‘The Alchemist’
Where: The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Lansburgh Theatre, 450 Seventh St. NW
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday; 7:30 p.m. Sunday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; noon Nov. 11; through Nov. 22
Info: $10 to $87; 202-547-1122; shakespearetheatre.org
Ben Jonson’s “The Alchemist,” which premiered in 1610, might have been written yesterday. Its subjects are greed, self-delusion, hypocrisy and fraud, topics likely to surface on the front pages of many newspapers today.
“The Alchemist” at The Shakespeare Theatre Company is performed in modern dress, highlighting the play’s relevance. When the master of a London house, Lovewit (Wynn Harmon), leaves the city, he puts his butler, Jeremy (Michael Milligan), in charge of the house. Jeremy (aka Face) brings in two more con artists — Subtle (David Manis), who pretends to be an alchemist, and Dol (Kate Skinner), a prostitute. They proceed to make money by duping their fellow Londoners.
A steady stream of believers visits the house to purchase major life changes: a gambling addict (Nick Cordileone), a tobacco-seller (Jeff Biehl), the wealthy Sir Epicure Mammon (David Sabin), a deacon (Robert Creighton), a pastor (Timothy Thomas), a wealthy young man (Alex Morf) and his sister (Rachel Holt). They pay well for the “transformations” the crooks promise. Only one man, Pertinax Surly (Kyle Fabel), remains skeptical of the goings-on.
Like the characters who wear them, Murell Horton’s costumes are not designed to be credible — just vaguely possible. Epicure Mammon wears a gold suit, pink shirt and diamond rings, his hair in a Donald Trumpesque coiffure.
Director Michael Kahn wisely keeps the emphasis on the play’s farce. The characters are types, rather than human beings, and Kahn choreographs them to spin in and out of the many doors on James Noone’s two-level set.
The result is a production that swirls and whirls, making extravagant twists and turns, visually underscoring the way the con artists continually flip into false characters to make their visitors believe they are going to achieve extreme transformations — if not of base metal into gold, then whatever the client demands.
“The Alchemist” is very broad, barbed satire. The fact that it is as funny as it is at the Shakespeare Theatre 400 years after it was written is a testament to Kahn’s directorial savvy and to the talent of his extraordinary ensemble.
