The National Theatre's revival of The Alchemist - a truly great English play about
confidence tricksters - is as relevant in today's age of supposedly health-giving bottled waters as it was during the South Sea Bubble. The play is not about alchemy but about criminals who cash in on it by inducing the gullible to part with money.
Full leader: Guardian
Rosie Millard in the New Statesman writes another good review of the Alchemist:
"It's difficult to know who the star of The Alchemist is, but Alex Jennings and Simon Russell Beale, as Subtle and Face, respectively, have huge command of the stage and pass the baton generously between each other. Russell Beale grabs the tricky Jacobean text (there have been only a few minor rewrites) and wrestles it into comprehension. Meanwhile, Jennings dives into a dizzying array of amusing personages: a white-robed mystic, an American feng shui expert, a Scotsman in tweed, each more convincing than the last. As Subtle and Face take more and more money from an ever-growing queue of fools and the action begins to whirl, Jennings and Russell Beale chop and change accent, costume and style without resorting to cliché."
Full review: New Statesman
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