2020 Show – Tartuffe

This year’s performances of Tartuffe are being postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective immediately, ticket sales are suspended. Please read the message from our artistic director.

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Our 2020 show in French is Molière’s Tartuffe.

Tartuffe, or The Impostor is one of Molière’s greatest plays, which was first performed in 1664 at Versailles in a three-act version, now lost. Because of the opposition of influential Church groups, Molière was refused permission to put on his play for three years. A much revised version in five acts was shown only once in 1667. Finally, in 1669, Molière was able to make the play part of his repertoire at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal and so tell the story of the rise and fall of Tartuffe, a religious hypocrite, and his impact on the wealthy bourgeois family of Orgon. Since then, Tartuffe has remained one of the most frequently staged plays by Molière at the Comédie -Française.

Frontispiece and title page of “Tartuffe or The Imposter” from a 1739 collected edition of Molière’s works in French and English, printed by John Watts. From Wikimedia Commons.

For more on the plays, see the Wikipedia articles on Tartuffe and Molière. One-page summaries and full texts of both plays in English and French will be available below ahead of the performances, and you can follow us on social media to be kept abreast of other developments.

We are giving two performances, on Friday and Saturday, April 24 & 25, 2020, at 7:30 PM at the George Ignatieff Theatre on the downtown campus of the University of Toronto. Printed copies of the one-page summary in English as well as projected surtitles in English will be available at both shows.

Frontispiece by Pierre Brissart from the 1682 edition of “Tartuffe”, printed by J. Sauvé. From Wikimedia Commons.

Tickets

  • We have suspended ticket sales. Please do not use the links below. We will refund any purchase already made.
  • You can purchase (reserve and pay for) tickets online (since February 1, 2020). Seats will be selected by our box office staff starting March 16, 2020, in the order in which the online purchases were made.
    • Your tickets will be held at the theatre entrance the night of your show until you arrive
  • You can reserve tickets by contacting our box office team by email starting March 16, 2020
    • Your tickets will be held at the theatre entrance the night of your show until 30 minutes before show time (show time is 7:30 PM, thus until 7 PM)
  • You can reserve tickets by contacting our box office team by telephone staring April 13, 2020, weekdays 11 AM – 5 PM.
    • Your tickets will be held at the theatre entrance the night of your show until 30 minutes before show time (show time is 7:30 PM, thus until 7 PM)
  • Tickets, if any remain, will also be available at the door on the nights of the performances with payment by cash only.

More practical information

Date and Time

Friday, April 24 and Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 7:30 PM
English surtitles will be shown and a printed one-page summary in English will be available both days

Location

George Ignatieff Theatre
Trinity College
University of Toronto
15 Devonshire Place
Toronto, ON M5S 1H8
Subway: St. George; Bedford Road exit, then 400 m (1,300 ft) on foot

Maps

Full texts and summaries

Miscellaneous

  • Blank Seating plan of the George Ignatieff Theatre
  • Poster
    • High-quality PDF
    • Lo-res JPG
  • Postcard
  • Program