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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 specialises 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, to be watched and enjoyed again and again. Theatre on DVD - the new way to enjoy stage plays and bring set texts to life! This 3 disc Education & Library Pack edition comprises 3 separate elements: // The main DVD of the play with optional subtitles, plus scene selection for easy replaying of key scenes // An extras DVD including interviews with the director, production designer, costume designer and key actors // Mastershot DVD -- this is the complete play filmed from the point of view of a single camera mastershot. It allows the viewer to see all the lighting and scene changes, as well as all entrances and exits of the actors *** Volpone has long been a popular choice as a set text for students. Written by Ben Jonson, it was first produced in 1606. Billed as a comedy, it 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 chief characters are Volpone, a rich libertine and conman, and Mosca, his self-seeking servant. They cause chaos with an audacious fraud designed to part the city s wealthiest from their fortunes. 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.
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'The two leads have the makings of a delicious double act, Bremmer snuffling with mirth into his ginger furs as Hadfield makes boobies of the avaricious hypocrites with easy wit.' --The Times
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Brianig
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A rare treat to see this play at all and unique on DVD I imagine. The production is of the highest quality and watching this DVD is as close as you can get to a night at the theatre without actually leaving home. This, along with the other three titles, is a first class production. I'm kicking myself for having missed these altogether in the theatre and I'm now keeping a close eye on Greenwich for the follow-ups. I really enjoyed Mark Hadfield as a suitably oily, Dickensian, Mosca but without question the star turn here is Brigid Zengeni as Lady Would-Be. She's great in the other titles too, but this is a bit special. Congratulations to Greenwich Theatre, Stage on Screen and all involved. My own personal list of requests for a second series is growing: The Alchemist, The Maid's Tragedy, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, The Way of the World perhaps. I hope the first four are successful enough to lead on to that.
The Duchess of Malfi [DVD] Doctor Faustus [DVD] School for Scandal [DVD]
The Duchess of Malfi [DVD] Doctor Faustus [DVD] School for Scandal [DVD]
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Livelier, clearer, naughtier than I expected or recalled; a great production of Volpone with excellent acting and a staging which does not stand in the way of the text's own intensity. So good!
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By Edelbee
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This may well be one of the finest of Ben Jonson's plays but this production was grotesque.
I bought the play because I was hungry to actually see, as opposed to reading, this play. Jonson does not, alas, get the stage time that he deserves and I hoped to see a decent rendering of Volpone.
I was shocked and horrified. The characters are gaudilly dressed [in crazed looking modern clothing] and made up to look like nothing so much as a bonkers set of escapees from some circus show or other.
The lines are delivered in a convoluted strangled fashion with dissonant "music" half drowning out what the actors are trying to say.
I could not follow the plot due to these distractions and found the play impossible to enjoy.
I strugggled on to half way through and was then forced to give up.
This is not Jonson. It is not Jacobean theatre.
It is a daft modern take on the play. The sort of production that, I feel, Samuel Beckett would have put on if he had a very off day. Beckett is at least watchable. This production is not.
I shall stay well clear of the other productions in this range [ Dr Faustus and so on - I dread to think what this lot have made of them]
All in all a horrible disappointment.
I bought the play because I was hungry to actually see, as opposed to reading, this play. Jonson does not, alas, get the stage time that he deserves and I hoped to see a decent rendering of Volpone.
I was shocked and horrified. The characters are gaudilly dressed [in crazed looking modern clothing] and made up to look like nothing so much as a bonkers set of escapees from some circus show or other.
The lines are delivered in a convoluted strangled fashion with dissonant "music" half drowning out what the actors are trying to say.
I could not follow the plot due to these distractions and found the play impossible to enjoy.
I strugggled on to half way through and was then forced to give up.
This is not Jonson. It is not Jacobean theatre.
It is a daft modern take on the play. The sort of production that, I feel, Samuel Beckett would have put on if he had a very off day. Beckett is at least watchable. This production is not.
I shall stay well clear of the other productions in this range [ Dr Faustus and so on - I dread to think what this lot have made of them]
All in all a horrible disappointment.
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