In one night, Molière went from being the favorite artist of the Sun King to that of a man threatened with death by the Church.
How ?
Because of a play:
The Tartuffe or the Hypocrite
.
Seen with pleasure then censored by Louis XIV the protector of the arts, the original version was lost in the mysteries of the playwright's life.
But for the 400th anniversary of the birth of Molière, a new version of
Tartuffe
has been presented since January on the boards of the Comédie-Française.
She now finds herself at the heart of a legal battle, according to information from the Radio France investigation unit.
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Directed by Ivo van Hove, the play carried by the actors Denis Podalydès, Claude Mathieu, Marina Hands and Dominique Blanc,
“was reconstructed thanks to the work of “theatrical genetics” carried out by the historian Georges Forestier”,
can we read on the website of the Comédie-Française.
Read alsoThe Tartuffe banned by Louis XIV played for the first time at the House of Molière
By bringing the censored text back to life, the playwright specialist believes that he is the adapter of this new version and claims copyright.
“
We knew that the play which had been banned by Louis XIV was in three acts.
So I started from the five-act version, in which I cut Act II and Act V
, explained Georges Forestier to Radio France.
"
I created a new object that did not exist until now
," he added.
For its part, the "Maison de Molière" indicated to the investigation unit via its lawyer that Georges Forestier "
is not the author of
Tartuffe or the hypocrite" considering that he has just "
returned as a scholar the original text of Molière
".
The situation looks inextricable.
Georges Forestier is suing the Comédie-Française for "violation of its copyright".
Without Tartufferie...