Volpone: Insane and Mostly Hilarious
The Off Center,
through May 12
Running Time: 2 hrs, 50 min
At some point, it might be worth investigating just how many local theatre companies spring forth as offshoots of UT Austin’s Shakespeare at Winedale program. Apparently, something about spending summers in the middle of nowhere producing and playing in Elizabethan drama affects the participants to such an extent that they almost inevitably reconvene in Austin and make theatre together. Not every company lasts as long as Esther’s Follies or the Rude Mechanicals, to name two, but each one seems to possess a certain energy in the way it presents its work, be it boffo comedy, punk rock redux, or the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
So welcome the Bedlam Faction, replete with veterans of Winedale, and its inaugural effort, Ben Jonson’s Volpone, a tale of greed, conniving, status, and, ultimately, morality. Bedlam is a fitting name for the company, not because its work is insane and out of control, but because its work is insane and mostly hilarious: veering toward chaos but really quite smart, energetic, and creative. This first production incorporates live music, a very healthy dose of self-deprecation (particularly with regard to costuming), and an endless stream of smart choices that take Jonson’s wordy and complicated play and make it understandable and fun.
Volpone (“The Fox”), a filthy rich and canny Venetian, feigns his impending death in order to gull several other rich locals into bartering for a place in his will. The desire to be named sole heir leads to a golden courtship of Volpone, with each greedy suitor foisting even more gold onto the con man to gain a perceived advantage. But Volpone is only using them to increase his fortune and have a good laugh while he’s at it. Sidekick Mosca, a parasite, helps arrange the con. It goes off with plenty of hitches, and the comedy lies not only in Jonson’s exploration of each man’s basest tendency but in the complicated plot lines that set up scene after scene of misconception, trickery, and buffoonery.
The company works as an ensemble with no named director or designer, so all credit to the performers and musicians who wrought this effort. Among the highlights: the band (How can an entertaining evening not be in the cards when the audience enters the theatre to an acoustic rendition of Spinal Tap’s “Give Me Some Money”?); actors Andrew Boyd (Volpone), Robert Deike (Mosca), and Anne Earvolino (Madame Would-Be) — though in all fairness the whole cast revels in the over-the-top characterizations while milking the language for all its entendres and comic machinations; and that energized company spirit. It’s Jonson, so it’s long: Every once in a while, a scene just keeps going and going … Still, or rather, never still, the performers’ clear enjoyment — with the audience as something of an equal partner in laughs — keeps things moving and makes this such a good night out.
This article appears in May 4 • 2001.