Links
about
Volpone is a Venetian merchant whose name, translated from Italian, means "cunning fox." He pretends to be on his deathbed to fool the swindlers who are trying to steal his inheritance. Volpone's cunning servant spreads a rumor that only the bed of a young beauty can cure his exhausted master. Greedy but naive Corvino agrees to "lend" his young wife, having received assurances that in return he will become the sole heir to the estate...
Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary, is looking back at the history of theatre to take a fresh look at legendary theatre productions. One such is the 1941 interpretation by young director Juozas Miltinis of the classic comedy "Volpone" by Shakespeare's contemporary Ben Jonson. "Volpone" is Jonson's most famous play, bitingly mocking such human vices as greed, selfishness and slavery to passions. The play's popularity is determined by comic situations and characters, in which the masks of Italian improvisational comedy, commedia dell'arte, are clearly recognizable. Interestingly, Juozas Miltinis himself played in the play at that time.
The play was brought to new life at the Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre by director Aidas Giniotis – the greatest commedia dell'arte expert and master of comic genres in Lithuania. Perhaps it will turn out that human vices and weaknesses, despite technological and other progress, remain the same?
The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
