The Alchemist @ Glasgow’s Tron

The Alchemist – an early 17th century satire by Ben Jonson – has been adapted by Gary McNair and directed by Andy Arnold at the Tron. The play is about two con artists who cheat various people out of their money by promising them everything from love to riches. It’s an absurd farce written in rhyme, and stars a large cast of silly characters.

The set is the inside of a house – the base of operations for the con artists. It is lurid, beautiful and designed for farce, with doors leading to larders, gardens, fake labs, bedrooms, and so on, and a revolving door to hide people behind. The costumes are fitting for the outlandish characters who land in the house to be conned – such as a schoolboy who wants to learn how to swear, a businessman who needs advice, a couple of priests, a fake Spaniard, among others. The six actors (who played all the roles) were energetic and delivered the play at high speed. Sometimes this meant that the diction wasn’t great at the start, and funny lines were skated over. McNair’s McGonagall’s Chronicles was also written in rhyme but perhaps because McNair wasn’t bound by the perimeters of an original piece of work, or perhaps because McNair himself played the title role in that play, he knew which lines to lay emphasis on for maximum effect.

The humour in The Alchemist is simple and crude. The funniest two parts – for me – were the self-flogging priest and the bearded lady in the red dress who was the siren of the show. Robert Jack, who played her, delivered his lines in a soft Welsh accent which allowed the humour to take centre stage. Farce is always performed in a heightened manner to complement the silliness of what’s going on, but it can mean that jokes are sometimes accompanied with gestures which telegraph their delivery. That said, the performances were excellent. The Alchemist must be a challenging piece to stage and adapt, and this colourful and playful show is a good achievement.