THE MISANTHROPE. Minerva Theatre to 9 March.

Chichester

THE MISANTHROPE
by Moliere, adapted by Martin Crimp

Minerva Theatre To 9 March 2002
Runs 1hr 40min No interval

TICKETS 01243 781312
Review Timothy Ramsden 20 February

A fierce Moliere completes the Minerva's high-quality inaugural winter season.Here's a knowing, ultra-cool dissection of modern cool. Sophistication oozes from every insincere self-serving mouth - whether it's Eve Best's magnificently shallow Jennifer, the screamy, smiley, stab-you-in-the-back girl who's got under even Alceste's guard, or Nicholas Blane's smarmy critic whose beam clouds instantly to vitriolic threat when he's criticised himself.

Colin Falconer's set conceals any door behind a curving wall. It's as if the room is open to all who pass the entryphone test as one of the in-crowd. There's no privacy in this svelte designer accommodation; self-promoting people bounce in and flounce or stride out as their status ripples up or down the self-styled elite.

Crimp makes Alceste more than a plain-speaker. His abrasive, aggressive language takes the character beyond social critic into a hater of humanity fuelled by more than the shallow types immediately around him. At first David Harewood seems to rely on limited patterning of sentences, but as the action progresses his performance develops into furious overdrive. Never have his critics seemed to have such a point, however horrendous a tribe they make.

Chief of these is John. John Elmes gives him a responsible look, the rational face of compromise. But he is no neutral commentator – as productions often suggest - being clearly bound up in the false world his friend detests. And the media scene is fleshed out excellently by Rohan Siva's smooth actor and Miltos Yerolemou's 110% agent. Here are people willing to wound yet terrified of being struck back.

Andrea Hart's Marcia commits the ultimate sin – ageing. It's this rather than any sincerity that sidelines her in the hooray-happy hour tribe. And youth knocks hard in another actor from Scotland. Fiona Bell's journalist, sharing the bitchy confidences then leaking them over the front page, is the incarnation of self-serving careerism.

Indhu Rubasingham marshals the monsters skilfully. This may be too particular to become a long-life version of the play but it slices smoothly through the present age and reminds us how fierce and definitely un-quaint Moliere was in his own time.

Alceste: David Harewood
John: John Elmes
Covington: Nicholas Blane
Jennifer: Eve Best
Ellen: Fiona Bell
Julian: Rohan Siva
Alexander: Miltos Yerolemou
Simon/Messenger: Toby Dantzic
Marcia: Andrea Hart

Director: Indhu Rubasingham
Designer: Colin Falconer
Lighting: Chris Scott
Sound: Kay Basson
Composer: Martin Lowe

2002-02-24 13:58:40