Word: alchemists
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THERE ARE NO mistakes in this Alchemist no gimmicks or compromises or implicit apologies for one of the classic warhorses of English comedy. It won't have you rolling in the aisles, though it probably wasn't Jonson's intention to get that sort of response--he wanted to instruct as well as amuse. He placed himself squarely in the center of his society, defending true values against all comers front all directions--Puritan and libertine, meek fool and overbearing lout. He played the down-to-earth Aristotle to Shakespeare's Plato, attacking anyone who deviated from his golden mean...
...Alchemist is among Ben Jonson's best plays, and perhaps the most frequently produced. The play moves fast and is--with no exaggeration--as funny as over. A healthy kind of comedy and one that will always come in handy for your English generals or even, perhaps, LSATs. Directed by Mark Moece, who took English 125 last year and so probably Sunday and next weekend at 8 p.m. on the Loeb Mainstage...
Congreve was the alchemist of Restoration comedy, refining grossness into gaiety. He gave bawdry rare class. His rakish characters pursue their seductions, cuckoldries and feverish fornications with the aristocratic aplomb of English gentlemen on a fox hunt. Their talk is nakedly lubricious, yet it shimmers with wit. The absolute lack of any sense of sin gives even the most scandalous scenes in Congreve's plays a pagan air of preadamite innocence...
...over the doorway. A few leftover baked goods lay on glass counter tops, and the huge photo portrait of Baby Watson, the mystical money-maker, still stared out over the deserted stall, a strange combination of Guru Maharaji and the Gerber Baby Food cherub, the latest formula for the alchemist's gold of advertising...
Wide World Special. Walter Cronkite, interviewed by Dick Cavett, will speak on his news preparation, Watergate, and possible government attempts to suppress the media. Cronkite and Cavett should make a rare duo: the straight-forward user and the witty abuser of language, the scientist and the alchemist of current events on television. Ch. 5, 12:30 a.m. 1 1/2 hours...