First Sunday in September. The sun is beaming on the main Green, still vacant, except for the occasional freshman-parent-unit strolling across. Inside the cool halls of Leeds, a group of actors scurry around in the semi-dark theatre, surrounded by surveillance cameras rigged around the stage. Their image, in form of unidentified bodies and flashing limbs, is projected onto a large white screen center stage and a cluster of smaller TV screens. To the casual spectator, the scene might appear to be a remake of the Blair Witch Project. But to cast members, including myself, this is just another day of rehearsal for Sock and Buskin’s first show of the year Tartuffe.
How did surveillance cameras and TV screens make their way into Moliere’s 17th-century farce on hypocrisy? I sit down with our director, recent Brown/Trinity MFA-graduate Mia Rovegno, to unpack:
What original thoughts did you have when thinking about directing this play?
I knew I was not interested in doing period drama, which can be very distancing to the audience. I studied adaptation in college and have always come from a place of translation. Tartuffe is a very familiar text to most people in the theater; when I re-read the translation this summer, I asked myself how this text, beyond playing around with funny scenarios, can be relevant to today.
So how does surveillance tie in to this?
The obvious link to make was to the evangelical culture in America, and the Bush administration’s use of fundamentalist ideology to bring about immediate change that proved incredibly destructive to our country. But such an adaption could have been staged five years ago, and I think theater is often a little bit behind. The health care town hall meetings this summer were a reminder of how complicated it can be for a leader to bring about change when others in positions of power are working just as hard to deceive their community. The original production was banned by the king of France because it was calling out people abusing power through their institutions, not religion itself, and this is always relevant, then and now. One aspect of the story told in Tartuffe is that change, for better or for worse, can happen very fast if the right people are influenced and a cult of personality is created. The visual landscape of surveillance became a relevant metaphor for how easy an environment of fear and complacency can be imposed upon a democratic society where people supposedly feel empowered and have a voice.
In act 1, the prevalence of eavesdropping and meddling is comedic and feels very innocent. In act 2, the power dynamics shift and privacy is no longer an option. The same vocabulary transforms and becomes enforced upon the family. This sense of a prevalent but mysterious threat, knowing that you might be watched and get caught for an action or affiliation with a political entity, has been re-introduced to us in the past decade—a sort of McCarthyist, post-9/11 culture of surveillance. In the play, each character takes their own journey to finding their voice, reclaiming their life. They can be seen as archetypes for those very real types in any revolution—the intellectuals, the complainers, the complacent and those silenced by fear. This is also a nod to Moliere: rather than putting on a hoop-skirt, our connection back to his time is the focus on political relationships. The comedy, of course, remains crucial. It allows us to laugh at ourselves and see truth that can be both ugly and painful to watch.
What have you learned from seeing surveillance in action in rehearsal?
I was surprised to see how quickly the actors and their characters regressed to their normal behavior–once the surveillance was established, it became almost invisible. Outside rehearsal I have also become more aware of cameras around us, I’ve seen them on top of buildings, stoplights, ATM’s, the lobby of an apartment-building, all in the last 24 hours. I saw two cameras looking down on the green, capturing a sunny day and people relaxing in dressed in bright colors. I thought to myself: somewhere, someone has this scene framed in gray-scale, documented as something potentially suspect. I am someone who really values privacy, but of course in the wake of Virginia Tech, the issue of surveillance is really complicated.
The interview is almost over. Mia’s attention is focused on her handheld device—“just need to send this email real quick to James [our stage manager]’’. I look down at my notes—they certainly spark a whole realm of new thoughts about the surveilled state of our co-existence, none of which will help me with my opening scene.
Feeling complacent? Tips for action for:
… the intellectual, you might want to check out Elise Morrison’s class TSDA 0500D – Surveillance, Performance and Culture.
… the exhibitionist, now even more reason to flaunt your stuff on the Main Green.
… the paranoid, find the least surveilled route to Leeds theatre sit down safely, we promise we won’t point our cameras on you.
Tartuffe Show Dates:
September 24-27 & October 1-4
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00pm
Sundays at 2:00pm Leeds Theatre
Tartuffe is produced by Sock and Buskin, the student-faculty board that each year selects and puts up five shows on the theatre department’s stages.
For show and audition updates, visit: sockandbuskin.blogspot.com
