Word: diafoirus
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Argan has arranged for Angelique to marry a doctor's son so he can have cheaper and more accessible care for his "illnesses." But Angelique loves Cleante and refuses her father's command to marry the odious son of M. Diafoirus, Thomas (Randy Clark and Samuel Krisch). Thomas and his father are replete with useless "university" knowledge which they spout without even understanding. They are utter quacks, ordering Argan to put grains of salt on his eggs in even numbers, and take pills in odd numbered quantities...
...best parts of the show involve the doctors. Randy Clark and Samuel Krisch save the first act with their hilarious portrayal of pere et fils Diafoirus. Krisch is particularly funny as the nerdy med student, and he was grotesquely amusing as he made bungling advances to Angelique...
...tyrannical self-assertion over the members of his household. His tyranny becomes critical when, early in the play, it brings him into opposition with his daughter's plans to marry. The daughter, Angelique, wants to marry Cleante, but Argan, without consulting her, arranges for her marriage to Thomas Diafoirus, the son of one of his doctors. Needless to say, Cleante is a young Achilles, and Thomas Diafoirus a big booby. Throughout the first three quarters of the play, Argan perseveres in his blindness until, through a series of ingenious plots and disguises, he is brought down to earth...
...minor roles, Jane Jackson as Argan's sinister wife and David Richardson, as the hopelessly inept Thomas Diafoirus, stand out. But many of the others don't quite know what to do with their roles. Jan Gough, as Angelique, is like a starry-eyed, dim-witted girl from Vassar. Burton Gaige, her lover, who wears a brown jacket, enormous gold pantaloons, and a long curly blond wig, looks more like the Cowardly Lion than Achilles. And Mike Kapetan, as Beralde, who should be the raisonneur of the play, is for some reason dressed in bright purple...
...professionalism. Of the two dozen or so personages in the piece, only two are natural and honest human beings. The rest are all hypocrites or bluffers. Healthy Argan pretends to be riddled with illness; his inheritance-eyeing wife Beline protests familial affection; the small daughter Louison feigns death; Doctor Diafoirus maintains black is white; his nitwit son Thomas presumes to be clever; suitor Cleante impersonates a music teacher; the maid Toinette disguises herself as a doctor--and so on with the rest...