Le Malade imaginaire

Show & Culture

In 1673, Molière amused audiences with the story of a man who believes he is dying. Molière himself was already ill: a few performances later, he collapsed while playing Argan and died hours after leaving the stage. Three centuries later, Olivier Lopez returns to Molière after "L’Avare", presented in 2023, and focuses the playwright's last play around a prison-like chamber, with constant comings and goings revealing intrigue, suspicion and secret plots. At the centre, Olivier Broche plays Argan, a fragile despot, wrapped in his fears, inventing illnesses and subjecting his household to his moods. Opposite him, Anne Girouard as Toinette: the cunning servant who spies and ultimately overturns her master's authority. Around them, a daughter refuses to marry the man chosen for her, a wife calculates her share of the inheritance, a brother argues for reason, while doctors hide their ignorance behind Latin. Trickery, disguises, and every device of comedy will be needed to outwit the false scholars and hold up a mirror to today's authorities.