The French playwright Molière wrote ‘Tartuffe’ in 1664. Now more than 350 years later this young troupe of performers on the streets of Edinburgh were hawking their performance of Molière’s famous play as part of the Edinburgh Festival.

At first I just saw a young group of performers in costume full of the vitality of the festival. Then I discovered the play and then the man who wrote it, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière.

The more I read about Molière the more I became fascinated with the man’s life and his pursuit of his passion for theater at the expense of a comfortable high society Parisian life.

I now wish I’d gone to see these young artists perform Tartuffe at the festival (the biggest scandal of Molière’s life’s work) .

Still I am happy they walked past in the rain, stopped for a photo and introduced me to an extraordinary part of French history.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Tartuffe’, 1/500s f/3.5 ISO320 70mm