‘Dr. Knock’ scares up chuckles

Mint Theater tries an old French recipe for fun

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

People visit the Mint Theater Company to see modest but often worthy revivals of vintage plays that very few other troupes will ever attempt.

Among the company's lesser ventures, dubious dramas like Ernest Hemingway's "The Fifth Column" at least prove to be interesting literary curiosities. In the Mint's best instances, sadly neglected works like D.H. Lawrence's "The Daughter-in-Law" turn out to be genuine finds.

Usually, though, the Mint's programming offers agreeable revisits to the sort of fare that entertained the generations before us but now cannot compete with the grosser thrills packed by film, TV and whatever new medium was invented yesterday.

Such is the case of a tasty morsel of French pastry entitled "Dr. Knock," which opened Monday at The Mint's same-named theater.

"Dr. Knock" never scored a hit on Broadway despite productions in the 1920s and 1930s, but Jules Romains' 1923 comedy was staged frequently in Paris and even filmed three times. Fifty million Frenchman can't be wrong, as the old saying goes, so "Dr. Knock" — slyly subtitled "Or the Triumph of Medicine" — obviously appeals more to a Gallic sense of irony than to our own native taste for farce.

Still, there's pleasant amusement to be derived from Romains' saga of a tyro physician who profitably makes imaginary invalids out of an entire community. Firmly believing that all people "are more or less sick," Knock methodically goes about scaring up new patients. By the end of the play's three quick acts, he's wealthy and the town is enriched by hordes of visitors seeking the doctor's treatment.

If the outcome soon seems predictable, the fun is in watching this medical guru achieve his ambitions.

Director Gus Kaikkonen contributes the fleet new translation and provides a handsome little production ably performed by six players. Secure in his pinstripes and looking a bit like Paul Muni, a silver-haired, soft-voiced Thomas M. Hammond gravely portrays the doctor with a zealous sense of duty rather than simply depicting him as a charlatan.

Neatly dressed in 1920s clothes by Sam Fleming, the ensemble nicely embodies several citizens each. Making wise use of The Mint's small stage, designer Charles Morgan provides three different settings, including a nifty representation of a bumpy journey in a sputtering automobile.

"Dr. Knock" continues through June 6 at The Mint Theater, 311 W. 43rd St., New York. Call (212) 315-0231 or visit www.minttheater.org.