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Liberate yourself from the boredom of good health and blissful May sun with this prescription to see Roger McGough’s brilliant adaptation of Moličre’s The Hypochondriac (Le Malade Imaginaire), at the Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon by the Studio Theatre Club (STC) this week, 19th-22nd May. While you may suffer from nasal projection, great expectorations, or random costume release if seated in the front row – an early exuberant leg gesture sent lead character Argan’s shoe sailing smartly over the first heads in the audience – you will also be treating yourself to a rare injection of contemporary humour into a blistering seventeenth century story of a wealthy man with a wealth of fantasy ails. Perhaps asking to be smote for his attack on medical quacks in the 1670s, it is worth noting the ironic onstage death of Moličre himself during Le Malade’s fourth production in 1673: a clever, though unplanned, advertisement for this comedy well worth seeing. The STC cast some 300 years later however, with Matt Kirk cast as main man, hypochondriac Argan, manage to carry on Moličre’s legacy without demise of any kind. Jamie Crowther directs a contemporary performance that happily murders stuffy Greek and Latin waffle, throwing ‘Lesbos’ and ‘Souvlaki’ into its speeches, features multi-lingual puns, and retains Moličre’s sexual innuendos in a manner that pillows can’t always cover. Praise goes to Rhona Wells as the outspoken maid, Toinette, whose common sense and chamber pot humour nurse Argan back to health — if requesting the removal of a limb can be considered so! Do go and see this quack up of a show while it's still alive and breathing! Keira Dickinson & Tim Teasdale (Unverified), 19/05/10 |
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