was scheduled to play The Rep in spring 2020 but was delayed by Covid and lockdown. Now the team are looking forward to finally bringing it to Birmingham, where it forms part of the Birmingham Comedy Festival.

“Anil and Richard wrote it so specifically for Birmingham, and yes, it worked brilliantly at the RSC, but I can’t wait to have Birmingham audiences looking at a story that is set here and which is really precisely observed. 

“I’m from Birmingham, and we worked really hard to represent this community, not as a homogenous community but as a collection of quite a lot of different voices, so I think there will be lots of recognition here.”

As part of the modernisation of the story, the women have been given more prominence.  

“Many of the women are a bit functional in the original, but in our version we’ve shown all the women in this piece as being incredibly strong and complex, having agency, and given them a lot more of the story. 

“I’m hoping that those who know Molière’s Tartuffe will be surprised by the journey we’ve taken and our take on those characters.”

Four years after its premiere, the team are also making some tweaks to the production.
“We were already changing it a little bit last time we were due to stage it at The Rep, just sharpening it for Birmingham, making it tighter and stronger. We will continue to do that and update a few of the lines.

“Unfortunately a lot of the things we were satirising four years ago feel even more pertinent than they did then. Tartuffe is a conman exploiting the fractures in terms of identity, how people relate to the media, our relationship to religion, our weaknesses, our scepticism about politics and whether politicians represent us.”

Iqbal stresses, though, that it is Tartuffe’s duplicity which is under the spotlight, not faith itself.

“We’ve been very careful not to attack religion. It’s those who use religion to manipulate others that is the focus of our satire. In our version, we have lots of different kinds of Islam represented, and I hope respectfully and with real insight.”

Iqbal was also keen to represent the city’s different communities with authenticity in the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony at Alexander Stadium in July.

“I wanted to show Birmingham as an extraordinary, vital place that’s a meeting place of different kinds of communities and has been enriched by that. The sense that I got was that Brummies who came were overwhelmed by it and really proud that I represented lots of different experiences. 

“They felt I had captured something of those experiences and really shouted our qualities to the world - and the world, I think, was dazzled by the vitality of this place.”

Iqbal believes the arts - whether it be a huge Games ceremony or a theatre production, can open doors into other communities and break down barriers.

“Any great play comes from a very specific place and looks at a very specific bit of the human experience, but if it’s told well, that resonates with so many parallel dynamics in other communities and other families. Ultimately the great gift of theatre is the consoling sense that other people are going through what we are going through. And also that it can enlighten us and educate us about the differences between people, and battle the ignorance. It’s when we don’t know that we become afraid, and I think theatre really helps bridge the ignorance and shows us consoling similarities in different experiences.

“Tartuffe, a play that was written in the 17th century and in a Christian context, can be infinitely interpreted and represented. It's fantastic for us to take the opportunity and give it a Pakistani, modern Birmingham perspective, and help share truths about that experience through this play.”

Feature by Diane Parkes

Tartuffe shows at The REP, Birmingham, from Friday 14 October until Saturday 5 November.