If the odds of me coming back after the interval are anything to go by, West End
comedy plays are in dire straits this year. I made an early escape from
The Miser,
and now another play with a Molière connection, Christopher Hampton's
The
Philanthropist, had me rushing for the exit as well. Cast entirely through
watching Channel 4 catch-up, plus that episode of
Doctor Who where Lily Cole
played a fish, Simon Callow's production offers little justification for why it
should be revived. In roles they're patently too young for, Simon Bird and Tom
Rosenthal play stuffy university English lecturers who witness a (probably
accidental) suicide in the opening scene. Perhaps out of empathy, the play also
proceeds to die a death as Bird's Philip and his fiancée Celia (Charlotte Ritchie)
host an evening of drinks for a few colleagues and a successful author.
