Portland Center Stage

Alison Hallett | The Portland Mercury [Review 27 Jan 2011]

Portland Center Stage’s current mainstage production is an adaptation of Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid, about an elderly hypochondriac (David Margulies, AKA the mayor from Ghostbusters!) who tries to marry off his daughter to a doctor, in hopes of snagging free medical attention.

I can safely say that one thing I never expected to see at PCS was an old man analyzing the bouquet of his flatulence like a fine wine, but Constance Congdon’s adaptation leaves no fart joke unmade.

Marie | Every Day Is a Miracle [Review 26 Jan 2011]

This afternoon Mike and I saw “The Imaginary Invalid” at Portland Center Stage (PCS) after a nice lunch at Noodles (love their tomato basil bisque) and a browse in Powell’s.

“The Imaginary Invalid” is a broad farce written by the French playwright Moliere in 1673. It’s the tale of an older man, Argan, who is a desperate hypochondriac. It’s a biting satire on the snake oil practice of medicine at the time. Argan pays a fortune for pills and potions that he believes will relieve him of his horrific flatulence and bowel irritation. He’s convinced he’s on death’s door, and this idea is encouraged by his unscrupulous doctor and even-more-unscrupulous young and conniving wife, Beline (who only wants to get her hands on his money).

Gigi Little | ut omnia bene [Review 20 Jan 2011]

On Friday, Stephen and I went to the opening of The Imaginary Invalid at Portland Center Stage. Molière! Never saw Molière before. [or an adaptation of.] I’d heard somewhere that it’s supposed to be promoted as a night of a hundred and one fart jokes, and if you know me, you know I’m squeamish about the things that happen in that corner of the body. I even tailor my curse words to stay away from ones involving that corner of the body. But there’s something about combining that kind of humor with a bit of age and a bit of French that…elevates it*. So, I was ready for the fart jokes. In fact, at intermission, I turned to Stephen and said, I want more fart jokes.

Because, really, they’re contained in…I don’t know, probably just the first twenty minutes or so of the play? OK, no, I really didn’t need any more; I was just proud of myself for saying the word out loud. The evening was plenty entertaining without more. Lots of laughs all the way through.

Ben Waterhouse | Willamette Week [Review 20 Jan 2011]

Why has Molière endured? No other non-Anglophone playwright of any century has anything approaching the 17th-century Frenchman’s presence in the English-speaking world. Colleges don’t often trot out Lope de Vega or Pedro Calderón de la Barca, who provide equal opportunity for dress-up, if not nearly as many dick jokes, but Tartuffe is ubiquitous.

Alexis Rehrmann | Portland Monthly [Review 20 Jan 2011]

At its premiere, Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid must have been a scathing farce about the ignorance and quackery rampant in the field of medicine in France in the 1600’s. Now, a new adaption by Constance Congdon serves a duck of a different color. She pulls to the forefront all manner of silly and ceaseless jokes about farts, sex, and cow poop (twice mentioned).