{"id":50808,"date":"2022-03-24T11:02:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T03:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/?p=50808"},"modified":"2022-04-12T16:39:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T08:39:20","slug":"putting-a-wild-new-spin-on-tartuffe-the-imposter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/putting-a-wild-new-spin-on-tartuffe-the-imposter\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting a Wild New Spin on Tartuffe: The Imposter!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How did this project \u2014 Tartuffe: The Imposter<\/em>, with Wild Rice \u2014 come about?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Glen Goei, our director, has wanted to stage a production of Tartuffe<\/em> in Singapore for years. The first I heard of it was in 2020, at the start of the pandemic or just before. At the time, they were working with an adaptation from the 1960s, and Glen was thinking of opening the show with a musical number. He called and asked me if I would write the lyrics. They ultimately shelved that project, but that\u2019s how I first got brought in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, a couple of years down the line, Glen and Ivan Heng decided that they would like to do their own adaptation of the play. Ivan asked if I would do it, and I said yes because I’ve always been fascinated by both Moli\u00e8re and the process of adaptation, and Tartuffe<\/em> cracks me up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you started work on adapting this classic play, which is close to 400 years old, what kind of research did you do?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I read a couple of contemporary adaptations, and one from the 1950s and, in the end, the version I referred to the most was a really old and musty English translation from a Complete Moli\u00e8re that I found on my bookshelf \u2013 I\u2019d bought it at the Strand bookshop in NYC years ago but never opened it. Goes to show it\u2019s worth collecting books! I also read up on Moli\u00e8re and his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More broadly, I thought about what made the play so controversial in its time, and how that would translate today. How do we bring some of that danger back into this production?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What did you find most challenging about adapting Tartuffe<\/em> for modern-day Singapore?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Constantly second-guessing the decision not to set it in Singapore \u2013 which no doubt a lot of people will find odd, and I\u2019m prepared to hear that strand of criticism, but I think there are good reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, resisting the temptation not to set it in verse. Moli\u00e8re wrote in a very rigid rhyming metre, and there was a very vain part of me that wanted to rise to that challenge. I wrote the first couple of scenes in free verse, but found rapid-fire dialogue more exciting in the end. Anyway, English doesn’t rhyme as easily as French and, after a while, you run the risk of sounding like Dr. Seuss!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the most fun\/rewarding thing?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Not setting it in modern-day Singapore lol. It freed me up to write the play in a kind of English that gestures towards the artifice and relentless word-play of the original. Singapore English can be all those things, obviously, but, at its most natural, it wants to be pretty dry and rapid and siap<\/em>. The English I chose is very fruity and sticky, full of traps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your favourite thing about this particular production of Tartuffe<\/em>?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A lot of people think of Tartuffe<\/em> as a farce, as a comedy, which is true, of course. But there\u2019s also quite a lot of serious and disturbing drama embedded in the play as well. And I love how this production veers from comedy to drama and back again at a breakneck speed. While watching rehearsals, I\u2019ve felt like I\u2019m being tugged in and out of various states of existence during the show, and that\u2019s really exciting for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve also really enjoyed teasing out some of the feminist undertones of the original play and putting them a bit more front-and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(L-R) Joel with director Glen Goei, as well as cast members
Ivan Heng and Dennis Sofian, at our recent Tartuffe<\/em> table read<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This adaptation of Tartuffe<\/em> feels very personal to you. What themes were you particularly interested in exploring, and what do you hope audiences take away from watching the show?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The major theme of the play is obviously religious hypocrisy, which looms large throughout. But what is more interesting to me is what happens when you capitulate to those hypocrites, when you let them determine the practices of your household, and allegorically, your neighbourhood, your town, your entire political system. Moli\u00e8re argues that it\u2019s an incredibly destructive and de-humanising force. I think the resonances of this in Singapore are pretty clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, actually, that\u2019s why I didn’t want to set it in modern-day Singapore \u2013 because, to me, there\u2019s something humbling and sobering about a French play reaching out from the 17th century and having so much to say about us. There\u2019s something, for me, in the theatricality of that four-century gap that feels productive. I wanted to preserve that sense as much as possible. There are some major departures, but mostly it’s a pretty close, practically scene-by-scene adaptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, the fact that Tartuffe <\/em>still resonates today is because hypocrisy follows human beings around. But the more you learn about the conditions around which the play was written and produced in the 1660s \u2013 so tied up with questions of patronage, censorship, and moral outrage \u2013 the more it begins to feel like a play that could’ve been written about us, last week.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about what you\u2019ve been up to, outside of Tartuffe<\/em>. How can audiences connect with you and what do you have coming up in the next few months?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been SO BUSY, who would\u2019ve thought we would ever be this busy again? And yet, the other day, I had to go get an ECG done because I thought I was having a heart attack, but actually it was just anxiety from work!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been busy leading writers\u2019 groups for emerging writers, researching the new writing landscape in Singapore with Centre 42, and working on my own plays. I also make a podcast with my best friend, Kishan; it\u2019s called T42<\/em>, and we overshare about our lives and talk about anything we want. I\u2019ve also been working with a super fab art collective towards an exhibition in the middle of the year. It\u2019s fun because we get to go on long walks in ulu<\/em> places and make rice wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, in the next few months, I\u2019m heading back to London to attend rehearsals for my play, no particular order<\/em>, which is being staged there in June! I\u2019m totally and blissfully off social media so the only way to connect with me is to write letters or send smoke signals, or maybe email me idk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Playwright Joel Tan chats with us about the joys and difficulties of adapting Moli\u00e8re\u2019s satirical classic for the Singapore stage, and why the play remains so profoundly relevant today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":50809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[101,511,135,508],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}