A play by Ben Jonson
Nigel Hawthorne Face, a butler
Ian Trigger Subtle, a cozening alchemist
Denise Coffey Dol Common, his friend
Richard Kane Dapper, a lawyer's clerk
Andrew Robertson Drugger, a tobacconist
Paul Brooke Sir Epicure Mammon
Gavin Reed Surly, his friend, a cynic
Julia McCarthy Ananias, religious fanatic
Joan Heal Tribulation, religious fanatic
Terry Scully Kastril, a rich boy from the provinces
Joanna Wake Dame Pliant, his sister, a widow
Trevor Peacock Lovewit, the master of the house
Seymour Matthews Officer
Director Frank Dunlop
Design Nadine Baylis
Lighting Liz Wells
Stage Manager Michael O. Morris
Deputy Stage Manager Gordon Monsen
GLIB BAWDRY TO RELIEVE MONOTONY
By ERIC SHORTER, Daily Telegraph 9 June 1972
IF Ben Jonson's humour is considered still so modern, why bother to update him with such vigour? Is it thought that we shall miss the point?
That is the first puzzle facing the experienced playgoer - that is, the playgoer who has seen "The Alchemist" acted several times before - at the Young Vic.
Then, as he looks round the crowded, youthful house, for which the players are required to perform in all directions, he realises that the younger generation of playgoers has grown conditioned to these japes.
*
It knows very well that Jonson never knew about the gold at Fort Knox or Kardomah cafes, or the meaning of "loo."
It also knows, I imagine, that much of the glib bawdry with which Frank Dunlop exuberantly invests his production is only there to keep us from being bored by the monotonous plot about some servants turning themselves into confidence tricksters while the master is away.
It knows and presumably makes allowances for the fact that, as the programme honestly declares, the show is only "mainly by Ben Jonson."
*
And so, within this ribald and boisterous limitation, the evening bowls jovially along. A "privy" has been installed amid the audience. The so-called setting is no more than a couple of red doors and a series of window blinds on a scaffold.
Round and about it an industrious company, led by Nigel Hawthorne (Face) and Denise Coffey (Dol Common), romp through the brazen deceptions brazenly. There is an explosion, much gulling, and a final indignation of such as Paul Brooke's massively jellified Sir Epicure Mammon.
*
More pleasingly, there is Andrew Robertson as a quietly baffled Abel Drugger of whom Alec Guinness once made so much. And Mr Hawthorne's subaltern-type Face is a general joy.
But I regret to say that I seldom laughed. What remains of Jonson seemed deadly dull, and the plot repetitive and silly.
The modernisation, though it had its brilliant moments, only emphasised the monotony.
Still, almost everyone else appeared to be amused while I just longed to see the play acted solemnly, without feeling that the actors were sharing the joke with us.
Perhaps then I would have laughed more readily.
