Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Imaginary Invalid and I

I am super behind on posting to the blog - I know. So we need to rewind a bit to last Thursday and my first venture into DC's Theater scene. I had planned on seeing Julius Caesar with a fellow intern but the half price tickets that you can get an hour before the show only work if the show isn't sold out before hand. We were directed to the Company's other theater were Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid was playing that evening and tickets were still available. Sometimes being a student has more to it than lots of loans. With our student discount, we got box seats for 25 bucks. First time in a box for me - luckily, we ended up having the box to ourselves so we moved down a bit and lost the obstructed view we'd had in our original seats.

The play, of course, was genius. I do so love Moliere's wit in his writing and all his asides he gives to his characters. The casting was great for this particular play. Rene Auberjonois was Argan, the Imaginary Invalid. You might know him as Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or from the original MASH movie as Father McCauley. However, the woman playing his maid Toinette was by far the funniest of them all. Her asides were brilliant - half in the action and half only to the audience which is what an aside should be (if I'm remembering B.Haze correctly). The whole production was so enjoyable and funny! Being in a box, and looking out over the audience, I felt every time I laughed, the whole auditorium could hear me! The play was making fun of doctors mostly and how they make money of gullible folks and those prone to hypochondria. I recommended it to my cousins when I got home. Both being doctors, I thought they'd get the joke more than me.

PS - I survived my first cab ride solo on my way home from the play. It was too late to walk from Union Station so I took a cab. It was six blocks...but hey, I survived it ;-)

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