McGough and Moliere ... Er... What a pair!

The Hypochondriac
Liverpool Playhouse

I had a bad accident last year when I fractured my pelvis and hobbling over Williamson Square I bumped into Roger McGough entering the stage door of the Liverpool Playhouse.
He grimaced when I told him what had happened to me.
But changing the subject I told him that I was looking forward to his adaptation of French satirist Moliere's The Hypochondriac.
"How are you now?" he said softly, while very concerned.
I told him that if I had been a hypochondriac before the seven-hour operation, I wasn't now.
He laughed and said: "I'll use that!"
That's typical of Roger clocking everything going and what makes his poetry so accessible.
After the success of Tartuffe last year a real laughter-filled production comes The Hypochondriac
Is it as good?
Well you can't compare. It's a bit like a musician having a great album out and you wonder how can they follow it. The Beatles did it.
On stage, yet again, poet McGough has done it.
In the process he has created with the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and English Touring Theatre a new genre - a "McGouhiere" (try saying that after a few glasses of Pernod.
This is every bit as distinctive as Tartuffe but very different in in its own way.
Whereas Tartufte sparkled from the opening lines this production simmers and then bursts out like a firework.
A cast of nine enjoy this rhyme with reason romp and the audience lapped it up.
There are some wonderful puns, "knock knock" jokes in French and a few silly but enjoyable songs.
There's great Scousisms splattered throughout such as Padua rhyming with, "Mad - you are" and Turin with "Urine.
It is a show that works on different levels.
Leanne Best works energetically throughout as Toinette - the feisty character who moves along the action not only as a maid, but in disguise as a 90-year-old Italian quack.
Clive Francis as the Scrooge-like- Argan makes capital gains out of absurd illnesses. the actor is masterful throughout.
Indeed the set is rather Christmas Carol-ish - barren, all wood panelled and reminiscent of Ebenezer's cash-neglected abode.
Fine actor Neil Caple ( Dr Diaforius) can't 'pwonounce' his 'rs' and is sadly under-used.
He sits and observes as if, ironically, in a waiting room.
Versatile Gemma Bodinetz directs with her usual stamp of love and affection and this collaborations with Roger is another inspired piece of work that we are lucky to see first here in Liverpool.
So if you need a tonic book an appointment for this clever production.
I was going to send Roger and Gemma a "Get Well" card instead of a "Good Luck" one for the opening night, but it doesn't need it.
It says what it does on the poster - "a Laughter Elixir."
It's a play that is in fine, rude health.

9/10 Three Ms - Magnifique, McGough and Moliere!