The Alchemist
T1239788270
While the master of the house is out of town to escape the plague, his house-keeper sets up with 'a cheater and his punk' as the city's premiere conman. A full range of alternative services is offered to the citizens who beat a furtive path to their door - anything from the secret of eternal youth to that recipe of recipes, which will turn a tin can into bankable gold. Masters of the ludicrous disguise, in one amazing day they aim to prove 'who shall shark the best.' Their frantic fraudulence reaches boiling point when the gang receives some alarming news. Jonson's satire mercilessly burns away the dross, exposing a society whose obsessions make it vulnerable to any well worked scam - as long as it promises the instant jackpot in business, gambling, quarrelling or sexual conquest.
Archive :: production:T1239788270, play:S2247, venue:V1170
A Jacobean Classic Updated
Highgate, London - August 2011. As riots continue to spread across the capital, rich homeowner Lovewit decides to escape abroad on holiday, leaving his nephew Jeremy to house-sit. With the city in chaos, Jeremy spies an opportunity to make some money, and so invites round two of his associates: twitchy, chemically-talented Subtle, and Dol Common, a girl who can't say ?no'. In one manic day the trio attempt to pull off a series of intricate scams targeting a variety of marks - including a Tory Cabinet minister, two members of a religious sect and a young American heiress - but as the situation becomes increasingly complicated, they realise they may have bitten off more than they can chew...
