The Hypochondriac at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre review

If laughter is the best medicine then the world has a cure. Not a modern cure but an ancient one with a new twist - rather like when big crimes are solved using new DNA techniques. The Hypochondriac was here all along, perhaps we just forgot not to take life too seriously or at least take your laughs when you can.

Days to live and an attitude that is deliriously funny aren't an obvious combination but then neither are an ancient French playwright and an irreverent Liverpool poet. As it turns out the partnership of Molière and  McGough, brought triumphantly to life at Sheffield Theatres' Crucible, is a dream combination for 2023. Yes, it is still firmly set in 17th century France where nobody would believe anything as ridiculous as modern theories that the heart pumps blood. But it is perfect for an era where we perhaps know too much, when the news always feels bad and people are scared to express an opinion for fear of being cancelled.

When you've only got days to live and doctors are doing their best to swindle you out of every penny, an unlikely superhero is very much needed. Step forward the servant. This is a story of love - requited but not approved - and the power of medical men to make you need their potions. Every member of the cast is superb. Their delivery - in whichever broken language is most appropriate to the moment - is impeccably timed to comic perfection. This production by director Sarah Tipple is deliciously daft.

From the second you see the impressive library set to the very last laugh you expel with the final joke, it is rip-roaring success. Who knew that toilet humour and crazy choreography could survive hundreds of years without losing any of its shine? Out of touch? No, this show is sadly as relevant today as it was in 1673. Mature and pensive? Don't be ridiculous - this is Moliere and McGough, both at their best and, no matter how predictable, their humour will never age. We laughed with heads thrown back as the rhymes grew ever more silly and the jokes more childishly delightful. It is definitely time to remind us all not to take ourselves - or culture - too seriously.

As you might expect, Roger McGough summed the whole experience up better than most. I couldn't agree more with the words he uttered on X: "I was over la lune with the opening of The Hypochondriac at the Sheffield Crucible the other night. I know Moliere would have been too." The Hypochondriac is at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre until October 21.