In another review on "The Imaginary Invalid," theater critic Desmond Ryan credits Moliere for creating a plot in which an ailing father finds an ingenious, but heartless, way to combat rising medical bills by having his daughter marry a doctor. Although Ryan finds the Shakespeare Festival's first offering of the season "short on imagination" and "low farce that limps along," he states that performances by the servant Toinette and the thwarted young lovers, Angelique and Cleante, bring "life and fun to the proceedings."