The Stage

The Hypochondriac

Published Wednesday 23 November 2005 at 12:40 by Jeremy Austin

Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry to announce that this play suffered a relapse during the intermission and will have to limp towards its inevitable end.

Richard Bean’s adaptation of Moliere’s lampooning of the quack doctors of his time descends from a reasonably enjoyable and well-performed farce into the worst possible mixture of pantomime, Oxbridge revue - the singing medical students finale - and a very poor episode of Are You Being Served? with the Peter Sellers-style impersonation of an Indian doctor.

Lindsay Posner breathes life into David Mamet’s plays and yet allows this effort to limp along, seemingly popping up every now and then to poke it with a stick to see if it is dead.

It is a measure of the quality of performers Henry Goodman as the ever-ill Argan and Lyndsey Marshal as the scheming servant Toinette that they manage to inject any feeling of quality and entertainment into the piece.

Carey Mulligan as his daughter Angelique and a brilliant comic turn from John Marquez as the socially inept suitor Thomas Diafoirerhoea are the other two stand-out performances. As for television impersonator Ronni Ancona as gold-digging wife Beline - she should stick to impersonating televisions.

Drink lots at the interval. The third act contains an ever increasing flow of jokes - yes, actual gags - that would seem weak in the weakest village pantomime. Utter rubbish.