Tartuffe was written in 1664 to expose a fraud who talks his way into a family’s trust and very nearly destroys it. Darren Raymond’s explosive new version, starring Mark Rylance, proves the con hasn’t aged a day… it’s just changed postcode.
In 1664, Molière wrote a play so dangerous the French king banned it. Tartuffe skewered religious hypocrisy so precisely that it took five years and three rewrites before Molière was allowed to stage it at all. Three and a half centuries on, writer-director Darren Raymond has done something almost as audacious: he’s kept every ounce of that danger, and dropped it straight into a contemporary Nigerian-Jamaican household in modern England.
The result, Tartuffe (Remixed), arrives at the Marylebone Theatre this September starring Mark Rylance as Pastor Terrance Blake, the smooth-talking man of God who inveigles his way into patriarch Oga Afolabi’s trust, and very nearly his fortune, his family and his daughter’s wedding, before it’s over. Molière’s rhyming couplets survive intact, remixed by Raymond with spoken word, live music and the “raw, rhythmic tapestry” of contemporary Black British and diaspora culture.
Watch the full video – click below
It’s a genuine union of two worlds. Raymond is the founder of Intermission Youth, the charity that’s spent nearly two decades turning Shakespeare into a lifeline for young people facing socio-economic barriers, and Rylance has been a trustee since the beginning. Most of the company are Intermission graduates, meaning the actor who once ran Shakespeare’s Globe is now sharing a stage with performers Raymond has spent 17 years helping to train.
“Our early rehearsals have been hilarious,” Rylance said. “The mix of a corrupt English missionary in a contemporary Nigerian–Jamaican family culture is bringing out the authentic cadence and revolutionary meaning of this classic play.” Marylebone Theatre Artistic Director Alexander J. Gifford put it more bluntly still: “Mark was born to play this role.”
Tartuffe (Remixed) plays a strictly limited seven-week season from 4 September to 24 October.
Plan your visit to Tartuffe (Remixed)
- Theatre: Marylebone Theatre, Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London NW1 6XT
- Booking dates: 4 September – 24 October 2026 (press night 10 September)
Marylebone Theatre, London
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