Fresh, Clever ‘Tartuffe’ Hits New Heights

Clad in ‘50s chic, a black bourgeois family saunters onto the stage to the strains of Sinatra’s rendition of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” So begins Charles Randolph-Wright’s effervescently stylish staging of Moliere’s “Tartuffe,” at American Conservatory Theater.

The man who’s under this family’s skin is none other than the sanctimonious charlatan Tartuffe. Created in 1664, he’s still stalking his prey nearly four centuries later, among the affluent African Americans of Durham, N.C., in the ‘50s.

Randolph-Wright’s take on this masterful comedy is a model of how a directorial concept can make a classic seem ever fresher. And its resonance at San Francisco’s flagship theater company is heightened by the fact that Richard Wilbur’s translation, delivered this time in North Carolina accents, also opened the company’s first season at the Geary Theatre in 1967.

The program provides plenty of information about black high society in the ‘50s and such flamboyant real-life preachers as “Sweet Daddy” Grace, Prophet Jones, Father Divine and the Rev. Ike, who reportedly owns 16 Rolls-Royces and a velvet throne. Tartuffe (Darryl Theirse) is a wannabe Rev. Ike, who arrives in a bright red cape (shades of the devil?) and passes out the kind of fans used in Southern churches, with his picture emblazoned on them. Just give him a radio network and watch him rake in the cash.

His primary sucker and the master of this household is Orgon (Steven Anthony Jones), a big man who walks with an incongruously snappy gait when he’s happy. And when this Orgon’s on edge, his anger is converted into even bigger gestures that, as often as not, end with him flailing in some awkward position. Randolph-Wright makes ample use of broad slapstick.

Orgon’s only ally in his defense of Tartuffe is his mother (Fannie Lee Lowe), a determined church lady, railing on about everyone else’s decadence.

Otherwise, the family has already sniffed out Tartuffe’s venality. The charge is led by the impudent maid Dorine (Roxanne Raja)--whose look serves as an unspoken comment on Orgon’s pride that he’s rich enough to hire a white, high-heeled maid. When Dorine envisions what Tartuffe’s relatives might be like, she employs a mocking hillbilly accent.

Most of Beaver Bauer’s striking costumes add some sort of commentary. Orgon’s wife, Elmire (Shona Tucker), wears a bountiful ‘50s gown, topped off with sharply protruding accent marks that serve both to guard her breasts and call attention to them. The dress intensifies the comedy of her faux-seduction scene with Tartuffe.

Orgon’s son (Gregory Wallace) looks cooler-than-thou and can be seen glancing furtively at a copy of Mad magazine when he’s not plotting his war against the interloper Tartuffe, for which he employs an ever-expanding arsenal of weapons. His sane uncle (L. Peter Callender) looks like an understanding therapist, though he too becomes embroiled in moments of slapstick. The virginal daughter (Anika Noni Rose) is very funny as she tries to learn how to look sexy from the incorrigible Dorine.

The only characterization that doesn’t work is the daughter’s vain boyfriend (Rudy Guerrero), who looks Latin and speaks with a thick, stereotyped Spanish accent. In North Carolina in the ‘50s?

The representatives of the law who arrive near the end of the play are whiter-than-white guys (Tom Blair plays both). Think Colonel Sanders.

Ralph Funicello, who designed another “Tartuffe” for South Coast Repertory last season, here creates a creamy mansion that wouldn’t be inappropriate for the Ewings of “Dallas” fame, complete with plastic covers on the lampshades and pillows--yet another clever detail in a production that’s packed full of ‘em.

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* “Tartuffe,” Geary Theater, 405 Geary St., San Francisco. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; this Wednesday, Saturdays, Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 18. $14-$55. (415) 749-2228. https://www.act-sfbay.org