Originally published on 20 October 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Moliere’s ‘The Imaginary Invalid’ opened at A Noise Within (ANW) over the weekend, a fitting final production of the fall in the repertory company’s 25^th anniversary season. Long-time resident artists, Apollo Dukakis as Argan, and Debora Strang as Toinette, face off in this raucously hysterical play. At the helm is ANW co-producing director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott.    

On stage until the 19th of November, ‘The Imaginary Invalid’ tells the story of Argan, a man obsessed with his health and the lengths to which he will go to ensure that he will have a doctor to diagnose and cure his ailments. It’s a high comedy that calls for much sparring among the characters which the resident artists pull off with dexterity and aplomb.           

Rodriguez-Elliott says of working on the show with resident performers, “It usually isn’t until the third week of production that people begin to have a sense of each other and by week five it’s over. But here, we get right down to the task on the very first day of rehearsal so that the work becomes so much richer. I’ve observed guest artists begin to relax as they see the vocabulary of the place.” 

Strang immediately pipes in, “Apollo and I have played opposite each other on the stage so many times but as I look back on them I think we’ve had the same kind of relationship every single time.”

“It’s part of being in a company, as long-time colleagues we have such a familiarity and that instant connection. We’re there for each other,” Dukakis adds.

Dukakis has played ‘The Imaginary Invalid’s’ lead character, Argan, four times previously; the first one was 16 years ago. This time around, he was originally cast as the doctor but the actor who was to have played Argan had an emergency medical surgery one week into rehearsal.  Without too much preamble, Rodriguez-Elliott asked him to replace the lead and Dukakis graciously agreed.

ANW has produced Moliere and Shakespeare plays more than any other playwright’s.  

Rodriguez-Elliott rationalizes, “Moliere’s characters are people who are extremes; watching what happens when we’re obsessed fascinates me. His works give us the opportunity to play the characters with a humanity. It’s the same with Shakespeare when he writes ‘a street’ and you have no idea what that looks like and you have to create what the language of that particular production is going to be.”

“I find it interesting that both Moliere and Shakespeare wrote for repertory companies,” observes Strang. “I think every single character in their plays is rich and full-bodied because they had particular actors in mind. The fact they had repertory companies made them much stronger writers.”

Interjects Rodriguez-Elliott, “Even if Moliere and Shakespeare just had a sketch, they throw it to the repertory and they fill it out. That’s the power of having a company. It’s in that same vein that I was able to ask Apollo to fill in for the original actor playing Argan; I was very confident that we have resident artists who can handle the role. It was seamless, we moved the different actors to play the various characters. We didn’t have to scramble around to find someone.”

Rodriguez-Elliott says of ‘The Imaginary Invalid’, “This individual is in the throes of mental illness. The brilliance of Moliere is that he’s turned this destructive isolation into a sparkling, effervescent romp! So much of the comedy is about how oblivious Argan is to the vultures that are taking advantage of him, and the lengths in which people in his life navigate his neurosis.”                             

“It’s slapstick hilarity to watch the characters go right to the brink of insanity, but there is an underlying basis of reality – we are all blinded by our own behaviors,” Rodriguez-Elliott observes. “At the end of the play, Argan overcomes it all. What’s most interesting to me is his trajectory and his journey. It’s up to the audience to figure out if he ultimately finds enlightenment and takes ownership of his life as he becomes a doctor himself.” 

“I can have some high and mighty notion of what I think the audience should take away with them. But given what’s going on in the world right now it’s really great to be in a room with everyone just laughing hysterically … being together and having a really good time where we’re not dealing with complex issues, or things that are taxing and stressful,”  Rodriguez-Elliott concludes.

‘The Imaginary Invalid’ provides the perfect last fall production of ANW’s ‘Beyond our Wildest Dreams’ 2016-2017 season. It’s a blast of a play!