The Miser, by Molière
(Translated by Ranjit Bolt)
Playhouse until Saturday 2nd June 2001

For a student production The Miser is very slick. Director James Rogan handles the farce very well indeed, as do his cast, who tread well the fine line between capitalising on the play's comic potential and over-acting. In this respect Richard Madeley as Harper, the Miser himself, is outstanding. He scampers around the stage from beginning to end, shifting effortlessly from suspicion and anger to gibbering despair. Madeley breathes new life into the old stereotype of the lecherous old man - completely susceptible to flattery, but unwilling to spare a penny to satisfy his flatterers or succeed in his lechery. In every scene he grasps the point of the joke and wrings the laughs out of the audience unmercifully. It is Harper's paranoia and suspicion that drives the comic action of the play, and there are some really brilliant lines and scenes: particularly funny is the moment when Harper suddenly appears to notice the audience and starts raving, 'They're all looking at me. They're all laughing at me...'. What might have been an irritatingly self-conscious touch becomes brilliantly funny in the accomplished hands of Rogan and Madeley and this holds true for most of the play.

This new translation by Ranjit Bolt sets the play in modern day England and updates the text to fit. This works well for the most part. But the social conventions of the play - where servants crawl and are treated badly by their master; where foreign kitchen-hands who can't speak English are the butt of jokes; where the female love interest is as insipid as it gets; and where a father attempts to wed his daughter to a wealthy older man, though she has disgracefully fallen in love with the butler - are clearly of another age and no amount of references to trainers, Tesco and Bella Pasta can hide this. For the most part, however, the modern setting is not intrusive, apart from the occasions when the translation really tries to get topical, like when Harper threatens to call in the European army, a reference which as far as I can see had no relevance to the play and elicited as many groans as laughs from the audience. Such moments apart, the translation is a good one and brings out the humour of Moliere's original.

Madeley is superbly backed up by a very good supporting cast. Ed McGown is hilarious as the toadying butler. Rebecca Wilcox and Matthew Ashcroft as Harper's beleaguered offspring, Eleanor and Charlie, also make the best of their roles; and special mention must also go to Andrew Dawson as Charlie's scouse companion, Fletcher. These fine performances are backed by a magnificent set, designed by Jennifer Ranshaw to look like a smart town house gone to rack and ruin.

The Miser is a timeless satire on greed and paranoia. But this production is, above all, a brilliantly funny farce and a great two hours at the theatre.

James McInnes
30-05-01