Comedy At Its Finest

There’s no way around it…in today’s world, we all need a good belly laugh.  We get that from different places…movies, TV shows, books, and theatre.  And you can’t get much funnier in theatre than anything you’re going to see from Molière.  Molière was a French comedy playwright in the 1600s.  Over the centuries, there have been many translations and adaptations of his plays, which brings us to Quintessence and their season closer…Molière’s The Hypochondriac.  This show is also known as The Imaginary Invalid, or The Would-Be Invalid, but no matter what it’s called, this is a treat of a show.

I’ve seen a bunch of Molière plays, including The Imaginary Invalid, and they’re always hilarious.  Molière’s comedy is raunchy and dirty.  He doesn’t shy away from all the things that make people laugh, including things like caricatures and fart jokes.  Because let’s face it…these are the things that make all of us laugh.  That’s the beauty of Molière.  His writing is filled with jokes, punchline after punchline…and all the things that we might be ashamed of laughing at in a normal situation, but it’s completely different in a dark theatre.  No one is looking at you laughing at fart jokes.

The Hypochondriac absolutely did not disappoint.  I laughed so hard throughout this show…the actors were absolutely phenomenal, and presented a show that was pure comedic gold.  The entire production was spectacularly sculpted for all those laughs.  Everything from props that included pool noodles, to physical humor, to perfect delivery of lines (and jokes!) came together to give us a play that was unforgettable.  I really loved the adaptation they used, a recent one by Sir Ranjit Bolt, and I have to say this is probably my favorite Molière play I’ve ever seen.  The actors really carried it all.  The range was beautiful, and everyone portrayed masterfully.

There were some aspects of The Hypochondriac that were new, too!  My absolute favorite one was the making of King Louis into a character.  Now, I read in the program about how Molière shows were often performed for King Louis XIV, and the king would often join in as part of the entertainment.  This was new to me, and absolutely hilarious.  In the audience, there was a throne, where Jared McLenigan sat for the entirety of Act 1, as King Louis.  It was such a fun introduced aspect to the play.  He would make little comments on the play, and at one point, even asked the actors to repeat a scene.

The thing about a play like The Hypochondriac is that it speaks to the general human condition.  We’ve all had maladies that we think will be the death of us.  We all believe in love at first sight at some point in our lives.  We all know those greedy, conniving people who marry for money.  In this play, Molière takes all these very serious issues and turns them into something that is going to make us laugh.  A lot of these things simply wouldn’t be funny out of the world of The Hypochondriac.  But that’s one of the most magical things about Molière’s writing…he really did understand who we are as humans, and had a firm command over how to make light of that.

I think linguistics is a really important thing to look at when it comes to a play translated from another language.  It sort of goes like this: Shakespeare was written in Elizabethan English, but it’s still English.  So you can sort of adapt it into modern English, but you also sort of can’t.  You can put it in a modern setting, but the language is essentially going to be the same.  Looking at someone like Molière is much different.  If we were in France seeing these shows, it might be a similar experience to us watching a Shakespeare play.  But since Molière’s plays are being translated, they can be made into language that’s more easily swallowable.  It’s part of translating text like this…and I can’t help but wonder what it must be like in its original language!

So we have all the pieces to the puzzle now.  All of these have to connect to give us a great show.  And Quintessence’s adaptation of The Hypochondriac was truly a great show.  I couldn’t help all the great, hearty laughs I got out throughout that two hour show.  My mom and I were in hysterics, nudging each other and really just enjoying a show together.  Which is something really beautiful that came out of this production…we were all laughing, and all enjoying a show together.  There were so many different types of comedy integrated into this play, and I’m sure something hit home to every person in the audience.

If you want to laugh really hard and enjoy every single second of a play, then The Hypochondriac is your show.  Watching this ensemble of actors in the absurdity of this play, and everything about the play, was truly a delight.  We live in a very dark world, but this is the sort of thing that reminds us there’s light and hope in every aspect of our lives.  From the language to the physicality to some brilliant satire, The Hypochondriac really brings some brilliance to the table.  It may be an old story, but this production certainly holds up well.