The Hypochondriac

Synopsis

A quintet of quacks, a dizzy daughter and a meddling maid. What's a poor invalid to do? Argan, a confirmed hypochondriac, is determined to marry-off his daughter Angelica to someone suitable - a doctor - so that he can benefit from free medical treatment for his endless imagined illnesses. Unfortunately for him, Angelica has other ideas...

Our Review:

18 November 2005

Laughter is the best medicine, so the old adage goes. And even if Molière might not necessarily have believed it himself, his timeless comedies do their best to prove the point. In his last play, The Hypochondriac (or The Imaginary Invalid), the grandfather of farce also demonstrated the inverse: that medicine – or the quackery that passed for it in the 17th century – can also make for the best laughter.

Not that it did Molière much good either way. As a programme note reminds us, the Frenchman – whose title character Argan was inspired by some of his own health concerns – decided to play the role himself in the 1672 premiere; on the evening of the fourth performance, he suffered an on-stage haemorrhage and died later that night, at the age of 51. Imagine the guffaws.

There’s no shortage of them in this hysterical new version of The Hypochondriac by Richard Bean, who freshly mints Molière’s satire with well-aimed swipes at...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

195.82.123.181) - 29 November 2005:

Absolutely wonderful: just hilarious and frequently revolting. Richard Bean's inventively scatalogical new version is given an athletic, elegant and consistently entertaining production by Lindsay Posner. Henry Goodman turns in yet another enthralling performance, finding both Argan's monstrousness and his humanity; the supporting cast are uniformly strong but Lyndsey Marshal's delightfully cheeky maid and John Marquez's socially inept suitor are brilliant. Deserves to have people queuing down Upper St!...

Read more and add your own review