Casting Is the Brightest Light of Two Molière Shows
Based on. An adaptation of. After. Inspired by.
When these words precede the title of a new production of a classic play or the name of a long-dead writer, chances are good you'll be in for a ride. Now two shows drawing from Molière — Red Bull Theater's revival of 'The Imaginary Invalid' and the Taylor Mac play 'Prosperous Fools,' both running through June 29 — illustrate, with widely diverging degrees of success, how far that ride can go.
In 'The Imaginary Invalid,' Jeffrey Hatcher compresses the plot of Molière's three-act comedy, from 1673, into a 90-minute romp, and rewrites the jokes but preserves the essence of the story and characters.
The production, now running at New World Stages, reunites Hatcher with the director Jesse Berger, with whom he had cooked up marvelously funny takes on Nikolai Gogol ('The Government Inspector') and Ben Jonson ('The Alchemist'). Happily, lightning can strike thrice.
Aside from nods to 'Les Misérables' and Édith Piaf, the play's structure is intact, and still revolves around the hypochondriac Argan (Mark Linn-Baker). The doctors administering the treatments he constantly requests (all played by Arnie Burton) appear to have graduated from Quack U. 'All these things they do to you, it's like you donated your body to science but they couldn't wait,' Argan's no-nonsense maid, Toinette (Sarah Stiles), tells him.
He does not listen, of course — though Molière and Hatcher aim their arrows at Argan, they also skewer profit-driven snake-oil peddlers and greedy bad agents.
Much of the plot involves efforts to fleece or deceive Argan, and much of the production is shamelessly focused on making the audience laugh. Which it does, thanks to a company of expert farceurs who look to be tremendously enjoying themselves — like 'Oh, Mary!,' this show understands that perfect silliness requires perfect execution.
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