Savage and merry are not words that naturally fall together, but they sum up Martin Crimp's entertainingly dyspeptic version of Molière's play. Crimp moves the action to modern London, and paints such a picture of sycophancy, hypocrisy and nepotism, that the court of Louis XIV seems like a playground by comparison.
Alceste (the only one of Molière's characters to retain his name) is a cult playwright, who risks becoming a social outcast by refusing to moderate his opinions, particularly on David Hare and Alan Bennett.
Alceste is cleverly played by David Harewood as a man who is right and wrong, admirable and absurd. He doesn't know where to draw the line, least of all when it comes to his film star girlfriend, Jennifer. There is a touch of the tragic about him. Eve Best's networking Jennifer has all the amorality of the ingenue who has just discovered that the world is her oyster.
This is a shallow world where hacks cry "in the public interest" as an excuse for scandal-mongering, theatre critics are corrupt, and friendship means nothing. That could lead to a shallow play. But Crimp's writing is so lethal, and builds to such an ironic climax, in which Jennifer and her friends hold a Louis XIV fancy dress party, that the connections between past and present are always made.
Like the writing, Indhu Rubasingham's elegant production is fast and sharp. And she always ensures that the cast play the subtext under all the wit. At the end Jennifer laughs like a drain, but for a split second her eyes are great pools of sadness.
· Until March 9. Box office: 01243 781312.
