Parkland High School Theater students will present their version of the comedy, "The Imaginary Invalid" this weekend.

This two-act play with three interludes, is set in France.

The play tells the story of Monsieur Argan, a hypochondriac, who seems to like the idea of being sick.

The play is based on the three-act, comedy ballet written in 1673 by French playwright Moliere.

Evan Hall, portrays Argan, the imaginary invalid.

Hannah Cwienkala plays his daughter, Angelique.

"Argan is a hypochondriac, who is obsessed with his illness, curing himself and with doctors," Hall said. "He is pretty much the definition of a neurotic."

He said Argan's fascination with being sick makes him try to marry his daughter Angélique off to a doctor.

"I love playing Argan, however, it is a big challenge because I never leave the stage during the play," Hall said. "It is very hard to make a mean character likable to the audience."

He said the entire cast has a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the show and that has helped him grow tremendously as an actor.

Cwienkala discussed her role as Angélique.

"Angélique is a young girl who has fallen madly in love with Cléante [played by Bryan Sobczak]," Cwienkala said. "She is completely infatuated with this new boy and spends the entire play gushing about her feelings for him."

Cwienkala enjoys playing Angelique because she and her character have a lot of similarities.

"I enjoy pulling experiences from my life into my character," Cwienkala said.

Cwienkala said this show has been an amazing experience for her.

"The cast is so talented and fun to be around," she said. "We have bonded over the past couple of months while learning from each other and our wonderful director Mark Stutz."

Taylor Van Kooten commented on her role of Béline.

"Béline is Argan's second wife and like any other stock character of the 'evil stepmother' she is a gold digging beauty," Van Kooten said. "She is one of the main antagonists in the show, only caring about her new husband's money."

Van Kooten said Béline is an amazing character to play.

"Her actions are so huge and embodying, this kind of character is just plain old fun," she stated. "Once I put on the dark, villain, steampunked costume I really feel evil and sneaky."

Van Kooten said she has never played such a big, bold character and Béline has really changed her for the better as an actress.

"I love this show. It is hilarious and the people involved in it are some of the best people I have ever worked with," she said. "Mr. Stutz is such a wonderful director, he really helped us develop our characters and put on an amazing commédia dell'arte true performance."

"The crew built us a beautiful set that sets off the costumes perfectly," Van Kooten said. "Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, our costume designer embodied the 'steampunk' aspects of the show to make this a new cool take on an old show."

Harrison Eckert also commented on his role as Béralde, Argan's brother.

Eckert said his character Béralde is kind of the only character in the play that is down to earth, sensible and intelligent.

"He always tries to convince Argan to change his hypochondriac ways," he said. "Both Béralde and Toinette played by Victoria Bartkavage struggle to get Argan to realize that the conclusions he is drawing up about medicine are only in his head."

Eckert said his character's personality is the opposite of Argan's which leads to conflicts in the play.

"I love playing my character but it is hard to get into a much older character," Eckert said. It is hard to be the only character in the show who is sensible and trying to fix the problem."

"I love being in the play because the whole cast is friendly, everyone works so well together just like a big happy family," he said. "Mr. Stutz is an incredible director from the costumes to the set to heightened the effects of the show."

Mark Stutz, director of visual and performing arts at Parkland High School, commented on the show.

"I have been here 15 years and we haven't done Moliere. We have only done Shakespeare," said Stutz. "I wanted to expose the kids to another form of classic theater."

Stutz said "The Imaginary Invalid" is a comedy, and the translation he uses remains very honest to the formula Comédie-Francaise.

This play is an opportunity for play-goers to experience something that is unusual for high school theater," Stutz said. "We took the show on the road to the International Thespian Conference Dec. 6, 2013, in York."

The play is appropriate for kids 14 years of age and older, Stutz said.

Students will be performing "The Imaginary Invalid" 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24 and 25 in the high school auditorium.

Tickets are $8 for students and seniors, and $10 for adults.

Tickets will be available for both shows at the door.