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Author
Moliére
This new version
by Richard Bean
Directed
by
Lindsay Posner
Designed
by
Giles Cadle
Lighting
by
Jean Kalman
Music
by
Matthew Scott
Sound
by
John Leonard
Movement
by
Scarlett
Mackmin
Cast
Includes
Ronni Ancona
Steven Beard
Stephen Boxer
Henry Goodman
Simon Gregor
David Killick
Amy Lucas
Lyndsey Marshal
Kris Marshall
John Marquez
Carey Mulligan
Gyuri Sarossy
Daniella Wilson
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Almeida Theatre
10 November - 07 January 2006 |
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The story
behind The
Hypochondriac
is one of drama-in-the-making.
MoliËre's untimely death while
playing the central role (he
collapsed onstage during only
the fourth performance) has
ensured the play's place in
theatrical history. It's a
story that Richard Bean makes
full use of in his adaptation
of a play which, were it not
for the playwright's dramatic
demise, would be indistinguishable
from the rest of the MoliËre
corpus. With Bean, the director
Lindsay Posner, has created
a new lease of life for the
play, combining history and
plot with a highly enjoyable
modernity of language and
style.
There is never a dull moment
in this plot-driven farce.
The basic story is simple
enough: girl meets boy; father
disapproves of boy and demands
she marry another suitor;
quick-witted servant saves
the day. Various subplots
and intrigues add confusion.
In fact, The
Hypochondriac
piles on twist after twist,
but each is perfectly self-contained,
allowing an audience to follow
a through-line as clear as
a bell up until the dying
moments. A device which enables
the audience to savour the
splendid characterisation
of the ensemble, in particular
Henry Goodman as the 'terminally
credulous' hypochondriac,
Argan, whose spasms of alternate
constipation and diarrhoea
sent the audience into gales
of delight.
The question to be asked of
faces more familiar from television
is always whether they have
succeeded in Not being the
characters they are best known
for. Thankfully (and, I might
add, surprisingly) neither
were we greeted by Ronni Ancona's
best seventeenth-century Nancy
Dell'Olio, nor by a Kris Marshall
up to his old tricks as the
itinerant overgrown son. The
latter's wonderful (supposedly
impromptu) operatic duet with
his lover, Angelique, played
by Carey Mulligan, brought
the house down, and was only
surpassed by John Marquez's
excruciating performance as
the socially awkward (but
perfectly fertile) suitor
presenting himself to his
fiancÈ for the first time.
Greasy-haired and azure-booted,
Marquez's performance extended
to the finer details, standing
to applaud the opera even
as he was parodied as 'the
village idiot' by the singers.
What made the production was
characterisation, attention
to detail, and slickness of
the action. Rather than succumbing
to an exaggerative commedia
dell-arte style, Posner's
actors play down stereotypes
and play up a naturalised
pathos. We can feel for these
characters, even as we laugh
at them. Who has not felt
themselves to have been 'had'
by a consultant of any profession
- requiring a 'financial transfusion'?
Who has not felt themselves
cringe in an awkward social
situation? This play buzzes
with a modernity which is
spot-on, even as it nods to
the past, paying homage not
only to the death of its playwright,
but also making meta-theatrical
jokes about going to see one
of MoliËre's plays - as though
the actors are improvising
the lines. Dramatic irony,
it seems, doesn't only exist
in the theatre, and the Almeida's
Hypochondriac reminds us to
be wary, lest we too are struck
down. It's not quite Shakespeare
Re-Told, but it leans that
way. Farce has finally grown
up.
Lauren
Cushman |
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