Mark Rylance gives a five star performance in American David
Hirson’s interval-free spoof in the style of 17th century French
dramatist Moliere.
Spraying food through goofy teeth, he delivers a virtual monologue
of self-aggrandising, rhyming couplets, touching on everything and
nothing in a comic tour de force which takes up over half an hour of
what is otherwise a not particularly distinguished play.
He’s a farting, burping populist, a street entertainer whose lowbrow
work is anathema to Elomire (Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce), the
high-minded court playwright who proves little more than the serious
foil to Valere’s vulgarity. And Joanna Lumley has even less to do as
their capricious royal patroness in this insubstantial 1991 oddity
which loses its focus in an uneven debate and a not very funny
play-within-a-play.
3/5
Comedy, Panton Street, SW1Y 4DN
0844 871 7622
Tube: Piccadilly Circus
Until 4th Sept
£15 – £50
Review: Louise Kingsley
