UD players are physical, funny in updated Moliere's 'Invalid'

By Tom Butler
Special to the News Journal
January 18, 2009

Moliere's "The Imaginary Invalid" has had audiences laughing at its bawdy satire for more than 330 years.

The result is rollicking, clever and often hilarious.

The 10-member cast revels in the broad physical comedy as well as the shameless puns, off-color jibes and wonderfully silly character names. Director Sanford Robbins makes fine use of a versatile ensemble and concocts a wickedly funny evening's work.

Stephen Pelinski takes the title role to real heights of foolishness.

From his opening pantomime through his experiments with enemas and a general fascination with all of his bodily wastes, Pelinski gets every laugh possible from his character. This Argan is a miser as well as a hypochondriac and the play satirizes his greed as well as his old man's folly in taking a much younger second wife.

His infantile relationship with the conniving Beline (Kathleen Pirkl Tague), a woman with all the warmth and grace of a modern stripper, is paralleled by her own very adult relationship with the wily lawyer Shystaire (Michael Gotch). The lawyer and wife drew plenty of laughter with their onstage antics.

And Argan also is a poor father. He is willing to sacrifice his beautiful and dutiful daughter Angelique (Erin Partin) in marriage to a dim doctor to get cheap access to ready health care.

Partin and her true love Cleante (Cameron Knight) milk more subtle comedy from a musical improvisation in which they reveal their love in front of the unsuspecting Argan and the doctors.

Carine Montbertrand orchestrates much of the plotting as the tart-tongued maid Toinette. With a red bobbed wig, her constant fluttering about the stage and her insolent commentary, Montbertrand serves as the audience's focal point for grasping the madness of the action.

She does brilliant work as she rapidly switches from masquerading as a doctor to her maid persona, all the while convincing Argan that he is watching two separate people. Her quick changes behind a large screen are impressive.

Mic Matarrese had the audience roaring at the idiocy of the young doctor who would wed Angelique. His timing was perfect. When he appeared as the frightening but equally stupid Dr. Purgatiffe he also got big laughs.

Playing Argan's younger daughter, Sara Valentine was more than a match for Pelinski in physical and verbal humor. Their preposterous interaction not only had the audience roaring but revealed a good deal about Argan's nature.

A quilted monochromatic set by William Browning suggested the wealth and sterility of Argan's house and rich period costumes by Martha Halley helped reinforce the sense of opulence. Music by Leslie Bisno helped sustain the mood of the evening.

If you don't mind a bit of scatological humor and don't hold the medical profession in reverence, you will laugh out loud at "The Imaginary Invalid."