"With thirteen Moliere plays in my portfolio, I realized that I had been writing material faster than theatres could produce it, and that the best way to introduce this work to the world would be to create a vision of a play in which some of Moliere's funniest speeches could be explored."– Timothy Mooney Moliere Than Thou finds Moliere left without a cast, when all of his fellow performers happen to consume "the same sort of shell fish" at one of the local public inns that the company tends to frequent. Rather than actually refund the precious box office income, Moliere offers to perform a "greatest hits" of sorts, and leads the audience (which occasionally participates) through a hilarious succession of favorite speeches that trace his illustrious career. Mooney, himself, plays Moliere, who performs routines from Tartuffe, Don Juan, The Doctor In Spite of Himself, The Precious Young Maidens, The Misanthrope and The School For Wives among others. "And this gives Moliere the perfect opportunity to explain his process of working on these plays, while managing to take a few deft stabs at some of his enemies: the doctors, the lawyers, and the sanctimonious hypocrites who would attack him throughout the years." "It is certainly the biggest acting challenge of my career," Mooney notes. "Except for a few brief scenes in which Moliere invites audience participation, it's only me there on stage for about ninety minutes!" The play is being co-directed between Mooney, and Deb Pekin, who directed last summer's production of The Misanthrope.

MOLIERE 
In my play of 1667, "The Doctor In Spite of Himself," I decided that I'd had
enough of the church for a while, and that I would turn my attentions toward
a villain for whom everyone seems to hold a mutual sense of loathing: the
Doctor. I have found the process of denigrating the medical profession to be
utterly rewarding, and have begun work on yet another doctor-play which will
be opening soon. In this instance, however, my character, whose name is ...? 
Sganarelle! ... is nothing but a peasant wood cutter who, amid a series of
misunderstandings, finds himself been elevated to the role of doctor. He
finds that he rather enjoys the process of dispensing medical advice at
random, and giving impromptu examinations to nubile young ladies. His
assignment, however, is to examine the daughter of a nobleman, who is trying
to marry the girl off to a rich gentleman, while the daughter has other
ideas. As such, she has feigned a sudden inability to speak, and the rich
fiancé refuses to marry her until she can speak again. Which always struck
me as looking a gift horse in the mouth, as it were. A dumb wife seems to me
a double blessing, and the more fool he who fails to recognize that fact.
Now, having been bribed by the girl's true love, Leandre, Sganarelle
smuggles the young fellow into the house, right under the father's nose,
dressed as the apothecary:

SGANARELLE (To LUCINDE.) (HE speaks, at times, dizzyingly quickly.)
Young lady, please, give me your little hand.
Ah, yes, this pulse gives me to understand,
Your daughter's dumb. Yes, sir, that's her affliction!
I feel it with a sudden, strong conviction!
Great doctors diagnose these things at once.
Some other folk might hem and haw for months,
Suggesting it was this, or it was that,
But I can see at once, and tell you flat,
What might not be so evident to some,
But to my eyes, it's clear your daughter's dumb.
In my opinion it comes from a humor,
And from experience we may assume her
Debilitation stems from out the gall,
A state which comes from humors which we call
Unhealthy. There are vapors which arise from 
Emission of the influence which drys from
The onset of the maladies which sat in,
Diseases which, you know ... Do you know Latin?
         Hmm? No? No? Not a word?
So, vapors by the humors are so stirred,
And pass from liver's region on the left,
Unto the right, where heart is there bereft.
The vapors there fill ventricles, waylaid
Amid a portion of the shoulder blade.
And since such vapors ... follow closely, please, 
The vapors often carry on the breeze,
And ... please, I beg you, pay your best attention ...
This breeze can blow a most malign intention,
Which comes from ... please, now, follow this most close ...
It all, you see, stems from too big a dose:
Acidity within the diaphragm;
Forms a concavity which makes a dam,
The edge of which may then begin to feel loose 
As ... nequer, potarinum quipsa milus.
And that is why your daughter is now mute!
 
Well, yes, that's true; you are, Sir, most astute 
The time was when the heart was on the left, 
With liver on the right. You are most deft. 
And yet we now have changed all that around, 
Advances that we've made are quite profound. 
I'd like to know your thoughts on this complaint. 
The question is important, though yet quaint, 
Which doctors do at length deliberate, 
We wonder whether it be learned, or trait; 
That women should respond more apt than men 
Who seem to need their therapies again. 
There are those in the field who would say yes, 
And others, other argument would press. 
And for myself, I say both yes and no, 
As incongruity would seem to show, 
That some opaquish humors intermingle 
Where woman's sometimes problematic ... thing'll 
Incline them toward a dominance of body 
As tested 'gainst control group of castrati. 
While other doctors may choose to ignore it 
They can't dispute the moon in its great orbit 
Will circle round the earth in path oblique, 
And influence the ocean, lake and creek...  
A moment, sir. Allow me to prescribe. 
She suffers from a noxious diatribe. 
I think that I know just the remedy. 
To bring her back from such extremity. 
I must engage Apothecary, though. 
(To LEANDRE.) A word, sir. I should think by now you know, 
That this Leandre will not suit her father, 
And that the daughter will be ever bothered, 
Unless we act with haste and great aplomb, 
To treat condition girl now suffers from. 
I think a smallish purgative of flight 
Might somehow set the girl's condition right, 
If mixed with pills of Matrimonium, 
To take with hasty Ceremonium. 
She may not wish to swallow all at once, 
But father won't endure these awful stunts. 
I would advise you somehow to persuade 
That she might learn just who must be obeyed! 
Walk her about outside around the garden 
So that the humors might resolve and harden. 
Toward the cure you must most quickly steer! 
(Aside.) While I keep father occupied in here.