[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Imaginary Invalid" at Great Lakes Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

Redone 'Invalid' well done at Great Lakes

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 10/12/12

 

 

Satire, noted renowned playwright and drama critic George S. Kaufman, is that thing that opens Friday night and closes on Saturday.  Yet, Moliere's "The Imaginary Invalid"-a rollicking send-up of the medical community that was first performed at the Palais Royal Theatre in Paris in 1673-is currently on stage at the Hanna Theatre in downtown Cleveland. 

 

Clearly, the play's survival is due to the cleverness of Molière's wordplay, the broadly drawn but immediately recognizable characters he created, and the shelf-life of its subject matter.  The health care system, it seems, is still an easy target for ridicule and reform.

 

The thing about satire is that it requires refreshening if it is to remain relevant, for topicality is transient.  As antiquated as our health care system is, 17th century allusions to apothecaries and lines about bloodletting could use a good, swift kick in the pants.

 

No one understands this better than the folks at Great Lakes Theater who have raised the tweaking of classic works to an art form.  Last year, for example, Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" was transported from the 1590s to the 1980s, transmuted from the Italian city of Padua to a fashionable L.A. boardwalk, and transformed from a comedy to an all-out romp.

 

While enlivening the original work, Great Lakes never undermines its integrity or messes with its language.  The play always remains the thing and, in "Shrew," everything that was Shakespeare's was upped in intensity, velocity and frivolity, but it was still Shakespeare's.

 

In "The Imaginary Invalid," however, director Tracy Young-who was at the helm of "Shrew"-takes so many creative liberties that it is unclear where Molière ends and revisions by playwright-for-hire Oded Gross begin.  What starts out as a madcap makeover through an infusion of 1960s pop culture and original music by Paul Prendergast reveals an underlying cosmetic surgery.

 

A new character has been added.  Molière's song and dance Interludes are now full-blown production numbers.  The work's highly stylized burlesque presentation takes on more farcical, commedia dell'arte stylings that change the tone and temperament of the work.  The language, which has long been tampered with through various translations and adaptations, is unrecognizable.  

 

Fortunately, the cosmetic surgery is not of the Joan Rivers variety, where pieces and parts do not work as originally designed or in synchrony with one another.  This reconfiguration of "The Imaginary Invalid" actually works remarkably well.  In fact, this production is delightfully entertaining.

 

The story is intact.  The wealthy Argan (Tom Ford) is a housebound hypochondriac who fears everything and is dependent on the advice of greedy and misinformed doctors (Lynn Robert Berg) to keep him alive.  Saddled with medical bills and a secretly scheming second wife (Lise Bruneau) and her attorney (J. Todd Adams), he resolves to marry off one of his daughters (Kimbe Lancaster) to a wealthy medical student (Ian Gould) she does not love and send the other (Jodi Dominick) to a convent.  Argan's grounded brother (David Anthony Smith) and mouthy maid (Sara Bruner) scheme to get Argan to embrace life, recognize his blessings, and see his wife and the medical community for what they really are.    

 

The humor is intact as well, with Young, Gross and Prendergast embellishing the play's frivolity with contemporary references and enriching the existent lowbrow humor and allusions to bodily functions by going even lower.  The gorgeous apartment and costuming, designed by Christopher Acebo, are full of sight gags that work beautifully.

 

In lesser hands, the performance of this re-invented play would not work as well.  In fact, a screening of the premiere production of Young's adaptation at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is good but not as impressive as the one currently on stage.  Tom Ford is an incomparable invalid and those surrounding him share his impeccable comic timing and brilliant physicality.  The play unfolds at break-neck speed, but still manages to turn heads and leave room for laughs. 

 

Perhaps this production should not be accredited to Molière but, rather, listed as inspired by him and titled "The Re-Imagined Invalid."  The playwright's spirit can be felt, but it has been reduced to a lesser albeit blithe spirit.

 

Speaking of which, Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" is scheduled later in the Great Lake season.  Will it be re-imagined as well, for where does the line get drawn between honoring a classic work and honing it to better suit the times?  Great Lakes Theater, for good and bad, has opened the floodgates wide.      

 

"The Imaginary Invalid" continues through November 3 at PlayhouseSquare's Hanna Theatre in downtown Cleveland.  For tickets, which range from $15 to $70, call 216-241-6000 or visit www.greatlakestheater.org.

 
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