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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
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