“A very good Stratford season concludes with a grand production of one of the best plays from the Shakespearean period not to have been written by the house playwright. Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist is, along with the same author’s Volpone, among the classic English comedies of scam.”

“Jonson’s play is unusual among plays of the period for observing Aristotle’s unities of time and place even more strictly than the ancient Greeks. This is the only play of the period where for the first four acts there is a complete identity of the stage and a single room in a house…”

“There is something about playing rascals and scoundrels that brings out the best in talented actors. Jonathan Goad, Brigit Wilson and that comic treasure Stephen Ouimette gleefully make comedic hay as a greasy Face, a voluptuous Dol and a not-so-subtle Subtle.”

“Ouimette and a gleefully greasy Goad make for a fine double act of duplicity in director Antoni Cimolino’s fast-paced, quick-change production; they are actors playing actors who use their skills for evil rather than good…For my money, however, the best performance of the night comes from Best as Surly – making you guffaw, not just grin.”

“Artistic Director, Antoni Cimolino, had the audience in hysterics. The phenomenal cast committed fully to the hijinks, the costuming was spectacular, the stage and set was used very well, and the choice of music used to open each Act allowed for the play to feel fresh and new.”

“Cimolino and his cast work their own alchemy in this uproarious and entertaining production of Jonson’s comedy, transforming the chicanery at the play’s heart into a vastly entertaining tribute to the theatre.”

“Thanks to the virtuoso comedic efforts of Stephen Ouimette, Jonathan Goad, Brigit Wilson and a game-for-anything cast, director Antoni Cimolino leads his team through a romp that is always pungent and mostly hilarious.”

“It is clear that director Antoni Cimolino took great pains to adjust the text where extra elucidation was necessary but it is so subtly done it is nearly seamless…Jonathan Goad is back in the type of role Stratford’s audiences love to see him play, a rogue and scoundrel…”