Giles Woodforde drops in on Oxford University Dramatic Society’s rehearsals

‘Liar! Cutpurse!” This is not the kind of language you expect to hear in an Oxford University building, but the words echo round the Michael Pilch studio in Jowett Walk as three conmen confront each other. “You lie, you impudent dog, be gone!” snarls one of them at another, his lips curling.

OUDS, as the Oxford University Dramatic Society is universally known, is rehearsing Ben Jonson’s comic masterpiece The Alchemist, which it is taking to the Edinburgh Fringe after a brief opening run in Oxford — it’s a particularly appropriate export, for the play premiered in Oxford in 1610.

As the rehearsal continues, two actors get their first taste of stage nudity. Looking understandably bashful, they bare their bottoms at their enemies — the custom of mooning was already alive and kicking in Jonson’s day. It seems an appropriate moment to ask director Barney Iley what period he has selected for Jonson’s timeless satire on human greed and vanity.

“You can base it anywhere from 1610 onwards.

“We did go down the route of featuring con artists in modern times: ‘We can get rich quick, we offer cash for gold’, that type of thing. It would be very easy to ride on the back of successes like The Wolf of Wall Street.

“But we ended up moving back from a contemporary setting, and decided that we wanted to ground it in a slightly earlier period. So we’re setting the play in 1970s London — in a slightly Dickens-ian, dirty back alley somewhere; it’s the back room of a club, with shady dealings, you don’t know what’s going on, or where the money is coming from.

“That provides a nice backdrop for the whole thing, there’ll be lots of sheepskin coats and disco music.”

Actors Zoe Bullock, Alice Porter, Connie Greenfield, and Hannah Bristow are all playing two roles each. “We’re splitting the roles, so we do alternate nights,” Zoe explains. “I’m playing Mammon and also Surly, with Connie. So we get to see what the other person does with the role, and learn from that.”

Slightly nervous gales of laughter greet my suggestion that this way of working involves everyone in learning twice the number of lines.

“That has been a tricky one!” Zoe says. “But the lines will be learnt. On the other hand, it has meant twice the amount of fun in the rehearsal room: as Surly you get to dress up as a Spanish Count, and you do get the chance to play some maracas too. Also, there’s much cross-dressing — I’m playing not one but two men.”

“Alice and I are also in a pair,” Hannah adds. “We play Pliant and Kastril, who are brother and sister. So one night you’re a dumb girl, the next night you’re a boy trying to punch people. So it should be interesting. Also, pairing up is a great way to keep the production fresh — we’re playing in Edinburgh for a whole month.”

The Fringe has a reputation for both making and breaking theatrical reputations. But one thing’s for certain . . . staging a show there is no rest cure.

Hannah has been before.

“We did a month last year as well. It’s hard work: you have to get up at 8am every day, and flier really hard [marketing speak for making sure that every passer-by takes a handbill poster]. You’ve got to really sell the show, and that’s quite stressful. But it’s also exciting because you get to know people playing in other shows along the Mile. Edinburgh is a combination of awesome and terrible!”

Meanwhile. the production is running at Freud’s in Walton Street. With its booming acoustic, this is not an ideal venue for a comedy that requires clear, quick-fire delivery of dialogue and jokes. But the 10-strong ensemble cast work their socks off, and a splendidly manic level of farce is achieved by the end, as events hilariously spiral out of control in a house of ill repute, where every conceivable money-grabbing scam is on offer to gullible punters.

The Alchemist
Freud’s Bar, Walton Street
Tonight only
www.oxfordalchemist.co.uk