Appropriately bilious, dyspectic, splenetic, and cast and staged with almost vertiginous comic invention, The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade Imaginaire), adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt as part of Bard's SummerScape Festival at the Fisher Center, may not be “just what the doctor ordered.” This production, and the play by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (aka Molière), can be almost discomfortingly scatological, even by today’s standards. But what do doctors know? – a point Molière himself repeatedly makes in this still astonishingly smart send up of hypochondria, bourgeois hypocrisy, and the enema-obsessed medical profession of his time.
The all-male casting (Molière himself used real women), claustrophobic double-leveled set, and choice of Peter Dinklage (currently enjoying superstar status thanks to his role in HBO's hit series Game of Thrones) to play housemaid Toinette seem at first to be a grab bag of absurbist, camp-tinged staging stunts more suited to Ionesco (if not Charles Ludlam or Charles Busch) than Molière; it took some time getting used to. (The brightly comic costumes by Andrea Lauer definitely helped.) But due to the offbeat though always effective comic timing of the actors, this intentionally bitter pill of a production accelerates into something that matches the author’s intentions even more fully than conventional ones (such as ones with real women and stuff). In other words this play, when played as sharply, is (still) very funny.
The contemporary translation by John Wood is performed either to perfection or even beyond, with ticklish comic turns by Preston Sadleir as Argan’s daughter Angelique; Damian Young as Dr. Darreah; and Henry Vick as the doctor’s son Thomas, as well as the ever-present Dinklage himself, whose pratfalls, quick changes, and miscellaneous busywork are virtuously farcical. Hats off to Ethan Phillips in the title role, Argan; Mark Junek as his brother Beralde; Danny Binstock as the gallant suitor Cleante; and the Dina Merrill-like Zachary Booth as Argan’s duplicitous second wife, Beline; all are very strong. Had Molière been in the audience, he might have wanted to see more (real) bosom, but all in all would have been quite pleased to know that, more than 300 years later, people were definitely getting—and appreciating–his completely clear-eyed message. Spoiler alert: In the translation by John Wood used in this production, Argan suffers a heart attack and dies during the ritual that makes him a doctor, a reference to the fact that Molière himself collapsed and died a few minutes after his fourth performance in the role. Talk about kina hurra! --Scott BaldingerThe Imaginary Invalid by Molière at Bard SummerScapeFisher Center for the Arts, Theater Two Annandale-on Hudson Directed by Erica Schmidt Costumes by Andrea Lauer Featuring Ethan Phillips, Peter Dinklage, Damian Young, and Preston Sadleir Through Sunday, July 22
