THE PEARL THEATRE COMPANY is pleased to present the fourth production of its 25^th Anniversary Season; Molières riotous comedy Tartuffe.  Preview performances begin March 17, 2009. Opening night is March 30, 2009.

This wickedly gleeful comedy offers the story of the hypocritical Tartuffe and his designs on the affluent (and painfully gullible) Orgon.  Orgons family must find a way to break Tartuffes hold on them before they lose everything and it wont be easy.  In THE PEARL THEATRE COMPANY'S production of Tartuffe, Molières madcap dance of cunning plans and comic irrationality, the question is: what will win the day blind faith or common sense?

More about the Play

Tartuffe was first presented in 1664 at the court of King Louis XIV at Versailles and was promptly banned for its audacious attack on religious hypocrisy.  It invites us into a lush and fashionable world endangered by deceit and the ridiculous.  And while this scathing satire skewers false moralists and those unfortunate enough to follow them, Tartuffe also offers the hope that goodness and truth can save anyone if only theyll agree to be saved.

About The Pearl Theatre Company

The Pearl [serves] as an intimate outlet for the presentation of important works, both famous and obscureit may be as crucial to the future of New York theatre as any of the larger companies uptown; it is a caretaker of the legacy.

-Peter Marks, The New York Times

An OBIE Award-winning company, The Pearl has produced five mainstage productions each year since 1984, displaying international variety and theatrical excellence, firmly rooted in the classical canon.Our goal is to bring the audience to the world of the play, rather than mold the play to the confines of modern idiom. The Pearl Theatre Company is an Off-Broadway classical theatre that nurtures an ongoing resident company of actors, a structure which is both important and rare.  The Pearl believes that a resident company, made up of a cohesive and experienced community of actors, is best equipped to keep vital our rich tradition and to keep fresh the wisdom, wit, and craft of the classics. As founding Artistic Director, Shepard Sobel explains, The Pearl produces a classical repertory because the great plays of the last 2500 years provide a context, a perspective, by which we here in America in 2008 may see ourselves more clearly.  We can and have an obligation to design the strength and character of the future only by knowing the character of the past.