The Doctor In Spite Of Himself

Moliere's French writings mostly surfaced imperative predicaments such as the backing of a van into your mother-in-law's face and the noises you don't make when you're eating soup. The English version of one such of his satires is 'The Doctor In Spite Of Himself'. Jerry Lewis' effort in bringing that Louis The XIV parody to breathe again would have been perhaps a little more amusingly inane than this one by Expressions.

Sganarelle drives his vengeful wife Martine to perform the appalling act of proving him as a quack that cures ailments miraculously. And here's the catch - one has to beat the hell out of him for him to admit that he is a physician. The two gentlemen that believe this do as directed, and take him to Geronte whose daughter has lost the power of speech.

By the end of this scene, you understand that a comic play is done with sidesplitting production values. We have a lead character that looks like he's breaking it in for Frankenstein's Parakeet's goatee. And the rest of them would have to take two tickets while entering a zoo, one to get in and one to get out.

Meanwhile, Sganarelle's efforts to get Lucinde (Geronte's daughter) to talk are boosted when he's enlightened that she really is pretending her mute in order to dodge an objectionable marriage. Leon, the man who let's out this secret, is the person she wants to marry. This scene contains quite a few eye openers such as "Who's the fool that doesn't want his wife to be dumb?" etc. Sganarelle's attempt to lure the pretty housekeeper at Geronte's place forms the ludicrous sub-plot. All ends well with Leon inheriting his dead uncle's wealth and Martine forgiving Sganarelle.

The length of the play was mini-skirted: short enough to hold your attention but long enough to cover the better part. The performances weren't what you expect. You can notice the improvement straight away. Arvind Mittal's a fine actor but not as good a director. Sleek, designer black metal chairs aren't everyone's idea of the way the people rested their bottoms in the 15th century. But overall, a decent venture to make people laugh.

MV