The Imaginary Invalid

The Imaginary Invalid centres on a wealthy man who is certain he is dying and equally certain his doctors are the only people worth listening to. Argan spends his days totting up apothecary bills and submitting to treatments he does not need. His household has other plans for him.

He intends to marry his daughter Angelique to a doctor's son, on the grounds that a physician in the family would be economical. Angelique loves someone else. Argan's second wife is waiting for him to die and has arranged matters accordingly, and only Toinette, the maid, is willing to say any of this aloud. She sets about curing him of his physicians rather than of his illness.

Moliere wrote the piece as a comedie-ballet in three acts, with musical interludes by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and it first reached the stage in 1673. It has been translated and adapted into many languages since, revived by classical companies in period dress and by others in modern settings, and it remains a fixture of the repertoire.

The satire is aimed at the medical profession and at the credulity that keeps it in business. Doctors arrive speaking Latin and leave with money, and the more absurd the diagnosis the more readily Argan believes it. The comedy is broad, built on disguise, eavesdropping and a servant cleverer than everyone above her, and the danced interludes push it further towards farce.

It suits audiences who enjoy classical comedy played with energy: fast reversals, a household run from below stairs, and a satire on authority that has aged remarkably little.