Theater Festival - Le malade imaginaire by Moliére

Everyone knows Le Malade Imaginaire. Molière's last play, this monument to the classical repertoire, this text that we read at school, saw in the theater, studied in French class. You think you know it. You think you've understood. And then the Blabla Compagnie comes along - and everything you thought you knew flies out the window.

In an adaptation signed by the troupe itself and directed collectively, this version of Le Malade Imaginaire scrupulously respects Molière's text while happily dynamiting everything else. Because that's what masterpieces are all about: they can be endlessly revisited, and each new reading reveals something you haven't seen before.

You know the story: Argan is a born hypochondriac. He loves being sick like other people love sushi. Counting his pills, monitoring his heart, his liver, his stomach, his blood - it's his passion, his daily routine, his reason for living. Until the day this obsession collides head-on with the desires of his daughter Angélique, who is madly in love with the handsome Cléante, while Argan has already planned everything: she's going to marry the bland Thomas, a future doctor - just to make sure she has a home doctor in perpetuity.

From this familiar pitch, Blabla Compagnie has created a version that's both faithful and absolutely no-holds-barred, brought to the stage by Anne-Laure Doidy, Marc Granier, Nicole Granier, Marie-Claire Lemercier-Tocqueville and Laurence Valéra - five actors who joyfully and boldly take on almost all the roles. A shimmering, surprising staging that blends sincere homage with freedom of tone to offer audiences an evening that's as cultivated as it is hilarious.

A show that proves once again that Molière hasn't aged a day - and that the best way to pay tribute to him is to bring him to life with such energy, fantasy and insolence.