Le malade imaginaire

Argan is convinced: He is terminally ill. Every day he undergoes treatments, takes medication, and swears by enemas—to be on the safe side, he wants his daughter to marry a doctor. Angélique however, is in love with someone else…

In his well-known final play of 1673, Molière depicts the relationship between a self-pitying hypochondriac and his avaricious doctors as a mutually profitable symbiosis. He dedicated the work to the Sun King—who, in grim irony, was cruelly “cured” to death by so-called healers and their endless use of enemas. Molière, performing the title role on stage, succumbed—what a tragic twist of fate!—to a fatal haemorrhage during the performance. His brilliant final work remains a classic to this day: witty, biting, and disturbingly relevant.

Guest performance of the Burgtheater

A production of the Schauspiel Köln