Tartuffe
The Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon

SET in the Brummie-Pakistani Muslim household of a successful businessman who has become obsessed by a local would-be imam, Iqbal Khan’s production of Tartuffe works a remarkable theatrical alchemy.

One can imagine some devout believers of Birmingham’s large Pakistani Muslim community being as outraged by this treatment of their religion as Louis XIV’s religious establishment when the play originally aroused so much antagonism.

But from the outset Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto’s adaptation, true to Moliere, ensures that the reactions of Imran Pervaiz’s family clearly show that Tartuffe is an out-and-out phoney. Asif Khan as the toothily oily imposter cons his credulous victim with beguiling ease.

Simon Nagra’s Imran is so taken in that, not only stubbornly blind to the designs Tartuffe has on his wife, he insists that his daughter should marry the pious hypocrite. He even hands over his house and business to the Svengali-like interloper.

At the centre of the action is Michelle Bonnard’s outspoken Bosnian cleaner-cum-family confidante, who not only hoovers the homestead and the theatre aisles but also labours to clean up the domestic chaos.

The comic action reaches its climax when, in order to make her husband come to his senses, his desperate wife Amira (Sasha Behar) hides him inside a period chaise longue on which she encourages a trouserless Tartuffe to reveal his seductive intent.

Among an almost totally Asian cast, with impeccable Brummie dialects and unflagging energy, Raj Bajaj’s Damee, Imran’s hyper-frenetic rapper son and Amina Zia’s Dadimaa as his acidly critical mother specialising in Punjabi invective add spice to the action, which injects undertones of current reality into the farcical fun.

And Sarah Sayeed’s sitar, trumpet and percussion music capture the generation and culture clash within the family relationships struggling to come to terms with an ever-changing world.

Runs until February 23, box office: rsc.org.uk