By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO — If laughter is the best medicine, then the Fiasco’s Theatre’s Imaginary Invalid is therapeutic. The house resounded with bursts and howls throughout the show.
I remember the Fiasco when they brought Into the Woods to the Old Globe in 2014. Their name comes from a convention in Commedia del Arte. If an actor messed up on stage, he had to buy the company a bottle of wine (un fiasco de vino). Thus, the Italian word for bottle has come to mean an embarrassing disaster in English. The Fiasco believes in taking BIG risks, doing the unexpected to keep us on the edges of our seats.
“Nearly all men die of their remedies, not of their diseases.”
Moliére thought that all doctors were quacks and had little use for them. While there were some notable advances in that era, bloodletting was still common practice and a toothache was thought to be the work of demons. Suffering from tuberculosis, Moliére created and played Argan, a man who coughed and sputtered through his lines. We begin with this man going over his bill from the apothecary and disputing the costs.
“With such prices on medicine, how can anyone afford to be sick?”
Argan’s daughter, Angelique has fallen in love with the handsome young Cléante. Argan wants her to marry Thomas, a medical student, but not for the usual “Jewish mother” reasons. Argan reckons that having a doctor in the family will be advantageous to him as a limitless source of consultations and prescriptions. Paul Coffey’s Thomas cuts a cartoonishly less-than-striking figure while Jane Pfitsch, as Angelique argues with passionate conviction about marrying the husband of her choice.
Kevin Hafso-Koppman is captivating as the romantic young lover, Cléante. When he describes the plot of an “operetta” as a pretense for expressing his devoted affections for Angelique, he owns the moment and our rapt attention.
Emily Young shines as the sassy servant, Toinette. She’s a great foil to Argan and their banter has the rapid back and forth of table tennis.
Jessie Austrian’s melodramatics as Béline, Argan’s younger trophy wife, are a hoot. She wails deliciously at the very thought of Argan’s demise leaving her a free, wealthy young widow. For Argan, she transforms into “Luisa” affecting a little girl voice in a pervy little game complete with a lollipop and a riding crop.
Spicing the soup of this classical theatre, add a surreal dream sequence, some heel-kicking bluegrass and scholars wigs that appeared to be made out of used to toilet paper rolls.
The Fiasco Theatre is all about making bold choices and doing the unexpected. Their Imaginary Invalid certainly delivers, eliciting bursts of raucous laughter. And that, my friends, is why we still go to the theatre.
The Imaginary Invalid is playing at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park through July 2.
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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com