REVIEW: Dear Brutus, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭✭
With its mixture of magic and comedy, this is an assured revival that offers some entertaining escapism which, although set at midsummer, is a perfect antidote to midwinter.
With its mixture of magic and comedy, this is an assured revival that offers some entertaining escapism which, although set at midsummer, is a perfect antidote to midwinter.
Henry Goodman is assured and magnetic as the titular Volpone. He gives a larger than life performance which suits – entirely – Johnson’s larger than life character. In the extreme, absurd comedy, Goodman is very good indeed. His fake almost-dead patient is a riot, not the least because when Goodman has his wig and hospital gear in full flight, he bears an uncanny resemblance to Worzel Gummidge as played by Jimmy Savile. There is something splendidly repulsive yet unsettlingly endearing about him in this mode.