VOLPONE. To 27 November
Manchester
VOLPONE
by Ben Jonson
Royal Exchange Theatre To 27 November 2004
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Wed 2.30pm & Sat 4pm
Audio-described 20 Nov 4pm
Post-show discussion 25 Nov
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 October
A production with ideas but which doesn't cohere.A bed and a hint of water underground are features of Lez Brotherston's set for the Royal Exchange's Ben Jonson revival. Earth and water, almost, which is fair enough. Yet the surprising thing about the trickster Volpone, feigning bedridden near-death but full of health as he fools greedy old men into giving him lavish presents in hope of becoming his imminent heir, is his airy ambition.
Gerard Murphy shows this materialistic idealism, and the splendidly flowing golden locks suggest his wolfish name and nature. Yet somehow both he and the setting seem constrained. The Exchange stage, which can encompass so much in its circle, for once seems laden with pieces that don't make a coherent statement. It's not just visible settings; somehow the action seems cramped too.
In part it helps the play. Director Gregory Hersov has cut the secondary plot, which takes the action out into Venice, and replaced Jonson's politically awkward dwarf, hermaphrodite etc with a trio of Nun, Dude and Nurse, whose appearance and wordlessly energetic cavortings offers a sinister eccentricity to Volpone's household.
Volpone's energy is necessarily confined to times his victims aren't around and to his one outing, as a quack medic selling lotions in the street to get a view of victim Corvino's lovely young wife the present-giving's soon to become trade in human flesh. When the moneyed gulls are around it's his parasite Mosca who provides the energy to hustle them into giving while avoiding awkward questions.
Stephen Noonan has the buzz of this bloodsucking fly but suffers, like so many actors, from an offputting tendency to use speed and volume to express energy. They can do so, used sensitively, but here the language tends to get ironed out and details lost in a flurry of sound. You can't get away with that in Jonson, whose language has subtlety as well as vigour and needs more careful handling.
Noonan's not the only one so afflicted and Hersov, so punctilious with more modern prose drama, lets his guard fall this time. What comes across are bright ideas rather than a wholly realised comic world.
Volpone: Gerard Murphy
Mosca: Stephen Noonan
Voltore: Michael Carter
Corbaccio: Gareth Thomas
Corvino: Stephen Marzella
Celia: Miranda Colchester
Bonario: Chris Harper
The Dude': Tom Godwin
The Nun': Dominic Burdess
The Nurse'/Notario: Sarah Desmond
Advocate: Patrick Driver, Ian Blower
Director: Gregory Hersov
Designer: Lez Brotherston
Lighting: Bruno Poet
Sound: Steve Brown
Music: Arun Ghosh
Fights: Renny Krupinski
Assistant director: Philip Stork
2005-01-05 19:26:11