|
|
 |
| |
Fine performances, but remember the relevance
ALCHEMIST
National Theatre
BEN JONSON’S superb Alchemist is set in 1610 in the Blackfriars home of Lovewit, a merchant who has fled London from the plague leaving his premises in the care of his housekeeper Face. It becomes the headquarters for a scam.
The alchemist is Subtle, a con-man who claims to be close to solving the secret of alchemy – turning metal into gold, curing illness and even offering eternal life.
Assisted by a whore, Dol Common, they systematically get to work on their victims. Face, masquerading as Captain Face, picks them up and the sting proves popular. Greed, gullibility and carnality, as always, lure the suckers in.
Even the puritan sect subscribes to the promise of inexhaustible gold, doubtless to extend the Lord’s work.
Enter Sir Epicure Mammon, a diamond performance by Ian Richardson. Excited by exotic dishes, erotic sex and the promise of the Midas touch, he has ploughed money into the project.
Echoing the Thatcher years he does not say: “Greed is good.” His version is: “To all my friends I will pronounce the happy word ‘be rich’.”
Alex Jennings, as Subtle, really must let the laughs come. He has a tendency to milk them which stands in the way of the text. Theatrical asides demand great skill.
Simon Russell Beale’s Face has to undergo a marathon of changes and characters which left me giddy. A scoundrel nevertheless, whose counterpart still works on the unwary and greedy.
The supporting cast delivers with wonderful assurance. Sam Spruell in particular as Ananias, the evangelical deacon who has a ringing quality capable, I thought, of beating Christianity into you with a heavy King James bible.
However, listening to the over-stimulated audience afterwards, I found few who discussed the play’s content, only the actors’ performances.
Ben Johnson, who was once charged with “lewd and mutinous behaviour” might have asked: “Did you understand its relevancy?”
Until November 21
020 7452 3000 Click here to book tickets
CLICK BELOW TO SEARCH FOR ACCOMODATION
|
|
|
|
