What do you desire? What do you dream of? How much are you willing to believe?

The rich have left their homes and deserted the city. Three fabulously unsavory characters join forces to pose as modern-day alchemists. Ben Jonson’s classic masterpiece takes a ruthless and hilarious look at the tendency in us all to believe the outlandish and the unlikely in pursuit of our wildest dreams.

Based on the process I developed making Stella, I won the first Hoxton Select commission from Hoxton Hall to create a new version of Ben Jonson’s THE ALCHEMIST, with funding from the Arts Council England.  It is the relationship between young people and the professional creative process, which we initiated through our skype live links and open rehearsals in Stella, that most interested the youth panel of Hoxton Hall.  This group of young people actively participated in our process both online and in person, using the StoryStation to research and gather stories for the production adaptation.  

Through this collaboration, we joined forces to stage a madcap reworking of this classic.  Contemporary stories used were gathered from Hoxton through StoryStation–an interactive digital storytelling installation.

 

Production credits:  Director–Rachel Parish; Assistant Director–Jennifer Tang; Costume Designer–Nadia Malik; Lighting Designer–Tom Wickens; Dramaturg–Bojana Jankovic; Production Manager–Peter Stickney; Cast–Rose-Marie Christian, Jon Foster, Zoé Ford, Elisa Armstrong, Clare Quinn, Thomas Blyth, Freya Anderson, Hugh Darbyshire and Nick Whitley.

Hoxton Hall, London, UK; August 2010