Updated Molière comedy triumphs at The Schoolhouse Theater

David Begelman

Theater Critic

In Molière’s last comedy, “The Imaginary Invalid,” the playwright collapsed during its fourth performance in 1673 and died immediately thereafter. His demise might have been his parting salute to a calling he satirizes mercilessly in his farce: the medical profession.

The conceit of the bombastic physician who has quack remedies for imaginary ailments was hardly innovated by the French author. It had already been included as a staple of Italian commedia dell’ arte in the person of “Il Dottore.”

The Schoolhouse Theater’s current production of the farce, with Miles Malleson’s hilarious updating of the comedy, sticks close to the playwright’s original plot. The latter has real and make-believe physicians attending to illusory maladies with no end in sight. The capable hand of director Pamela Moller Kareman is evident throughout this production’s fun-loving romp of outrageous situations, impossible pretensions, and decidedly madcap humor.

The hypochondriac, Argan (played uproariously by John Tyrell), is such a worrywart about his health, he believes he is on the verge of imminent death—on a continuing basis. He contrives to have his daughter, Angelica (Libby Conkle), marry the dorky physician, Dr. Thomas Diaforus (Israel Gutierrez), who is the son of the smooth talking, but querulous Dr. Diaforus (John Shuman), in order to avail himself of free medical treatment on an indefinite basis.

Angelica is enamored of Cléante (Billy Lyons) who seeks access to his beloved disguised as a substitute singing teacher. Angelica is assisted by the ever-capable maid, Toinette (played by the sparkling Allyce Beasley with gobs of ingenuity).

Meanwhile, Argan’s wife Beline (the lustrous Quinn Cassavale) is carrying on an affair with an attorney, Bonnefoy (played by the multi-talented Neal Mayer with a patois reminiscent of Joe Pesci). She schemes to secure her husband’s wealth while he is still alive, although the ever-resourceful Toinette defeats her plans. Béralde (Bruce Sabath), Argan’s brother, attempts to bring some sanity into the hypochondriac’s plans—without much success. It takes the considerable foxiness of Toinette posing as herself and yet another physician to make her master come to his senses.

Performers in minor roles also add to the delightful quality of this production. Sara Caine is a ditzy Louise, Argan’s other daughter, while Neal Mayer doubles as a fey apothecary with a German accent who arrives to irrigate Argan’s bowels with a medical instrument that looks like a contrivance designed by a space alien.

Stunning staging, involving the talents of Jason Bolen’s scene design, Kimberly Matela’s costumes, David Pentz’s lighting, and Neal Mayer’s (is there anything he can’t do?) choreography both opens and closes this attractive production.

It got back to this reviewer that another critic felt the production needs more work. Another imaginary nostrum for a fictional ailment? What’s up, doc?

‘The Imaginary Invalid’ is at The Schoolhouse Theater, 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls, NY. It runs through June 20, with performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $30 on Thursdays and Fridays, and $32 on Saturday and Sunday. They may be purchased by calling the box office at 914-277-8477 or online at www.schoolhousetheater.org.

                  

 

In Pursuit of the French Connection: Carlo Goldoni & Friends

David Begelman

If you imagine that French toast, Edith Piaf, vintage wines or haute cuisine are the most important products of that country across the Atlantic, think again. There’s more to it than that. If you could go back in time and ask Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, they’d agree wholeheartedly that France meant something more to America—much more.

 France was, after all, the country that originated new ideas about human rights that found their way into our Constitution. They were celebrated by figures like Montesquieu in “Spirit of the Laws.” The Frenchman propounded novel ideas about government that were to put vestiges of the older feudal system to a deserved rest. Among them was the abolition of slavery, the preservation of civil liberties, and the notion that the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government should enjoy separate, but balanced jurisdictions. Sound familiar?

Newer thinking about human rights germinated in the eighteenth century, often dubbed “The Age of Reason” or “Age of Enlightenment.” The transition to them was not without cost. Bloody revolutions in France and colonial America were fought over issues inherent in the new philosophy. Ours took a turn for the better while France’s took one for the worse: the Reign of Terror. During it, heads rolled in what Charles Dickens once described as “The worst of times.”

French originators could have learned a thing or two from their American pupils.

The French Connection affected more than just political philosophy. Its influence colored areas of cultural interest you’d think were far afield from it, like theater.

Newer ideas in French theater coincided with the rise of the middle class, and a more democratic sensibility. Denis Diderot, a scientific, as well as theatrical theorist, inveighed against the drama of his day. He felt it had become too remote from the lives of ordinary people.

Yale Repertory Theatre’s newest production, “The Servant of Two Masters” was authored by Carlo Goldoni, an Italian who, like Thomas Jefferson, looked to France for fresh ideas. A prolific playwright, he was jaded on the formulaic structure of Italian drama, including the improvisational, yet conventional character of Commedia dell’Arte.

Commedia was a theatrical form involving “slapstick” humor, and a cast of stock characters like Arlecchino, Pantalone, Il Dottore, Inamorato, and others. Goldoni was a past master of the genre, as the current terrific Yale Rep production attests. It has you belly laughing yourself silly.

In Goldoni’s play, the lowly Truffaldino contrives to serve two separate masters. But the underbelly of his duplicity is a social reality: he is starving. By doubling his employment, he increases his wages, thereby ensuring a full stomach.

 Goldoni emigrated to—where else?—France, where he came under the influence of the renowned Molière. This French playwright put a more realistic, yet somber, spin on drama that nonetheless bore traces of the Commedia in his work. Goldoni followed suit, becoming more sympathetic to a theater that mirrored the plight of the common person—an eighteenth century idea that was later to culminate in realism on stage. 

Subsequently, Beaumarchais, who started out as a watchmaker, authored plays that later found their way into operas by Mozart (“The Marriage of Figaro”) and Rossini (“The Barber of Seville”). He was vilified for depicting the follies of a stratified society in plays so revolutionary, public performances of them were banned. Imbued with a spirit of freedom, he financed shipping supplies of ammunition to American colonialists!

So the winds of change in the Age of Enlightenment fanned the unrest of common folk who became increasingly aware of something better than their lowly lot in life.

Goodbye to feudal ways, and the lopsided apportionment of rights. Hello to their universality, especially in America where the Founding Fathers picked up the French ball and ran with it. Lucky us.