"A miserable, worthless piece of desert driftwood, a fork-tongued, lily-livered, puffed-up popinjay—snake-oil salesman, card sharp, pick-pocket, claim jumper, medicine show man, con man, and A-number-one coward." Those are a few of the terms that Aggie uses to describe Sagamore, the hero of our play. It appears that she doesn't think very highly of him. And you can't much blame her. Sagamore walked out 10 years ago to get a drink and didn't bother to come back, leaving his wife and four-year-old daughter Louise to shift for themselves. And now, by one of those sheer coincidences that you find only in carefree, happy farces (like those by Shakespeare and Moliere), Sagamore strolls into a desert hotel owned and operated by Aggie. After a hilarious broom-swatting fight, Aggie has just about persuaded Sagamore that he's not welcome. Louise—now in her early teens—begs him to stay.

In the meantime, Senor Vega, the richest man in the valley, brings his daughter to the hotel in search of a doctor to cure the strange malady which has caused her to lose her voice. The old doc has just died, and Sagamore decides to use the doctor's bag of tools to cure the girl and gain the reward. Vega, who is nobody's fool, suspects that Sagamore is not the skilled doctor he pretends to be; he tells Sagamore to cure his daughter or hang from the nearest tree.

This plot should sound vaguely familiar, for it is loosely based on possibly the funniest play ever written—Moliere's The Doctor in Spite of Himself. Moliere would undoubtedly be delighted to see his play transferred to the American Wild West, because it fits as comfortably as a pair of faded blue jeans.

Recommended for all groups. Community theatres, universities, and high schools have found this to be a well-plotted, hilarious play. Two acts; simple interior set; Western costumes.

"The comment I heard most was that this [The Medicine Man] was one of the best plays we have done in the ten years of our department."—Reginald Russell, Judson High School, San Antonio, Texas. "We closed with a sell out and rave reviews."—Murray Barks, Lake Country Playhouse, Mineola, TX.

Other Grote plays: Help, The Undercover Lover

See also: Clark's adaptation of Moliere's The School for Husbands