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A review by ponch22
Le Malade Imaginaire by Molière
2.0
Can't remember if I read this back in college, in a History of Theatre class or not, but I was surprised as I read this for a class now because I thought it'd be about an IMAGINARY Invalid (a la Harvey) or an Imaginary INVALID (a la people who fake a limp to get handicap parking). I much prefer the other translated title of Hypochondriac, as that's what it's really about...
The plot feels very classical--confused identities, lying servants, etc. I can't imagine how the quick changes Toinette has to do could be done (but that's a director's headache to deal with). I honestly skipped both interludes, especially the final one which is in complete gibberish ("This piece is composed of a mixture of dog-Latin, French...and is utterly untranslatable.")
Argan seems like he'd be a fun role to try (in a few decades) and I could see a local theatre (CKP) doing well with some of the farce here. But as a simple project of reading this play, I didn't enjoy it. It was really hard to follow due to the language (which is always harder to read than to watch, plus I'm probably out of practice).
The plot feels very classical--confused identities, lying servants, etc. I can't imagine how the quick changes Toinette has to do could be done (but that's a director's headache to deal with). I honestly skipped both interludes, especially the final one which is in complete gibberish ("This piece is composed of a mixture of dog-Latin, French...and is utterly untranslatable.")
Argan seems like he'd be a fun role to try (in a few decades) and I could see a local theatre (CKP) doing well with some of the farce here. But as a simple project of reading this play, I didn't enjoy it. It was really hard to follow due to the language (which is always harder to read than to watch, plus I'm probably out of practice).