In a time when the powers that be in America have taken an extremist position on power, religion and money, “Tartuffe” bangs on the door of reason and preaches that we find a middle ground.

The University Theatre and Film department is staging this classic, originally written by the French neoclassical playwright Moliere and adapted and modernized by Ranjit Bolt.

The play, directed by Harold Leaver, a professor in the theater department, opened last weekend and continues until Sunday.

“Tartuffe” follows Orgon (Brandon Wentz), a father of two, husband, brother-in-law and son, who disrupts the lives of his family by being deceived by a religious fake, Tartuffe (Ray Paolino). He invites Tartuffe to stay in his home, marry his daughter and spend unnecessary time with his wife.

“This play is about 350 years old, and the things it talks about are amazingly relevant to what’s going on in the U.S. today,” Leaver said.

Throughout the play, the whole family tries to reason with Orgon, but he’s blind and deaf to what’s going on in his very own home. By the end of the play, drastic measures open Orgon’s eyes and ears, but Tartuffe may have what he needs to ruin the family for good.

The play is a comedy about religious hypocrisy and extremism.

“In the rearranged language, there’s a heavy focus on comedy,” said Frances Humphreys, who plays Elmire for her M.F.S. performance.

“It’s a challenge to step away from the language and make it engaging,” said Nathaniel Collum, who plays Orgon’s son, Damis.

The play is set in modern-day Washington, D.C., and some of the male characters are political men, including Orgon.

Leaver said Bolt’s choice to set the play in Washington, D.C. will help present audiences to understand the point of the play the way Moliere’s audiences did.

The play opens with the Dorine (Jamie Gray Hyder), a loud-mouthed, opinionated, iPod-toting Latina maid. When she first comes on stage, she’s dancing wildly and singing along with her iPod music to various hip-hop songs as she feather dusts the room.

When she gets to the drink cart sitting on the left side of the stage (or stage right if you’re in the theater business), she puts away her iPod, grabs a drink and jokes with the audience about cell phones going off. After her address, the play begins.

This isn’t the only time an actor breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience. It happens several other times, but surprisingly, it doesn’t ruin the atmosphere of the play world, and it actually keeps the audience more engaged as they get picked on or have hypothetical questions directed at them. The thrust stage design allows the actors to get close to the audience when speaking to them, making the production more intimate.

Every actor in this play was strong, and the chemistry between all of them was good.

The delivery of the lines were right on. This was especially true in the scene where Orgon informs his daughter Mariane (Ali Shinall) that she will not be marrying the man she loves, Val�re (Bradley Golub), but instead, the man Orgon loves, Tartuffe.

When Mariane keeps quiet through her father’s plan, Dorine decides to put in her two cents. She and Orgon yell back and forth at each other. Orgon tells her to shut up several times.

Neither actor missed a beat, giving the scene exactly the flow Moliere would have wanted.

Another spectacular scene in the play was the seduction scene in act four in which Elmire tries to prove to her husband Orgon that Tartuffe isn’t as perfectly pious as he believes. Humphreys does a stellar job in this role.

Through most of the play, she was quiet and obedient, but by this point, she’s had enough and shows Tartuffe, Orgon and the audience what she’s made of.

While all the actors were great and had their roles down pat, Paolino was fascinating on the stage. He delivered his lines in a way that made the audience forget he was speaking in rhymed couplets.

His crazy eye glares and puppy dog pouts were hilarious.

Paolino used a thick, Southern accent for this role. It was reminiscent of the preachers on Sunday morning television.

The play is fun and will keep the audience laughing the whole two hours. Costumes, dialogue, movement and sexual innuendos make this play about rejecting extremism and finding a middle ground a great way to forget school for a little while and have some fun, even after the play is over – at the curtain call, the actors will do a little dance that completes the fun of the evening.