The Imaginary Invalid is an absurdist comedy about addiction to questionable medical practices. The idea of a miraculous cure-all that will solve all possible and impossible(!) problems has tempted mankind since time immemorial. Philosophers, physicians, charlatans, but especially patients, have gravitated to this idea.

Since the play’s origin, medical science has moved on, and people no longer have to undergo dubious practices with uncertain, if not outright destructive, effects. So why do they keep doing it? In the flood of conflicting information about optimal eating habits, the real causes of disease, and various treatments, a 21st-century man stumbles between a naive devotion to charlatans and an uncritical scepticism of medicine.