Review: Production of The Hypochondriac at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre proves laughter is the best medicine

As the saying goes, laughter is the best medicine, and The Hypochondriac has more than enough to cure you of any imagined malady. 

Running at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre until October 21, Roger McGough’s celebrated adaptation of Moliére’s final play scathingly skewers pompous and supercilious doctors, whose raison d’être is to extract as much as they possibly can from their gullible, admiring and crucially - wealthy - patients. 

But the play’s titular hypochondriac, Argan - played by the excellent Edward Hogg - gets the same treatment, as his self-obsession and lack of self-awareness continues to grow while he limps, flounces and flops around the grandiose yet shabby prison of his own making.

Doctors aren’t the only ones to take Argan for a proverbial ride, Jessica Ransom’s deliciously devilish Béline - Argan’s second wife - is delightfully odious and poetically vicious as she schemes to take another husband for all he’s got, and banish his daughter, Angélique, played by Saroja-Lily Ratnavel, to a convent.

Argan is intent on forcing his daughter to marry Thomas Diaforius, the excruciatingly magniloquent son of his current doctor.

Garmon Rhys' bombastic portrayal of Thomas, complete with almost-perilous gesticulating, had the audience in stitches.

The only characters not to be depicted through a satirical lens are Argan’s witty and warm maid, Toinette, played by the show’s endlessly talented star, Zweyla Mitchell Dos Santos, and Chris Hannon’s Béralde - Argan’s brother.

Both characters act as the voice of reason, often breaking the fourth-wall as they shoot the audience a knowing look or deliver a perfectly-timed meta line, taking aim at theatrical conventions, along with Argan's ever-growing list of fictitious ailments. 

The rhythm of the rhyming couplets, assonance and snippets of Franglais really comes into its own in the play’s second act.

The wordplay comes thick and fast, as do the occasionally alliterative references to bodily functions, the myriad of things that can go wrong with them and the bizarre treatments prescribed by self-serving quacks.  

The musical numbers are a joy to behold, and demonstrate the range of this talented cast, seamlessly shifting from rock opera to polyphonic madrigals.

If you give into the daft, engaging and absurd farce that is McGough’s Hypochondriac, you’ll find it to be a hugely entertaining evening of theatre. 

For more information, or to buy tickets, please visit: https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/events/the-hypochondriac