Volpone our hero is a rich, ageing porn star, with no heir to inherit his fortune. And so he is mercilessly pursued and bribed by three hopefuls, spurred on by Volpone's mischievous servant Mosca. The plot is complicated, but only because its that sort of play - twists, turns, disguises, scheming and endless volte-face. The delivery is clear in the way that speaks volumes about how well the actors know their parts.
The novelty setting seems to ebb and flow, in that at times it makes a huge difference to proceedings, and at others it fades away, leaving just the drama of the situation. So the intensely uncomfortable domestic scenes between Corvino (Will Stanford) and his wife Celia (Sophie Ablett) was so powerful because of the extremely good acting, neither helped nor hindered by Stanford's sexy builder outfit and Movember moustache. The hardest scene to watch - a seduction going badly wrong - was heightened by the soft jazz; the setting added much to the comedy (the sexy doorbell, for instance); and it placed Volpone (Ben Cohen) as the centre of all proceedings, sprawling as he was in his love-nest/deathbed, the cause of all the trouble even when he said nothing. What the setting didn't do in any way was to detract from the play. In short, Jonson lovers should be perfectly happy at this interpretation.The acting was excellent. Mosca (Beatrice Xu) was onstage constantly, keeping all the gold plates up in the air. Sophie Ablett managed to remain both sympathetic and interesting in a part that could have been monotonous, having to protest piously against her treatment nearly all the way through. The comedy characters were funny, the mean credibly mean, and Tim Gibson made a remarkably plausible old man. Miles Lawrence turned Bonario from a boring straightman into an appealingly preppy geek.
Normally plays with tight time and budget constraints can manage at most two out of the marketing, the set and the acting. Here, nothing was skimped. There was even a choreographed curtain call and live music specially composed by Nathan Klein. The set is gorgeous - glitz, glamour and decadence in the bar and bed on one side; hardnosed business at the desk on the other. There were no set changes and few props, avoiding faff and leaving the play the star.I'm always surprised how ready people are to denigrate student theatre. Clearly it can't all be as good as this, but at its best it's a labour of love: involving intelligent people, putting on a play they love, with a good team, and no backers. Where else can you find that readiness to experiment? Where else would you find Volporne XXX? For this week, you can find it at the O'Reilly Theatre, Keble. I recommend you see it while you can.