Volpone (Education Pack)

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Price: $179.95 $179.94   

Product Description

Wienerworld has teamed up with Stage on Screen to release a brand new series of classic plays aimed at the student, teacher, lecturer and theatre lover alike. Each production is highly polished, using professional actors and directors at London's award-winning Greenwich Theatre, which specializes in productions for young people. Filmed in crystal clear High Definition, these DVDs have been designed to deliver the look and feel of a live performance. Billed as a comedy, Volpone also includes elements of tragedy and even animal fable (Volpone is Italian for 'fox'). In essence, it's a dark satire on greed and lust, and remains Jonson's most performed work.The action takes place in seventeenth-century Venice, over the course of one day. The tale twists and turns, as all the characters attempt to deceive each other, until the whole scheme finally collapses, with disastrous consequences for Volpone.

Volpone (Education Pack) Review

Ben Jonson was both a friend of and a rival playwright to Shakespeare. Jonson's plays were much admired in his own time but his penchant for topical satire renders them less accessible than Shakespeare's and something of an acquired taste (despite high praise from T.S. Eliot). VOLPONE is generally considered his masterwork and, as such, it has become a standard anthology piece.
Despite this masterpiece status, this play is seldom performed in this country and, until now, the most readily located video version was in French(!). So fans of Jacobean drama owe Stage on Screen a debt for this live recording of a 2010 stage production at the Greenwich Theatre, London.
Though I had not heard of this theatre or of any of the actors in this production, it is obvious from the opening scene that this is a fully professional production. Clearly, the actors are not only talented and expressive but up to the vocal demands of performing a drama from this period.
In addition, the production team has obviously been at pains to see that the action moves as quickly as we believe it would have on the essentially bare stage of the time. The action takes place on an uncluttered all-black set that changes shape and proportion quickly. The costumes are colorful and suggest the style of the period without being slavish recreations.
Insofar as I can judge the technical aspects of this recording, I found it close to faultless. The photography is sharp, the blocking and camerawork clear, and the sound recording as good as I have ever heard for a production with a live audience. (I found a single brief passage in which I could not make out what the actor was saying).
I really would like to have given this DVD a full 5 stars.
I had only one reservation, but it was a BIG one. I did not find the actor who played VOLPONE interesting either to watch or to listen to. Almost every other actor in this production seemed to me to have more stage presence and greater vocal brilliance. If only the MOSCA (Mark Hatfield) or the VOLTORE (Tim Treloar) of the piece had played the lead instead.
And since I seem to be giving advce to the director (Elizabeth Freestone), I have to add that I don't think there is anything that can be done to make the Sir Politic Would-be subplot funny again. Next time, just cut it.

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