17

Oct 17/ 8 pm /

Production: Princely Serbian Theatre, Kragujevac / Serbiа

Duration: 95 minutes

 

About the play

At the time when Molière lived and worked one of the most popular genres, especially favored at the French court, was the comédie-ballet, and probably the most famous representative of this genre is the comedy The Hypochondriac. On the formal side, this genre is characterized by the combination of dramatic, musical and dance elements. On the thematic level, even though he was a favorite of Louis XIV, Molière was very accurate in recognizing and satirizing the anomalies of society in his plays. In The Hypochondriac, he deals with the medical science of his time, claiming that it does not have enough knowledge to cure a man. Nevertheless, around this main plot and the story of the hypochondriac, Molière also introduces many other topics, such as family stability, perversion of the value system, criticism of repression, the question of true and false love, but also of freedom. It is challenging today, at the time when we are facing post-truth, the most incredible conspiracy theories (related, for example, to COVID-19), to deal with the topic of medicine, to keep the spirit of Molière's comedy, and at the same time to preserve theatrical plausibility. That is why our greatest goal as authors was to find the points that connect Molière's and today's Hypochondriac. At the very beginning of the process of working on the performance, we may not have fully realized how few differences between the two actually existed. When we deal with self-centeredness, selfishness, hypocrisy, self-interest that leads to the disintegration of the family, and thus induces cracks in each of its members, we can only wonder if even a single day has passed since Molière wrote this comedy. Isidora Milosavljević and Đorđe Nešović   .