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Just dying for a laugh The Hypochondriac
Malvern Theatres
***** RICHARD Bean’s
version of Moliere’s Hypochondriac
might surprise or trouble some purists but it is a magnificent
interpretation of Moliere’s intentions and results in an evening of
wonderful entertainment. The play is a trenchant
satire against the absurdities of medicine as practiced in 17th
century France, and it exposes the deceit and financial greed of the
period as exercised through arranged marriages and bogus medical
practices. Argan is the pitiable hypochondriac who imagines he has every disease under the sun, cheerfully expends a fortune on quacks and bogus proponents of the medical arts and determines to force his daughter into a marriage against her heart and desires to an oafish young trainee doctor because he wants an accessible practitioner in the family and thereby cheaper treatments. The interventions of his brother and his wily
servant
The evening was full of raucous extravagance – the repeated forced application of the enema to Argan’s posterior, the careful examination of his stools, the drinking of urine and the final magician’s tricks all provide a rich evening’s entertainment. Tony Robinson and Imogen Stubbs as Argan and wife Beline. Picture: Simon Annand Tony Robinson as the mean old invalid and Imogen Stubbs as his wife bring wonderful comic voices to complement their perfomances. The cast is very talented, the acting appropriately exaggerated. Craig Gazey, as Thomas with his manufactured and
rehearsed lines, is hilarious. Tracie Bennett’s Toinette was masterful
with great range, variety and subtlety to manage the duping of Argan
into accepting his daughter’s marriage to Cleante. Moliere’s original play, Le Malade Imaginaire,
is introduced by a Prologue and some song and dance activity that is
cleverly interpreted by Richard Bean into something that the audience
can truly engage with. The songs devised by Richard Thomas – Germs
are Everywhere and Where would we be without drugs? and
indeed Blood in my Poo – bring a modern relevance, if some
lavatorial humour, to the piece from the outset, and are a clever way
of handling an aspect of Moliere’s writing that would have a much less
meaningful impact on a modern audience. The songs at the outset, with the visual backdrop
of a biological image from the microscope of colourful blood cells, and
the musicians in green surgical theatre scrubs, are in stark contrast to
the period set and costume that greet us as soon as the screen is
raised, to reveal Argan in his wheelchair, nightgown and surrounded by
tall bookshelves that have been taken over by jars of samples and
vintage pill bottles. The costumes are gorgeous, the lighting
transports us into another realm towards the end of the play and is well
used to add comic effects as well. It is an ironic fact that Moliere died following
the fourth performance of this play. This version makes a classical
comedy into colourful and brilliant entertainment for a modern audience
and it would appeal to a wide age range. To 08-11-14 Timothy Crow
03-11-14
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Toinette
ensure that the outcomes are humorous and happy: the scheming
stepmother is outwitted in her attempts to inherit the wealth of an
eighth aging husband, and the fool Argan is managed, fooled and
manipulated into ensuring the least damaging future for all.