It’s the late 16th century, in the aftermath of aplague outbreak, and you’re a Londoner troubled by a heaviness in the limbs and involuntary upward purging. You need to see a physician, and you’ve heard tell around town of an ambitious young fellow named Simon Forman, who reads the stars to aid his diagnoses. He might not have an actual medical licence, but that hasn’t stopped him from attracting some very high-profile querents. Who needs the approval of the College of Surgeons when you’re blessed with an eye for destiny?
Astrologaster is bawdy biographical fiction told through medical quandaries and humorous choral music, all the more entertaining because it’s based on things that actually happened. You play as Forman, the astrologer-physician, and colourful characters come by to demand diagnoses, treatments, and sometimes to be read fortunes written in the stars. These patients – from a stern Protestant nimby to a frustrated female playwright to a self-sabotaging hypochondriac and a society lady who throws disastrous dinner parties – are hilariously written and well acted, each introduced by a choir. (“Sybil Fortescue! She always has what’s new.”)
After examining the skies for hints about your patients’ personal lives, you suggest a treatment or course of action for them. There is no right answer – here as in real life, astrology is a rather inexact practice – but you’ll find your querents more pleased with certain suggestions than others. I enjoyed trying to sabotage the life of a puffed-up duke’s son, and was equal parts annoyed and amused when he kept coming back to thank me for the excellent advice. These characters’ stories have some excellent twists, as does Forman’s.
Astrologaster is based on the casebooks of the real Simon Forman (1552-1611), who practised his peculiar brand of medicine for years and was notorious for philandering with his patients and for his numerous prison sentences. If anything, this fictionalised version of his life is less dramatic than the reality, but it’s a lively and surprising comedy that portrays a weird slice of Shakespeare’s London with modern wit.
• Astrologaster is available now; £4.99
