If Shakespeare represented the popular mainstream of his own time, Ben Jonson wrote that period's equivalent of the festival film - the cult classic. A brilliant satire: unrelenting, angry and hilarious. ~ The Village Voice 

At any one moment, Hollywood writers are trying to write the next perfect plot; The Grifters, The Sting, and Oceans 11 are basically The Alchemist by Ben Jonson, as it dramatizes the "long con." The great English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), surmised that The Alchemist - first performed in 1610 - had one of three perfect plots, the other two being Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (430 B.C.), and Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749). Just three in 2,000 years! It's been said that if it wasn't for Shakespeare, Jonson would be Britain's national playwright and his greatest misfortune was having Shakespeare as a contemporary. This would have been news to Jonson as he went to his grave the most celebrated poet of his age.
 
The clever comedy and deception of The Alchemist's perfect plot takes place within six hours in London's Blackfriars district. In 1610, London was the capitol of lethal con-artists and money-minded Puritans, where the threat of plague was balanced by the prospect of limitless wealth. The Alchemist is flawless, still current satire about greed, image, perceptions and the endless gullibility of people of all social classes. 

 

If Jonson had been a Hollywood screenwriter, one could imagine a chart with each storyline represented by a different color string marking plot intersections, and reminiscent of a map of the London Underground - only easier to lose one's way.

The theatre division spent the summer successfully immersed in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with just three weeks between productions. Jonson was fluent in several languages, including Latin, and his rigorous education is reflected throughout his works. According to Jones, "Jonson is harder to perform than Shakespeare - the language is very arcane, edgier and harder to grasp."
 
Widely admired for his intricate plots and larger-than-life characters, actors seldom get the chance to tackle Jonson. In selecting The Alchemist, Jones revisited his previous experiences with this specific Jonson play, having performed in it twice. "I've always thought it was the hardest I've ever worked, so I wanted to share that opportunity with our students," said Jones.
 
To achieve accuracy with the difficult passages, Jones relied on dialect coach Paul Meier, "Paul said he's never gotten the chance to work on The Alchemist in almost 30 years of professional work and reiterated to me, and to the students, what an incredible opportunity this is for young actors," said Jones.

The play is being presented in the Studio Theatre, the University Center for the Art's convertible space that will seat just 100 audience members for this production. "What I wanted was a kind of in-your-face experience for the audience," said Jones.

 

There will be sawdust over the entire theatre floor, pyrotechnics, special effects, and some audience members will sit within two feet of the action. "It is a wild and woolly production, not for the squeamish, and filled to the brim with each one of the seven deadly sins!"
 
The play's clever fulfillment of the classical unities, and vivid, take-no-prisoners depiction of human folly have made it one of the few Renaissance plays, excepting the works of Shakespeare, with a continual life on stage. 

When & Where
September 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 8 p.m., Sunday, September 27, 2 p.m., Studio Theatre, University Center for the Arts, 1400 Remington Street. $7/CSU students, $7/youth (13 - 17), $14/seniors, $16/public - Tickets available at www.csutix.com. Theatre passes are not accepted for this production.