Margin Notes 2026, W39: The Imaginary Invalid

9/27/26: The Imaginary Invalid

What: Roundabout revives Moliere's classic with a new adaptation by Bill Irwin (who also stars as the titular invalid). Argan believes he is perpetually ill, not realizing he is being bilked by his doctor. Desperate to get a doctor into the family, he tries to marry his daughter off, but she's already in love with someone else. Machinations, costume changes, and a happy ending for most!

And? A lot of fun. I'll admit to missing the rhyming couplets I'm used to for Moliere adaptations, but it's still very clever, and Bill Irwin is brilliant. Also making a good show for themselves are Rachel Bloom as wily servant Toinette, Dylan Baker as Argan's brother Beralde, Crystal A. Dickinson as Argan's melodramatic wife Beline, and the always scene-stealing Brooks Ashmanskas as both Drs Diafoirus and Purgon. The production might be worth it for the opening sequence alone, which is beautiful and well-crafted, bringing us from the world of masked comedy to today: though the costumes and setting remain "period," the dialogue is committed to contemporary inflection. We unfortunately had a snafu at our performance with a disruptive audience member, which led to them holding the show for about a half hour while it was resolved, but Irwin had an excellent sense of humor about it, nodding subtly to it the rest of the performance.

Margin Notes 2026, W38: The Cherry Orchard

9/16/26: The Cherry Orchard

What: Park Avenue Armory hosts the North American premiere of Chekhov's classic, as adapted by Simon Stone. This production moves the story from Russia  to Seoul, South Korea.

And? It's very visually striking (props to scenic designer Saul Kim), and I really appreciate the pared-down adaptation. I don't often have much patience for Chekhov, but this version worked well for me. It's a compelling study of nostalgia versus naked ambition, of stubborn denial versus practicality and cynicism, and of course of the changing mentalities around class structure. The cast is very strong, particularly Jeon Do-yeon as the dreamy and brittle Song Do-young (Madame Lyubov Andreievna Ranevskaya) and Park Hae-soo as her foil, the practical and passionate Hwang Doo-sik (Yermolai Alexeievitch Lopakhin). As with Simon Stone's production of Yerma, this show faces a few aural challenges by placing its cast behind glass walls for so much of the show. They're all clearly miked, but the sound mix offers no assistance in locational listening: many times I wouldn't realize the primary dialogue scene had moved to a different room, because the sound was all coming from the same place. This, coupled with the need to read the supertitles, made following some scenes a particular challenge, especially early on and with overlapping scenes. I'm still very glad I saw it--some excellent work here.

The cast of The Cherry Orchard.
Photo by Studio AL, LG Arts Center.