We Review: The Imaginary Invalid @ the Rep

It's not often that we can tell just from glancing at the stage that we'll like a play, but with the Seattle Rep's The Imaginary Invalid, we felt like great things were in store the moment we caught sight of the silly, sumptuous velvet hatbox of a set. (Runs through March 22; tickets $15-$59, $10 for 25-and-under.)

Much like its crazy old coot hypochondriac, Argan (Rocco Sisto), the play gets to its feet creakily, expelling lots of gas on the way. To truly enjoy this play, you had better learn to love fart jokes--one silver-haired, correct looking woman ahead of us surprised us by hooting loudly when Argan started to waft his farts noseward and recount, with a wine snob's flair, the bouquet that resulted from his most recent enema. "Cumin?" But once up and moving, the play can still shake a leg, and the laughs come faster and faster.

It doesn't seem like there's anywhere Constance Congdon's new adaptation is afraid to go, except in the buzz-killing direction of good taste and subtlety. Argan's daughter Angelique (Zoë Winters) is a young Carol Burnett on amphetamines, skipping around like a feral Raggedy Ann, baring her teeth in a) happiness or b) anger. She's in love with Cléante (Andew William Smith), but Argan's gold-digger trophy wife Beline (Julie Briskman) wants to pack her off to a convent so she gets all Argan's dough when he dies. Argan, on the other hand, wants to marry Angelique off to his doctor's nephew, med student, and birdbrain Claude (Ian Bell), so he'll have a live-in doctor on call.

Because Moliere's play's roots are in Europe's commedia dell'arte, director David Schweizer has drawn on the the New World's closest relatives, vaudeville and melodrama. The delivery is always broad, Rocco Sisto's asides come with a heavy New York-deli schmear, and the villainous notary Monsieur De Bonnefoi (Bradford Farwell) sniggers just like that sniggering animal on the Laff-A-Lympics. Smith's Cléante gets stuck with a tired "Bill & Ted" impression that gives some clue as to why the Rep has to offer that $10 ticket for the under-25 set. (What are the kids into these days?)

The only one not mugging to infinity and beyond is Alice Playten as the wise, cynical, hyper-capable servant Toinette, who would like to break Argan of his gullible dependence on whatever the latest quack spouts. It's as true today as it was then, we guess, but the more important fortune cookie message is this: LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE. (More photos after the jump.)

Photo credit: (L-R) Ian Bell as Claude De Aria, Rocco Sisto as Argan, Zoë Winters as Angelique and Julie Briskman as Beline in Moliére’s The Imaginary Invalid, directed by David Schwiezer. Photo copyright Chris Bennion, 2008.