Notre Dame's Department of Film, Television, and Theatre Announce Molière's THE IMAGINARY INVALID

Notre Dame's Department of Film, Television, and Theatre (FTT) announces Molière's The Imaginary Invalid, adapted by Constance Congdon from a new translation by Notre Dame alumnus Dan Smith ('98), in the Patricia George Decio Theatre at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, November 14-18.

Molière's classic 17th century comedy - in which a determined hypochondriac, awash in medical bills, desperately tries to marry off his daughter to a doctor in order to acquire free medical care - might be easy to dismiss as "a piece of comfortable, picturesque museum theatre," says director Carys Kresny. "But in Constance Congdon's sparkling contemporary adaptation, Molière celebrates humanity, punctures dogma, defies shame, and lets us laugh at ourselves for simply being human."

"In today's world, surrounded by never-ending debates about health care," says FTT Director of Theatre Kevin Dreyer, "The Imaginary Invalid provides an outlandish solution. Our director and our costume designer, Richard E. Donnelly, have conspired to bring the same wacky, modern-day humor into the eclectic costume design."

FTT is pleased to welcome translator Dan Smith ('98) back to campus for the production. Currently Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies at Michigan State University, Smith is a dramaturg and theatre historian with research interests in 17th and 18th century French theatre, history of sexuality, and translation studies. He will meet with the cast and visit several classes in FTT and the Department of Romance Languages to speak about the process of translation.