Dr. Knock, or The Triumph of Medicine

Jules Romains's 1923 medical satire was immensely popular in his day, but last seen on Broadway 82 years ago. In translator-director Gus Kaikkonen’s genial and light-footed version, starring Thomas Hammond in the title role, the laughs are subdued but the wit sparkles throughout. If anything, this Mint production plays it too coolly; a soupçon more comic bounce would have a salutary effect. Even so, Romains’s comedy is elegant, stinging and more disquieting the more you dwell on it.—David Cote