Review: Ben Jonson's Volpone, RSC at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
The current RSC production of Ben Jonson’s Volpone at the Swan Theatre must
rank as one of their slickest, funniest and most glorious productions yet. It
has certainly been my highlight of the year.
First, the plot. The eponymous anti-hero, Volpone (The Fox), has a lot in
common with Marlowe’s Jew of Malta. Both are charismatic and seemingly amoral
individuals with a covetous love of wealth. But both have passions which are
ultimately more powerful than their greed. Where Barabas had a pride which when
offended drove him to the most horrible acts of revenge, Volpone’s early and
enduring flaw is a need to use the greed of other wealthy men to con them out
of their possessions. As the victims of his plots are themselves so
unappealing, the audience’s sympathies cannot help but side with the flashy and
witty Volpone. The plot owes much to popular stories about wily foxes which lay
down in fields pretending to be dead. When a bird comes to feast on the corpse,
the fox springs into action and banquets on the carrion bird instead. In Volpone, the wealthy fox pretends to be
All is going well and Volpone decides to take his plan to the next level:
his parasite Mosca encourages Corbaccio with a scheme to guarantee a place in
Volpone’s will. If Corbaccio alters his will to leave his estate to Volpone, despite
having a son of his own, then the dying Volpone will surely make Corbaccio his
heir out of gratitude. The flaw in Corbaccio’s thinking is that Volpone is
actually in the prime of life and it is Corbaccio who is the doddering old
codger. The plan is working well until Mosca lets slip to Volpone that the young wife
of Corvino is exceedingly beautiful. After going out in disguise and seeing her
for himself, Volpone develops a passion of another sort. He and Mosca fashion another
scheme so that Volpone can have his way with Celia (Rhiannon Handy). Mosca lets
Corvino know that Volpone’s doctors have suggested that sleeping with a young
maiden would aid his recovery and that by lending Volpone his wife, Corvino will guarantee himself a
place in Volpone’s will. Since Volpone is apparently a drooling, near-comatose
invalid, what could be the harm? Unfortunately for Volpone, his two clever
schemes become tangled and things begin to go awry…
The stage setting is a real treat. Volpone’s house is like a modern art
gallery, all shiny whiteness with his wealth displayed in stylish glass cases.
Volpone has a remote control on which he can turn on his CCTV when guests
arrive at his door, as well as a large digital stock market ticker surmounting
the set. The whole effect is that of a rich and discerning connoisseur. Unlike
recent RSC productions, in which the costumes have been somewhat disappointing,
in this case the stylish suits of the greedy and the outlandish attire of
Volpone’s troupe of freaks are a perfect accompaniment to the elegant set and
lively story. Volpone’s regular changes of appearance from powerful grandee to dribbling
wreck are impressive, if somewhat revolting up close (think streams of bilious
snot hanging off an old man’s chin).
Volpone’s four greedy victims are well-cast. Miles Richardson as Voltore makes
an excellent posh but amoral lawyer, Matthew Kelly as Corvino is again
excellent (following his turn as a lusty friar in the Jew of Malta) as a buffoonish no-nonsense northern businessman, Geoffrey
Freshwater as Corbaccio is likewise again excellent (following his turn as
Kelly’s equally slimy and hypocritical brother friar in the Jew of Malta) and Annette McLaughlin as Lady
Politic Would-Be plays an excellent tartish gold-digger from a slightly lower
societal echelon (Eastenders-esque). Orion
Lee’s Mosca is a model of understated, servile cunning, manipulating his social
superiors with élan. Volpone’s also gets his kicks from the entertainment
provided by
More than anything, this play gives licence to its leading actor to
showcase his talents – and Henry Goodman is clearly very, very talented. The
shifts from ailing invalid to wily Machiavel are dazzling enough as displays of
raw panache, but then he takes the RSC to another place entirely in the balcony
scene. Disguised as a charismatic street vendor, adopting a thick Italian
accent and hawking his ‘miracle’ juice (‘To buy or not to buy, that is the
question…’), Volpone becomes a different kind of conman entirely, and the
results are genuinely hilarious. There was even a touch of improvisation when
Volpone interacted with an audience member and received an unexpected answer.
In the attempted seduction scene, Volpone shifts gear again and becomes an
energetic, if unsuccessful, singing Lothario. Again, credit should be given for
the set design: the neon lights, ‘sexy’ music and the bed rising through the
floor are like something from a teenage boy’s fantasy circa. 1975. Cheesy, but a
perfect match for Volpone’s animated self-confidence. Eventually, Volpone’s
tragic flaws are his need to screw over the other characters and his
overweening self-confidence. Like the Jew
of Malta’s Barabas, Volpone cannot quit while he’s ahead and he tries one
more jape out of ‘sheer wantonness’. But Goodman makes what is really an unlikely
act of hubris look entirely natural.
This production was marketed as an analogy for the greed and corruption
that is so often blamed for the 2008 financial crisis. This connection is
strained, partly because Volpone is so clearly more interested in the human
aspects of wealth acquisition (getting one over on his rivals) rather than any
City slicker hunger for big bonuses. But partly it just wouldn’t work because
the play is not a simplistic morality tale about the dangers of corporate
greed. Luckily, the marketing doesn’t match the reality and there is no
sustained attempt to stress the topicality of Volpone vis-à-vis today’s greedy
bankers. Besides the stock market tracker in his living room, Volpone’s only
business dealings are the con tricks he inflicts on his friends. Volpone might
be a bit of a Bernie Madoff, but Madoff was really a sideshow to the main
event. The other small flaw in the production is there in the original. There
is a parallel plot involving Sir Politick Would-be which has almost nothing to
do with the main story concerning Volpone and it looks like an entirely
superfluous effort to add some buffoonish humour to a play that really doesn’t
need it.
This is a high-spirited play, joyful and boisterous, but it is also
refined. The balance that has been struck between these two aspects should
probably not be a surprise from a director as renowned as Trevor Nunn and an
actor as versatile as Henry Goodman. Go and watch it.
