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.

                  

 

‘Ten Unknowns’ has glowing performances at The Schoolhouse Theater

By David Begelman

Theater Critic 

The title of the Jon Robin Baitz play refers to Malcolm Raphelson, a painter

 

who showed early promise in a 1949 exhibition of newcomer artists in New York City.

 

But with the juggernaut of enthusiasm for abstract expressionists like Willem de

 

Kooning and Mark Rothko, Raphelson’s figurative painting style is in disfavor.

We find the disgruntled artist a near recluse, a heavy drinker and virtually destitute in a Mexican village, along with his apprentice, Judd Sturgess. The latter has a heroin habit, and a penchant for dismissive cynicism, much like his mentor. Raphelson detests American enthusiasms like the new art-craze, while Judd morosely reflects the same pessimism: “It’s too late to do anything about everything.”

Trevor Fabricant, a penurious, but knowledgeable South African expatriate, whose current claim to fame is being arrested in Spain for spray-painting a Vittore Carpaccio canvas, casts a seeming ray of hope on this somber scene.

Trevor, who happens to be a past lover of downtrodden Judd, has hatched a new plan. He wants to promote a new showing of Raphelson works, coinciding with the revival of interest in the artist’s style. He’s clued in to the often arbitrary shift of enthusiasms in the art world, and his mercenary impulses are never far from the surface.

He has a hard time turning Malcolm on to any promotional scheme reeking of commercialism. The latter’s older disappointment of having missed out on being a darling of the New York set has turned him into a prophetic voice of decay in the wilderness of taste outside of him.

Into this mélange of rancor and dashed hopes steps Julia Bryant, a Berkeley biology student, equally penniless, but earnestly pursuing her research locally on a unique species of frog. She ignites a nascent spirit of sexuality in Malcolm, an impulse that is thwarted by fits and starts in the intellectual warfare between the two about honesty and authenticity.

 “Ten Unknowns” at The Schoolhouse theater can boast about nothing less than a dream cast of performers, spirited and informed direction by Pamela Moller Kareman, and terrific Scenic Design and Lighting Design by Jason Bolen and David Pentz.

The cast includes Keith Barber (Malcolm), Kevin Cristaldi (Trevor), Jack Berenholtz (Judd) and Hannah Wolfe (Julia). The fireworks go off whether or not all four actors are interacting, or when pairs of them do their thing together. One highlight of the show was when Cristaldi (who bears a striking resemblance to Malcolm McDowell of “A Clockwork Orange” fame) and Berenholtz had at each other.

You couldn’t ask for a better production group to showcase the Baitz drama, another in his tradition of works which, like “The Substance of Fire,”  “A Fair Country” and “Other Desert Cities” are fairly bursting with intelligence, witty observations, the calculated use of the bon mot, and similar delights.

The downside of the Baitz script is that it overloads the dialogue with too much of a good thing. There is little economy of issue in the play; no sooner is one theme explored, than another is broached in what can only be described as an embarrassment of riches.

As a result, no clear narrative line emerges, and the dialogue starts to take on the semblance of clever, but unending chatter in what would be anathema to Malcolm Ralpheson: the patter of the New York cocktail set.

“Ten Unknowns” runs till March 30 at The Schoolhouse Theater, 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls, NY. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Tickets are $33 to $35 and may be purchased by calling the box office at 914-277-8477 or online at www.schoolhousetheater.org.