Health is All a State of Mind – The Imaginary Invalid

Nov 1, 2026 by The Jewish Voice And Opinion Staff

By Sue Weston and Susie Rosenbluth, Two Sues on the Aisle

The Imaginary Invalid, a new adaptation by Bill Irwin of Molière’s classic 1673 satire, will be at the Todd Haimes Theatre through November 22. A comedy about money, medicine, and marriage shows how little human nature has changed in the past 350 years, as we continue to obsess about health issues and doctors’ outrageous bills.

The protagonist, Argan (Bill Irwin), is a wealthy hypochondriac who comes up with a plan to marry his daughter Angélique (Ava Lalezarzadeh) to a doctor to get VIP medical care. But, unbeknownst to him, she is in love with another, Cléante (Daniel Croix Henderson, making his Broadway debut). She asked her uncle, Béralde (Dylan Baker), to propose the match. Meanwhile, her stepmother Béline (Crystal A. Dickinson), who feigns devotion and concern for her sick husband, is collaborating with her ‘friend’ to get her husband’s money. All the while, meddlesome housekeeper Toinette (Rachel Bloom in her Broadway debut) intercedes.

The situation is hilarious, the performance is fast-moving, and it ends happily ever after.

Photos Joan Marcus

The Performance

The entire performance takes place in the bedroom parlor of Monsieur Argan. It opens with Argan sorting through his medical bills and allocating coins for payment. While the show takes place in the 1600s, there are unmistakable modern references like primary care physicians and AI. True to the period, patients, like Argan, follow regimens not designed as a cure, including leeching and enemas, for bowel-cleansing. For most of the show, Argan sits in a recliner chair claiming to be in ill health, but failing to disclose his disease, as his brother, Béralde, and housekeeper Toinette try to convince him that he is healthy.

Molière was a French actor and playwright considered to be the greatest writer of French comedy. He wrote “The Imaginary Invalid” (also called “The Hypochondriac”) while he was ill, and ironically, he collapsed while performing the role of Argan and died shortly after the performance.

A Play Within a Play

Irwin’s adaptation pays homage to the original comédie-ballet. The curtain rises as a single actor, masked and robed, strikes the stage floor with his staff, “les trois coups,” the traditional way to begin the play. More actors appear pulling red ribbons, pieces of the scene are brought into place, and the room is built. A subtle suggestion that this is theater.

The show even pokes fun at Molière himself. Béralde suggests going to a Molière play. Argan replies that he doesn’t find Molière funny because ‘he mocks our hard-working doctors.’ Then he addresses the audience, ‘I mean, do people actually laugh when they pay their good money and go to those plays of his? I hear it is often very quiet in his theaters…’ His comment is met with a burst of laughter.

Photos Joan Marcus

Commentary on Medicine

Argan’s doctors are getting rich from his paranoia. When he refuses his enema, his primary physician, Dr. Purgon (Brooks Ashmanskas), throws a tantrum, inventing a stream of complex nonsensical diagnoses. A highly educated father-son pair, Dr. Diafoirus (Brooks Ashmanskas) and Thomas Diafoirus (Hiram Delgado), are babbling fools. They lack common sense, viewing medicine as applying the rules without concern for patient outcomes, with no intention of curing their patients. It makes you wonder how much of that is still true today.

Béralde suggests that health is laughter, suggesting that the body will heal itself, and doctors concoct terms to hide their ignorance. Together with Toinette, they encourage Argan to live, drink wine, eat good, thick beef, and stop depriving himself as his doctors had recommended.

Photos Joan Marcus

Our Thoughts

The performance was hilarious. Irwin takes a ridiculous situation and pushes it to the extreme, involving the audience in the jokes, breaking the fourth wall. The entire performance takes place in one room, over the course of one day, centered on Argan in his recliner. The performance is engaging, with rapid exits, slamming doors, and frequent costume changes and disguises as the performers play multiple roles.

The Imaginary Invalid is a light show that explores heavy topics, exploitation by doctors, and gold-diggers. The show makes a mockery of the situation, clear to everyone except Argan. This Molière farce is still funny and relevant today. As the pieces fall into place, the audience fills with laughter, good triumphs over evil, and love wins.

Imaginary Invalid