Considering that William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were generally ranked the top playwrights of the Elizabethan/Jacobean theater, it might seem odd that over the four-hundred-year gap between then and now Shakespeare constantly shows up on local and international stages, whereas Jonson only occasionally: The Bard versus The Barred?
Does it come as a surprise to anyone giving it a moment’s thought that The Alchemist (1610), one of Jonson’s most loved plays in his time (1572-1637) has only racked up 65 performances on Broadway, 13 in 1948 and 52 in 1966? This of a work that Samuel Taylor Coleridge called one of the three best plots, the others being Oedipus Rex and Tom Jones. (It’s possible that Coleridge, were he alive today, might update his opinion.)
Nevertheless, Jesse Berger, who heads the Red Bull Theater, has a soft spot in his heart for comedy/dramas past and has now given The Alchemist more than a moment’s thought. He’s directed and produced an entertaining revival-revisal for our time.
He’s accomplished this using Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation and tapping some of the best farceurs hanging around these days. This comedic posse, primed to check in anywhere from mildly risible to hilarious to outright outrageous, consists of Reg Rogers, Manoel Felciano, Jennifer Sanchez, Carson Elrod, Stephen DeRosa, Jacob Ming-Trent, Louis Mustillo, Nathan Christopher, Allen Tedder, and Teresa Avia Lim.
What are all these stalwarts doing in and with that Coleridge-blurbed plot? Face (Feliciano), butler to mostly unseen London homeowner Lovewit, has invited scheming pals Subtle (Rogers) and Dol Common (Sanchez) to occupy the place so’s to run money-grubbing scams on several gullible fellow money-grubbers. (Due to a plague, Lovewit has left town for a second abode elsewhere. Sound familiar?)
Repeatedly changing the eye-catching costumes (by Tilly Grimes), the larcenous three prey on the conniving fools in a handful of ways. There’s only one with whom Subtle pretends to be an alchemist promising to use a special stone for turning any metal brought him into gold. That fool is Sir Epicure Mammon (Ming-Trent). The others have different furtive goals right up until the three focal cons artists outmaneuver themselves.
Welcoming this dupe-group with guile at the ready, Subtle, Face, and Dol race up and down a staircase to a second level and through the six doors and one reversing part of a wall that set designer Alexis Distler supplies. The greedy suppliants are also asked to immerse themselves in activities that would stop Simone Biles in her tumbling tracks. Although there are moments when more mugging than necessary goes on, the actors are to be praised for following Berger’s every demand. Is there a first among equals? Yes. Each of them.
Moreover, Berger and cast as well as lighting designer Cha See, sound and original music designer Greg Pliska, action movement director Rick Sordelet, and hair, wigs and makeup designer Tommy Kurzman (keep an eye on Ming-Trent’s coifs) are firmly on top of things.
Yes, they all offer recommended amusement, but let’s get back to Ben Jonson’ script and to Hatcher’s adaptation of it. Actually, “adapted” isn’t the ideal word. “Translated” might be better. “Redacted” might even be closer to the mark.
That’s because where the vaunted plot is followed by Hatcher, this Alchemist is certainly Jonson’s with a few tweaks. The reason is readily available. In 2021, producers and patrons alike are partial to 90-minute-or-less diversions tailored for spectators with shrinking attention spans. (The Pandemic, where sitting masked for any lengthy time is not popular, exacerbates the situation.) Giving the audience what they want regularly prevails, as it all but always has.
Hewing to this inclination Berger and Hatcher play by the current era’s uncodified rules. Where the plot is followed, this Alchemist is certainly Jonson’s with a few tweaks. Yet adapting the playwright for our time, Hatcher (likely at Berger’s request) has concocted not so much a Reader’s Digest version as a Theatergoer’s Digest version. More pointedly, Jonson’s five-act play with its gorgeous panegyrics would test the patience of contemporary patrons. Nonetheless, it’s a shame not to hear at least some forgotten Latinate phrases or more vulgar East-End-London worlds like “stinkards.”
With its handful of anachronistic gags and its reveal of a cock ring, The Alchemist that Berger and Hatcher offer is not the prickly comedy Jonson quilled. On the other hand, it’s echo enough of its predecessor’s poke at greed’s universality to hand current Jonson-deprived ticket buyers a randy good time.
The Alchemist opened November 21, 2021, at New World Stages and runs through December 19. Tickets and information: redbulltheater.com
