The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade imaginaire)

For more than three centuries the actors of France’s esteemed Comédie-Française have set the standard by which all Molière is measured. The world-renowned company performs in New York for only the fourth time in the past 25 years. Under the direction of Claude Stratz, the troupe returns to BAM with a rollicking production of Molière’s deliciously satirical final play, The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade imaginaire), a no holds-barred indictment of the seventeenth-century medical establishment disguised as an extremely witty family saga.

In debt to his incompetent physicians, the chronically hypochondriacal, albeit perfectly healthy, Argan contrives to marry his daughter Angélique to an imbecilic medical student, thereby granting himself a lifetime of free medical care. Angélique, of course, loves someone else. Infuriated by his daughter’s stubbornness, Argan plots to expose everyone’s true feelings by faking his own death.