SINGAPORE — The French playwright Moliere’s comedy play Tartuffe undoubtedly offers much food for thought these days. A critique of religious hypocrisy written in the 17th century, it takes a jibe at people who use religious zeal to fatten bank accounts surely resonates, with scandals involving groups and charities (both recent and not-so-recent) and, further abroad, the Vatican’s own besieged image.

But unlike the play’s eponymous villain who fools people with his pious actions, we’re not quite seduced by Nine Years Theatre’s Mandarin version. The story goes thus: An entire family is agitated by the man of the house Orgon’s blind devotion to Tartuffe, who has wheedled his way into the household with his supposed acts of holiness. They try to out him as a hypocrite and imposter to no avail and there’s a big possibility of the sneak burrowing himself even more into the family’s lives.

But it’s rather hard to get with the programme when the farce you’re watching is hardly that. Much of it unfolded in such a straightforward manner you ultimately find yourself craving for anything remotely funny. These moments rarely came and it is mainly courtesy of the lively maid Dorine, played by Jalyn Han, who was perhaps the only one who grasped that you don’t have to take this play that seriously.

It could be a case of opening night jitters, but it was evident that Wednesday’s show lacked energy. Orgon (Darius Tan) didn’t seem the “tyrant of a father” he was described as, while Tartuffe (Hang Qian Chou) was disappointingly neither menacing manipulator nor crazed zealot. He was certainly no Rasputin. Much like Orgon, it felt like director and translator Nelson Chia seemed too enamoured of the classic-as-it-was that what we saw was a respectfully safe, and not really fun, version.

It does have its Brechtian moments — the stripped down approach with actors waiting in the wings in full view of the audience, for instance — and you have a woman playing a male role and a man playing both brother and fiance. But surely one can’t expect contemporary audiences to witness, for instance, unabashed exaltation of a king without any sense of sarcasm or the slightest hint of a nudge-wink?

Back in the day, the play incurred the wrath of the Catholic Church. It was timely, it was potent. While this Tartuffe ticks the first box, it unfortunately hardly ruffles any feathers.

Tartuffe, which runs until Feb at the National Museum of Singapore Gallery Theatre, is sold out.