Volpone – Swan Theatre Stratford – 24/07/2015

Greed, corruption, lust, vanity and the worship of wealth...

...the driving forces in both works I saw in the RSC’s Swan theatre this weekend (the second being The Jew of Malta). But, if the motivation had parallels and the venue and many of the cast members were the same, the two productions could hardly have been more different.

For their new Volpone, the RSC have not only produced a modern setting in Stephen Brimson Lewis’s designs but they have also tinkered with the dialogue, with textual revisions by Ranjit Bolt. The inclusion of references to social media and nano-technology (a clever play on the name of Volpone’s dwarf) is not going to sit comfortably with the purist, but in this refreshingly witty staging they add a contemporary edge to the humour that you can’t help feeling Ben Jonson would have approved of.

Movable translucent panels and full-motion display screens form the set, which morphs from scene to scene courtesy of Tim Mitchell’s high-contrast lighting and video designs by Nina Dunn. A ticker-tape display of stock prices and CCTV security images give way to heartbeat and blood pressure monitors when Volpone is on his sick-bed, and we see live video of Lady Politic Would-Be as she is followed about the stage by paparazzi. The cast organise their lives and take selfies with smart phones and tablets.

Casting by Hannah Miller is a stroke of genius, with perfect choices more or less throughout. Geoffrey Freshwater and Matthew Kelly are splendidly obsequious as Corbaccio and Corvino, the two hopefuls trying to ingratiate themselves with Volpone so they might inherit his fortune, while Annette McLaughlin somewhat oversteps the line into caricature with her Lady Politic Would-Be. The trio of Androgyno, Castrone and Nano, played by Ankur Bahl, Julian Hoult and Jon Key, bring both sinister and pantomime elements to the piece, and turn out a couple of song and dance routines into the bargain.

Henry Goodman revels in the leading role, slipping in and out of disguise as he leaps into his hi-tech hospital bed and transforms himself into a drooling wreck, left with only a twitching hand and rolling eyes to perform his telling asides to the audience. His faithful, parasitic servant Mosca is played with poise and elegance by Orion Lee, one of several cast members in a debut season with the RSC.

Ben Jonson was making a serious point about materialism, corruption and con-merchants, and there is a sense in which the satire loses some of its bite amidst the comedic delivery under Trevor Nunn’s direction. There are clear messages in the work for a modern audience that could possibly have been given a little more weight in a modernist production, but very fine performances and ensemble timing score a hit nonetheless.

Henry Goodman, Annette McLaughlin, Orion Lee, Matthew Kelly and Geoffrey Freshwater - Photo (c) Manuel Harlan / RSC

Death of a Salesman - RSC at the Noel Coward Theatre - 2/6/2015

You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit! 

Death of a salesman is often considered Arthur Miller's finest achievement and, a piece inspired so very heavily by experience of the issues of his own family, it stands as a work of incisive realism. When Gregory Doran chose to commemorate Miller's centenary in the new RSC season, he could hardly have chosen a more appropriately personal work.

An actor recently said that there is an age at which one should play Lear, and I’d be inclined to suggest that the same could be said of the character of Willy Loman. Antony Sher appears to be at that age. He has announced his forthcoming appearance as Lear in 2016, also under Gregory Doran’s direction, and in juxtaposing it with his performance as Loman in this production he and Doran assert the significance and stature of Miller’s work.

Arthur Miller is famously explicit in his stage directions and, while some productions kick against this, Gregory Doran and his designer Stephen Brimson Lewis have remained faithful to the author. What is on the page comes vividly to life in their multi-level set, on which past and present can coexist and blend seamlessly from scene to scene.

Antony Sher exudes world-weariness from every pore in the opening scenes, drawling out the lines as though every word were an effort and when stepping back to earlier times, sparring with his sons, we see the toll that time and circumstance have taken on him. Harriet Walter is spectacular as his long-suffering wife Linda, the burden of watching the disintegration and shame of the love of her life almost visible in her carriage, and palpable in every line. Alex Hassell and Sam Marks give strong performances as brothers Biff and Happy, as do Joshua Richards and Guy Paul as Charley and the spectral Uncle Ben.

Gregory Doran’s  thoughtful and well paced production seems to focus on Miller's idea that the play has “more pity and less judgement”, and it leaves us feeling for Willy Loman in his desperate search for where everything went wrong.

Death of a Salesman has a performance time of 2½ hours including one interval and it continues at the Noel Coward Theatre until 18th July.

Alex Hassell, Harriet Walter, Antony Sher and Sam Marks - photo (c) Ellie Kurttz