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A CurtainUp New Jersey Review
The Alchemist
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Prove today who shall shark best. — Face
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Photo: Jon Barker and Bruce Cromer (Photo: Jerry Dalia)
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Lack of familiarity with this acknowledged classic should actually enhance your pleasure, as it did mine. The important thing to know is that you will laugh long and hard at this riotous staging and the terrific, over-the-top performances under the direction of Bonnie J. Monte.
Monte's very useful and also delightful "director's notes" give us good reasons on how and why she has overcome her "40-year spanning disdain" for this play about, you guessed it, an alchemist. To that point, it is about a pair of 17th century con-artists who are revealed and exposed as not so far removed in their ethics and morals from their 21st century counterparts. It is our good fortune that Monte was eventually seduced by the text, which she has commendably adapted and edited down to under three hours from its original four.
If it takes a few minutes to get used to the rapidly fired, wordy, sublimely archaic language, I can report that my wife and I took a risk in taking along our eleven year-old grandson who nevertheless surprised us with "I liked it very much." What didn't surprise me was how splendidly this company of eloquent farceurs, as costumed in hilariously period-mocking haute and low 17th century couture by designer Nikki Delhomme, create characters who are vivid, colorful and comical.
The plot, a complex brew of intrepid chicanery and inspired tomfoolery, takes place in Blackfriars, a suburb of London during the 1610 Plague. It is a brilliantly contrived play in which the gullibility of a stream of people from different walks of life is exposed. Most of them willingly fall for the malarkey or magic dished out by a cleverly verbose scoundrel who passes himself off as a wizard or The Alchemist
Taking advantage of his master Lovewit's temporary absence, his servant Jeremy (Jon Barker) assuming the name of Captain Face opens the home to Subtle (Bruce Cromer) his colleague and artful conjurer of deceptions and scams. Dol (Aedin Moloney), a prostitute, is enlisted to seduce and beguile some of the visitors, but she also manages to maintain the peace between Face and Subtlea who don't trust each other as they proceed with their plans to make a lot of money.
One by one, their customers appear in the hopes of getting their wishes granted by this master of necromancy. Pay close attention so that you can fully relish the flair with which the hilariously mesmerzing Cromer mixes and matches the vocabulary of chemistry to suit his mastery of pure gibberish and gobbledygook. Barker is no less a comical trickster as he also acts the part in humorous disguise as Face's mad-cap laboratory assistant.
Madcap is good way to describe the visits and the return visits of all those who venture into the Gothic styled living room and upper gallery beautifully designed by Jonathan Wentz with a section that moves forward to become the front of the house when the action moves occasionally outside. Characters are gagged, sent scurrying up and down staircases, in an out of rooms amid the kind of nutty mayhem we've seen in Marx Brothers comedies. There is even an explosion when an experiment goes awry.
Most impressive among the sublime interpreters is Brent Harris as the gold-obsessed Sir Epicure Mammon whose desperation to obtain the Alchemist's magic stone is expressed in a frenzy of florid flourishes. Kevin Isola is terrific as his disapproving friend Pertinax Surly who doesn't believe a word he hears, but returns later in disguise as a very expressive, but mostly unintelligible Spanish nobleman whose aim it is to expose the thieves.
Also exceedingly funny are Jon Sprik as Dapper, a gambler who is willing to go to ridiculous lengths and through absurd rituals to get lucky and Aaedin Moloney who comes close to stealing the comic thunder from Face and Subtle as she also takes on the role of a mad noblewoman romanced by Mammon. Earning the most laughs is not easy, but I suspect that Kristen Kittel and Seamus Mulcahy come the closest as a dimwitted, but rich young widow and her socially challenged brother who wants to obtain a spell to find his sister a husband.
It would be remiss if I didn't say how excellent were Jeffrey M. Bender as a foolhardy tobacconist and James Michael Reilly and Raphael Nash Thompson as duped Anabaptists; also John Ahlin as the late arriving Lovewit who ends up with a marriage he wasn't looking for even as the scoundrels get their just rewards.
We are rewarded with a delightful comedy for the ages.
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The Alchemist by Ben Jonson Directed by Bonnie J. Monte Cast: Aaedin Moloney (Dol Common), John Barker (Face), Bruce Cromer (Subtle), Jeffrey M. Bender (Drugger), Brent Harris (Sir Epicure Mammon), Kevin Isola (Pertinax Surly), James Michael Reilly (Ananias), Raphael Nash Thompson (Tribulation Wholesome), Seamus Mulcahy (Kastril), Kristen Kittel (Dame Pliant), John Ahlin (Lovewit), James Costello (Carter/Parson/Officer) Scenic Design: Jonathan Wentz Costume Design: Nikki Delhomme Lighting Design: Steven Rosen Sound Design: Karin Graybash Production Stage Manager: Kathy Snyder Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes. Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theater, on the campus of Drew University, 36 Madison Ave, Madison, NJ (973) 408 - 5600 Tickets: $62.00 - $32.00 Performances: Tuesday, Wednesdays and Sundays at 7:30 pm; Thursdays, Fridays at 8 pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 2 pm. From 08/06/14 Opened 08/09/14 Ends 08/24/14 Review by Simon Saltzman based on performance 08/09/14 |
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