Siobhán McSweeney, Ken Nwosu and Mark Lockyer in The Alchemist. Photo by Helen Maybanks (c) RSC
When the cat's away, the mice will play - and boy, these mice are ready to
put on quite a play. This season, the RSC sees Polly Findlay bring to live the Renaissance
comedy The Alchemist by Shakespeare's near-contemporary, Ben Jonson. As
the plague hits London, Lovewit (Hywel Morgan) skips town, leaving his mansion
in the hands of his mischievous manservant Jeremy (Ken Nwosu) and his band of conniving
friends.
Taking place in the Swan Theatre; the space at the RSC generally reserved
for Shakespeare's contemporaries as Hamlet plays just across the hall, The
Alchemist is an unmissable feature of the RSC's season.
The Alchemist is unique amongst the Renaissance plays in its totally contemporary
setting. Whilst most of the bard's plays are set in historical England, The
Alchemist is set in Blackfriars in the year it was written - 1610 - and its
vivacious contemporary atmosphere is one of several reasons why 406 years
later, this play translates brilliantly and transparently to today's audience.
As we enter the Victorian-Gothic theatre, the wonderful Jacobean set
immediately thrusts us into the dark, smoky criminal underworld of 17th Century
London where the play takes place.
The play launches into action with an original prologue, written by
playwright Stephen Jeffreys, which is energetically and hilariously delivered
by the production's three stand-out actors; Ken Nwosu as the conniving but
hopeless manservant Jeremy, Mark Lockyer as Subtle - the brilliantly disastrous
sham alchemist, and Siobhán McSweeney as the utterly lovable yet
take-no-prisoners prostitute, Dol Common.
These three characters - the band of terribly hopeless criminals - are
central to this calamitous farce, and maintain their comedy and energy expertly
throughout the 2 hour and 20 minute production, as they are joined on stage by
the "sober, scurvy set" of Londoners who they plan to con and swindle
out of their money.
Beyond being ingeniusly funny, The Alchemist is a social comment on
the levels of vanity which humanity is capable of. This group of scoundrels who
have transformed their master's mansion into their criminal den, have no limit
to the depth to which they will stoop, in order to trick some unsuspecting
victim that Subtle is, in fact, a powerful alchemist. From convincing a naive tobacconist
(charmingly portrayed by Richard Leeming) that he is a necromancer, to tricking
a group of Anabaptists into believing that he has the philosophers stone - a
magical transmuting
stone that will turn any base metal into gold - Subtle's only magic qualities
are in how good a con-man he is. RSC veteran Mark Lockyer plays the eponymous
alchemist unashamedly, boldly and captivatingly, really breathing life into
Jonson's charmingly vile con-artist.
Polly Findlay in her pacing and bold direction succeeds in bringing to
light Jonson's clever parallels drawn between the world of alchemy, and
Jacobean London. In an uncertain city, literally on the brink of demise, this
play is about striving for change - just as the philosopher's stone is said to
change the ordinary into gold, the lowly conmen aim to augment themselves, to
climb the social ladder and become something wealthier and more powerful. Every
scene in this play is rife with conflict; from the initial scene where Jeremy
and Subtle bicker about shares of the profits, to the Anabaptists quarrelling
over the legitimacy of alchemy; the friction and sparks generated by the
reminds us of the intensity and often hilarious unpredictability of those at
the bottom, in a city on the brink.
As we near the end of the play, the RSC's technical team really do bring
out all the stops, to create some pretty spectacular stuff, which I'd rather
not give away. The devised ending of the play is deeply clever, very funny, and
does a marvellous job of bringing together the themes of trickery, false-play
and humour, which drive this real gem of a piece.
So, whilst the philosopher's stone may ultimately be the stuff of legends,
the RSC really has succeeded in created something genuinely golden in the Swan
Theatre this season.
