Ben Jonson: The Alchemist (Programme 2017)

Stage Direction: Stephen Jameson

Designer: Colin Mayes

Starring: Ensemble of Mountview Productions

Duration: 2h 20 min incl. intermission

Prices: A

language: english

Admission 45 minutes before the beginning of the performance

For the first time at the Shakespeare Festival, you can experience Ben Jonson's “The Alchemist“ in the original. Jonson, who, together with Shakespeare, was the most significant playwrights of the “Golden Age“, wrote the daring crime caper in 1610. It takes place in London where the wealthy flee from the pest while their domestic servants guard their property. However, Face, the butler, Subtle, the alchemist, and Doll, the prostitute, have other plans. They turn their house into a deceptive cave in which they promise the world to the naïve and superstitious in exchange for cash. The alchemist has the most clever promise up his sleeve: he offers to turn simple metal into gold. This piece is a cheeky satire of everything that was in vogue at the time: quackery, Spiritism, alchemy, astrology and puritanism. The stage direction is in the best of hands: this is Stephen Jameson's fifth piece for Globe Neuss.

German premiere in English

Scene sequence available in German