A very clever and amusing "play within a play" constructed by Dumas in 1850
by combining with Molière's circa 1650 classic, The Love Doctor (L'Amour Médecin)
comprising about 50 percent text by Molière, and 50 percent by Dumas.
The stage set for the play consists of the stage set for the "Love Doctor"
tilted diagonally across the stage, with the audience able to view both the
back stage (upstage left) and an area for the "audience" in downstage right.
The concept (or "shtick" to use the technical language) is that we are
watching a circa 1650 theatrical troupe preparing to perform "Love Doctor"
and the Seventeenth Century audience preparing to watch. Dumas' plot,
involving two rival actresses, two rival suitors in the audience, and a
desperately harried manager, plays out before, during, and after the
performance of "Love Doctor" which is also performed in its entirety.
