13th Madách International Theatre Meeting

In our version of “The Imaginary Invalid”, we present to the audience one possible vision of Molière – the actor, the leader of his theatrical troupe consisting of exceptional actors, and Molière the man. 

We have preserved in our production the elements found in Molière’s original (this is a specific genre first introduced by Molière himself – the comédie-ballet), which are most often left out in interpretations of “The Imaginary Invalid”: the epilogue eclogue (the opening scene), the pastoral play as an apologia to Louis XIV (Molière’s patron at court and his child’s godfather), and the interludes (pieces with music and dance that serve as a break from the main plot, a warm-up for the next act). 

To be honest, in our production, during these short breaks from the plot, something else happens – something significant for the group of actors we are watching (who are performing the play in the presence of King Louis, which is a crucial circumstance), something the audience would not see in a regular performance: we find ourselves at the fourth performance of “The Imaginary Invalid”, on 17 February 1673. We go behind the curtain and see the actors preparing for the next act, we see that Monsieur Molière is ill, that he is unwell, and we realize that, from an outside perspective, performing this comedy has now become a matter of life and death for him. We wanted to embark on a riskier, and more challenging theatrical endeavor. The powerful current of Molière’s fate drew us onto such a path, into such a performance. We used the force offered by the incredible symbolism of his death, which literally began on stage, during his fourth performance as Argan, the imaginary invalid. This circumstance firmly but gently imbues the course of our play and makes it, alongside its playful comic energy, delicate and almost tragic.