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STAGE

Black's Burlesque Owes To Brothers' 'Duck Soup'

BY PATRICIA PRINZ

Monday night The Virginia
Players opened their 1972-73
season with a production of
George Black's Volpone,
additional dialogue by Ben
Jonson. Those theatergoers
who expect to see a traditional
presentation of the Elizabethan
classic are in for a shock.
Director Black has concocted
an anti-traditional production
of Jonson's anti-Establishment
satire, and while the result may
owe more to the Marx
Brothers' Duck Soup than to
Jonson, it makes for an evening
of exciting and interesting
theater.

Too often in the past,
Jonson's classic has been
presented as a tragi-comedy.
Unlike Every Man In His
Humor and The Alchemist,
where it is the follies of man
that Jonson attacks, Volpone
deals with the vices of lust and
greed. Actual crimes are
committed and two innocent
people are threatened with
destruction – strange subject
matter for a comedy.

Director Black has chosen to
heavily emphasize the comic
aspects of the play and, as a
result, the serious concerns of
Jonson's work tend to be lost
in the shuffle. Jonson believed
strongly in the didactic
purpose of art, a belief he
stressed in his Dedicatory
Epistle to Volpone. In his
revivication of the comedy in
Volpone, Director Black has
undercut the didactic element.

The burlesque quality of the
opening scenes is also
unfortunately transferred to
morally serious scenes like the
attempted rape of Celia. One
often seems to be in the middle
of a Perils of Pauline movie and
the morally loathsome acts of
Volpone and others toward the
innocents are more analogous
to Simon Legree and Little Eva
than to anything else. There
was actually some laughter
from the audience when Celia's

chastity is threatened by
Volpone, a laughter which is
certainly warranted by Mr.
Black's conception of the play,
but which one cannot but feel
would be abhorred by Jonson.

Perhaps any director of
Volpone is necessarily forced
to weigh the serious with the
comic and make an aesthetic
decision. Mr. Black obviously
elected to go all the way
comedy.

But enough discussion about
artistic concept. The merits of
Mr. Black's production at least
balance any objections one
may have about the certain
lack of fidelity to Jonson's
purposes. Mr. Black has
directed with a firm and sure
hand, never permitting mere
frenetic stage activity to
substitute for pace. He moves
his actors well, utilizing the
small stage of Minor Hall to
maximum advantage.

Certainly part of the praise
for this must go to David Weiss
and his splendid set design. All
too frequently in the past
Virginia Players' productions
have been hampered by
cluttered and unattractive sets.
Mr. Weiss' set is spare and
eminently functional, utilizing
a number of portable places
that can be immediately
removed when no longer
needed. Especially noteworthy
is the huge box designed to
hold the three venal judges,
who sit as impervious to true
innocence and guilt as the
proverbial monkeys.

Lois Garren's costumes are,
as usual, very fine. The ragtag
quality of the costumes is
splendidly suited to the motley
collection of humanity which
inhabit Jonson's play.

Finally, more than a few
words must be said about the
actors in this production. This
has to be one of the strongest
casts assembled on the Minor
Hall stage. It is a rare time,
particularly with a cast this
size, when one is hard put to
find a really weak
characterization. Perhaps the
only real disappointment of
the evening, and this only
occasionally, is Edward Steele's
Volpone.

Mr. Steele sometimes seems
to lack the energy and vitality
in his portrayal that is so
apparent in the other
characters. Volpone's love of
power and himself must be
projected if the character is to
hold his own in the play. Mr.
Steele occasionally seems to be
unsure of his character,
particularly in the earlier
scenes. It is interesting to note
that he is at his most effective
in scenes where he is disguised
as someone else. It may be
facetious to suggest, but
perhaps an actor is indeed
aided immeasurably by a
costume. Mr. Steele certainly
seems to be.

James Jontz is consistently
excellent as Volpone's shrewd
parasite, Mosca. Mosca is the
longest role, and probably the
most physically demanding, in
the play. Mr. Jontz, the actor,
plays Mosca, the consummate
actor, with great finesse and
control

David Cupp, Mark Hattan
and Bill Castro as the birds of
prey, Voltore, Corbaccio and
Corvino, are never
disappointing. All three are
locked firmly into their
caricatures, from the moment
they hop, literally, onto the
stage to the time they are
hooded and dragged away to
their poetic justice. Mr. Hattan,
in particular, deserves special
mention. Encumbered
throughout the play with a
huge plastic nose and
spectacles, Mr. Hattan has to
rely, more than the others, on
voice and movement to project
his character, and he never
falters. He is, simply, a joy to
watch.

As the two innocents,
Bonnario and Celia, David
Dashiell and Diana Durham are
more than adequate. Bonnario
and Celia, colorless as only
virtuous Elizabethan characters
can often be, are thankless
roles for actors, but Mr.
Dashiell and Ms. Durham at
least avoid being a
confectioner's delight.

One of the only strong
reservations that I have about
this production is the opening
sequence of the play. Taking
his cue from the play itself,
where the notion of acting
roles is stressed repeatedly, Mr.
Black has elected to begin the
play by having the real actors
dress and prepare for their
parts on stage. The idea is
excellent in theory, less
successful in execution. The
sequence is much too long and
terribly awkward in its
staginess. It is certainly not on
a level with the rest of the
production.

In short, Ben, it may not be
completely your play, but it
sure is first-rate theater.