"7 Classic Plays" performed by The Hollywood Theatre of the Ear

Of the seven plays presented here, only two could I not follow: Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ – simply due to the language – and Chekhov’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ – from what I interpreted as a disparaging, hopeless tone to its story.  The rest were immensely enjoyable.  

Though the era prior to television was before my time, I would imagine listening to the radio must have offered similar means of entertainment.  There is the social drama of Ibsen’s ‘Enemy of the People’, where a town doctor becomes his community’s number one foe after warning town elders of the pollution to their hot springs water supply.  There is the question of a popular courtesan (in the business of spreading love to gentlemen callers) actually finding true love in Alexandre Dumas’ ‘Camille’.   In Euripedes’ ‘Medea’, the wrath of a woman scorned shows the extent to what she will reach when a husband seeks a younger wife to add sons to his lineage.  But my personal favorite was certainly Moliere’s ‘The Imaginary Invalid’.  A rich old man, deluded into believing he is perpetually sick, depends upon the doctors of his day to keep him well - so much so as to marry his daughter off to his doctor’s son, thereby ensuring a doctor to be in the family.  It is hilarious.