AUTHOR

Dying to be Sick (2007)

Le Malade Imaginaire — 1673
By Molière
Translated By Adrienne Clarkson and John Van Burek

Argan is a hypochondriac of the highest order. Convinced of his ill-health, he selfishly determines to marry his daughter to a doctor in order to get free treatment… but she is already in love with the dashing Cléante.With the help of the smartest servant ever to walk the stage, Argan’s brother tries to shake the old man’s obsession with his health. Dying to be Sick is a brand new translation of Molière’s most celebrated play. It is at once a brilliant lampoon of the medical profession and a domestic comedy that will leave you in stitches, from the pen of the man considered to be the greatest writer of comedy in Western literature.

A Word from the Translators

First and foremost, we have wanted to bring the ferocious vitality of Molière’s 17th century French text to our new, Canadian translation. His use of language is remarkable for being graceful, yet robust and filled with action. You can almost apply a physical activity to every line. The action in Shakespeare’s language is often interior: “To be, or not to be, / That is the question.” is a man pondering the biggest question in life. In Molière, the action is direct and out front: “Mon Dieu! Gently. You launch straight into invective. Can we not discuss this reasonably, between us, without flying off the handle?” Molière was an unrivalled master in attaining this constant flow of action, which is found throughout his plays. This is not surprising because Molière was also a brilliant comic actor and he wrote most of his plays with himself as the central character. (Shakespeare was also an actor but a much lesser one, appearing occasionally and in fairly small roles in his plays). So, this relentless energy from one crazy moment to the next, and which makes the plays so funny, is what we have tried to capture in our translation.

Another thing that makes this version of the play unique is the fact that we have retained elements of the original French. They blend right in with the English. It is only in Canada that we can do something like this because French is not nearly as foreign to our ears as it might be to say, an American or an Australian. Many English Canadians (indeed a growing number) actually speak French or are learning it. At the very least, we are used to hearing it. This means that in the translation we can keep some of the true sound and feel of the original. Language is music that resonates from the souls of the people who speak it and character is the instrument that plays it. In doing our translation of Le Malade imaginaire into Dying to be Sick, we thought that keeping the play connected to its French-language origins would make it more fun for actors and audiences and would take us closer to heart of these characters and their way of being.

Lastly, and this can be an interesting exercise for any student, we have tried to kept he rhythm of a line in our version as close as possible to that of Molière’s.

“Si vous avez le plaisir de quereller, il faut bien que, de mon côté, j’aye le plaisir de pleurer : chacun le sien, ce n’est pas trop. Ha!”

“If you can have the pleasure of bawling me out, I can have the pleasure of crying. To each his own, it’s only fair. Ah!”

All of this makes for a delightful challenge while at the same time, it teaches you a great deal about language.

Adrienne Clarkson and John Van Burek


Article from the Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Theatre/article/265970