Emery High to present play

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Emery High presents The Imaginary Invalid.
The play The Imaginary
Invalid is a 17th century comic French farce by Moliere. (Though it has been translated and is performed in English.) The dates are Feb. 16, 17, 21, 22 at 7 p.m. That’s Thursday, Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Theplay will be in the Spartan Center Little Theatre and the cost is $5 for adults and $4 for students. It is an uproarious comedy about a man who believes that he is sick-a hypochondriac-who is also very tight with his money. So to save himself money on his doctor bills he plots to have his daughter marry a doctor’s son who is about to become a doctor himself. This doesn’t sit well with his daughter who has secretly fallen in love with a different man and plans to marry him. Additionally the Imaginary Invalid has a new wife (his first wife passed away several years earlier) and she is only after his money. The new wife’s plan is to put his daughter in a convent and help her husband pass away more quickly so she can inherit everything. The only person in the play that can see all of this clearly is the Invalid’s maid-who he hates. But the maid disguises herself as another doctor in an attempt to “cure” the Invalid before he does something he will regret.
The play was written in the 1600s but still touches the comic themes of greed, avarice, hypochondria and self-delusion.
The author, Moliere, is considered by many to be the greatest playwright in French history.Sometimes he is even called the “French Shakespeare.”
But thanks to translation his plays are much easier to understand than Shakespeare, and Moliere only wrote and performed comedies during his life.
The play, though a comedy adults will enjoy, will probably not be easily understood by young children.
The Emery High Production features of cast of 22 with the women’s roles being double cast.
Taylor Hardman plays Argan-the Imaginary Invalid – while others performing are Adrienne Carter, Brittany Fauver, Jordan Cox, Mia Doria, Whitney Withers, Marqui Moss, Andi Smith, Kalin Reynolds, Craig Greenburg, Ashley Stilson, Mandy Davis, Daylon Walker, Adam Brinkworth, Ben Doria, Erica Flores, Jentry Allred, Marissa Urie, Nicole McCandless, Jeremiah Luke, Meriah Behling, and Melece Pulli. The play will be performed on a Thursday, Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday to work around President’s Day and basketball games. The Emery High Drama Department is planning one other play in late April that will be aimed toward entertaining younger children.