The Imaginary Invalid
Performances of fall Main Stage play “Imaginary Invalid” (SW Auditorium)
directed by Chris Fisher
Adults $10 Student $5
Thursday/Friday/Saturday, November 13-15 – 7:00 pm
Sunday,  November 16 - 2:00

Director’s Notes:
 
Welcome to the world of Moliere’s Imaginary Invalid, first performed in Versailles at the Palais Royal on 10 Feb 1673, alive today and well at Southwest High School.  
 
The details of the story are simple:  
 
Argan is a wealthy merchant who believes he is dying, and fearing that his health care costs will force him into poverty,  he determines to marry his daughter off to a young doctor who will cure him for free...
 
Angelique loves another man – Cleante --  and she has little interest in the not-so-bright doctor Thomas.
 
Beline, Argan’s gold-digging, scheming wife and “evil” step-mother, meanwhile hopes to banish both Argan’s daughters to a convent so she can enjoy Argan’s riches when he is gone.
 
In a nod to the traditions of Comedia Del Arte, the desperate and dimwitted father is saved from his wife’s trap by her clever servant, Toinette, and in the end, everyone lives happily ever after.
 
So it appears to be a formula piece.
 
But beneath the simplicity of the plot is a deep comic narrative which has provoked both laughter and thought in audiences for nearly the 350 years.
 
One notable historic detail:  At the time he was writing the play, Moliere himself knew he was dying... and yet he invented a character who thought he was dying but wasn’t... Moliere performed the role of Argan on opening night, and on the evening following the fourth performance of the play, Moliere died of the congestive heart failure which had been plaguing him.   
 
After a career of writing and performing subversive comedy, running the gamut from social satire to pure farce, Moliere chose as his final work a satire about mismanaged healthcare and the “expert professionals” who prey on the vulnerabilities of the common people...
 
In Moliere’s doctors we see the opportunists who feed on the naive believers, we see Wall Street and Enron, we see people fearing the loss of money and health and we see fear’s exploitation...
 
Argan is everyman – and in the end, his salvation is ours.  In the final moments, while he absurdly transforms himself into a doctor, the notion is that we can heal ourselves, we are experts on ourselves, and thus less vulnerable to the snake charmers and medicine shows of our modern world.  
 
One final note:  the setting for this production is the abandoned and forgotten Royal Palace Theatre;  at the beginning of our evening, an itinerant acting troupe known as  The Illustrious Theatre Company, is in search of a place to perform.  Enjoy the show.   
 
Chris Fisher
Imaginary Invalid Production gallery
Rehearsal photos from the Imaginary Invalid
Dress Rehearsal and Production Photos
Imaginary Invalid