Imaginary Invalid Comes to Life at Healdsburg's Raven Theater

“I’m sick. Sick, I tell you. Sick of all these bills!”

It’s a sentiment that most of us would agree with, and the first line of a play first staged in 1673. It's a line that still draws laughs, even though for the playwright it proved all too accurate.

But this is not Le Malade Imaginaire, as written by Molière in 17th century France, but an updated and hopped up version by Oded Gross and Tracy Young, of Ashland's theater scene. The Imaginary Invalid opens April 12 at the Raven Performing Arts Theater.

Gone is the rhyming verse, along with powdered wigs and bed bowls (well, mabye not the bed bowls, they're always good for laughs). In this staging of The Imaginary Invalid, there's "really clever dialogue, and music, and song, and even a dream ballet," as director Steven David Martin says in this Facebook video.

The farcical cast of a hypochonriac, charlatans, schemers -  with a little love interest, of course - is pure Molière, but appeals to today's audience through Gross and Young updating, setting it in Paris in the 1960s.

“They’ve made it fun and accessible,” says Martin, adding that it contains half a dozen 60’s-inspired songs  and wardrobe to match.  "It’s a big, bright, colorful show.”

It's certainly one of the biggest Raven Players productions in a while, with a large technical crew and onstage cast. The lead role of Argan, a rich hypochondriac surounded by relatives waiting for him to die, is played here by Steve Thorpe, impressive at the Raven in To Kill a Mockingbird as Sheriff Heck Tate. Martin was also his director for that production last year. 

Others in the case include Raven newcomer Christi Calson as Toinette, along with Bonnie Jean Shelton as Angelique, Lydia Revelos as her sister Louison, Diana Grogg as Beline, and Jeremy Boucher as Beralde, and several other local favorites rounding out the cast.

“It’s a universally talented company,” says Martin. “It’s like putting together a baseball team. You have to get everyone on the same page in terms of style and tone."

Despite the laughs, though, an undercurrent of seriousness unlies the play. In fact, Le malade imaginaire was Molière's last work - he collapsed during his fourth performance as Argan on 17 February, 1673, and died soon after.

The Imaginary Invalid will be performed on April 12-14, 19-21, and 26-28, plus one “value night” on Thursday, April 18, starting at 8 p.m. Sunday matinee performances are at 2 p.m.

General admission prices: $23 for adults; $19 for seniors aged 65 and above and for students with IDs. Thursday, April 18, is Value Night, and all seats are $11.

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