The Hypochondriac by David Grimm, after Moliere, is a French - style comedy about the fear of death and the absurdity of life. We see the play through the eyes of Archie Upjohn, a buffoonish man whose desperation for control over his life has led him to go off the deep end with useless medical procedures and medications. Archie’s brash attitude allows the other characters to work off his energy - either playing into the fantasy that he is deathly ill, taking advantage of him, or trying to convince him he is totally fine. By the end of the accelerated one day span of The Hypochondriac, Archie has found his truth - that he only needs to believe in himself and the people who love him, rather than those who would take advantage of him.
The lighting design of The Hypochondriac tracks a journey towards finality. Archie is a man afraid of the blank eternity at the end of the day - he refuses to look at the sunset, no matter how beautiful it is, because it represents for him the end; the very thing that he is trying his damndest to get away from. The Hypochondriac, over the course of one evening in the theater with no transitions or breaks, goes from before dawn to after sunset. We must track that the day is progressing, but we mustn’t pay attention to its shifts. It must be beautiful to show the wealth and majesty of Archie’s situation, but it cannot distract from the rapid-fire language of the play. With that in mind, the main goal of lighting this play should be to encourage the audience to lean in and be absorbed in a fervor of comedy and excitement.