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2001kaos

The company's 'extraordinary and energetic assault on Volponewas Brechtian cabaret on speed, with loud hailers barking lines at the audience, bursts of expressionistic acting [...] certainly grotesque bird movements and noises were very much to the fore, while the brilliant chaos of the trial scene featured most of the (very small)cast wandering around in judges' wigs going "baa baa baa" like a flock of intellectually challenged sheep.

The period setting was 1920s-1930s with Bonario as a version of Bertie Wooster, leaping to celia's rescue rather goofily after the formidable Celia had already kneed Volpone in the testicles several times and was in fact standing triumphantly over Volpone in no danger of rape at all. Another interesting spin on gender politics resulted in a Lady Pol who became an almost tragic figure, and who emerged from the action very mangled, both physically and psychologically.

The set [...] was so excitingly suggestive but completely pragmatic for a touring company who were changing venues on a daily basis. A small circular rail high up the middle of the space carried red curtains which could be opened so that they didn't interfere with the action but which when closed provided a versatile hiding place for eavesdroppers and voyeurs. Meanwhile ugly ladders climbing up the outside rails allowed characters to clamber up, perch like birds and peer down to watch the action below menacingly and ridiculously at the same time.'

Elizabeth Schafer, RORD 41 (2002), 78-9