the imaginary invalid
by Molière
directed by Ryan Howe
featuring Joe Mihalchick as Argan
performances: July 20-21-22-26-&-28-2007 at 8pm, with a matinee July 28-at-2pm
tickets: $15, or $25 for a season pass
A hilarious satire on man’s obsession with health, this is the play Molière was performing when he died. The great playwright’s wit is in fine form here. Bakerloo’s rollicking production will leave audiences in stitches!!!!!
Interested in brushing up on your humors?
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press highlights:
"The members of the Bakerloo Theatre project are faithful to the classic plays they perform but not slaves to them. That is abundantly clear in their fine respectful but none-too-reverential adaptation of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid... With a comic tone about as far removed from 'the Scottish Tragedy' nevertheless thrives on many of the same virtues as its rep-mate: a fine ensemble that attacks the material with energy and relish; a spare, lean and mean presentation: and a muscular physicality and no-waste pace that blows the dust of a classic.
The seventeenth-century French playwright Moliere...would doubtless appreciate what the Bakerloo gang under the direction of Ryan Howe has done with his final work... and were he in attendance in Troy, he would once again be left breathless by evening's end- by the chutzpah as much as the rat-a-tat comic tempo.
(Kate) Hess is a wicked delight and a worthy, witty foil for (Joe) Mihalchick, who proves a gifted physical comedian and offers an aptly vain self-absorbed Argan, pushing his broad portrayal very nearly to the point of wearing out its welcome- a nervy high-wire act worthy of SNL in its mid-70's heyday.
Really, the whole crew is ready for prime time, and Howe keeps it all of a loopy, irreverent piece... The audacity of the enterprise is worthy of applause."
-Phil Drew, The Record
July 27, 2007
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Bakerloo Theatre Project...offer(s) Molière for the MTV generation, fast and loose and very, very funny, with no commercial interruptions....Bakerloo rips through The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade Imaginaire, 1673) in 90-minutes for a modest $15 ticket price and I can't think of a better family outing. There are enough poop jokes and silly sight-gags to keep even a child as young as five or six entertained.
This production is Matt Mosher and Bakerloo's own adaptation of Charles Heron Wall's translation of Molière's final work (he collapsed during his fourth performance in the title role and died shortly thereafter). It is directed with gusto by Ryan Howe, but I can't help but think that he received lots of input and inspiration from his exuberant cast. The same youthful vivacity that make Bakerloo's current production of Macbeth so stunningly visceral bring a freshness and abundant energy to this classic farce. Riotous youth indeed!
Anchoring this swirling whirlpool of silliness is Joe Mihalchick's Argan and Kate Hess' Toinette....Mihalchick gives us a decidedly hyper hypochondriac, springing wildly from his bed at the slightest provocation to scold his servants, chastise his daughters, or slash the costs on his latest doctor's bill.
In a perky black bustier and pink and black striped tights Hess is all sass and wiggle as the world's most subordinate servant. This is really Toinette's play, as she aids and abets the schemes that allow Angélique (Danielle Grabianowski) to marry the man of her Cléante (John Steffenauer) and opens Argan's eyes to his foolishness.
I failed to mention Grabianowski's very funny turn in Macbeth (yes, there is comedy in the Scottish play) as the drunken porter in the "knock-knock" scene. Here, in the fuzziest hot pink legwarmers ever seen, she leaps and lollops wide-eyed and naïve through Howe's madhouse. She is both very funny and very touching as the fiercely loyal Angélique.
(Steffenauer) and Howe have managed to put a new, more interesting spin on the stock male juvenile, in an hobo-clown costume that accentuates Steffenauer's tall, thin frame and classic good looks.
Christopher Thomas Gilkey gives an over-the-top performance as the furious Vomitter, clad all in devilish black and scarlet satin (hell hath no fury like a physician scorned?), filling the stage nearly ankle deep with the papers that he wildly flings from the file on Argan's maladies. He is almost matched by Joseph McGranaghan pulling double-duty as the outRAYgeously French pharmacist Mr. Fleurant, sputtering away in faux-French while squirting the contents of his enema hither and yon.
McGranaghan pulls double-duty, appearing also as the uber-nerd Thomas Diarrhée, who Argan wants to marry to Angélique because he is about to become a doctor and having a physician in the family ensures him a lifetime of free medical care. McGranaghan is an impossibly thin man, able to rest his buttocks easily in the tiny toddler's chair Toinette provides him. With his greasy hair dangling limply and coke-bottle glasses he is easily the most unappealing fiancé ever foisted off on womankind.
In a reluctant gender-bending role Gwyn Hervochon plays his old charlatan of a father, Dr. Diarrhée. She look surprisingly good in a moustache, and even better in her sparkly duds as Ms. De Bonnefoi, an "accountant" in cahoots with Argan's second wife Beline (Sarah Murphy.) All of Justin Honard's costumes are exceptional here, as they are for Macbeth, but Murphy's powder-blue snow-bunny get-up was my out-and-out favorite in this show. Teetering on stiletto-heeled white patent leather boots, balancing her blue cat-eyed glasses on her nose and an out-sized martini glass in her hand Murphy was just the money-grubbing stepmother from hell.
Stepping out as the voice of reason was Marsha Harman, looking snappy in a pin-stripe suit with a cocky hat and equally cock-eyed hairdo, as Argan's sister (his brother in the original), Béralde. Her "Latin" number during the burlesque ceremony in which Argan is draped in academic roles and a stethoscope and pronounced a doctor was very funny and very nicely sung, as was her earlier outing on one of the musical interludes scattered throughout the show...
...This "Cursed Season" (Macbeth opened on Friday the 13th) has been anything but from an audience standpoint. I know the company had some attendant disasters during rehearsals, but half the fun of getting a show up is the adventures you have along the way. From my view from the aisle this has been Bakerloo's best season so far. In fact this pair of productions is so good, and shows the remarkable range and energy of this young company so well that I think they could take it on the road. It is a pity their annual stay in Troy is so brief. If you love the theatre and love a good laugh, hurry over to Academy Hall now before you miss your opportunity to see one of the best shows of this season.
-Gail M. Burns, Gailsez.org
July 20, 2007