The Coffee House

Synopsis

In the coffee-house in Venice opposite the gambling den the strangest specimens of humanity gather. The Count who may not be a Count, the waiter who made a mint in the Gold Rush, the cousin from Turin who is really a woman, and the wife who would sell herself to pay her husband's debts. Obsessed with money and sex they all know the price of everything, but do they know the value of anything? And just what is the truth about the Count and his Arab Stallion...?

Our Review:

28 July 2003

Carlo Goldoni, the 18th-century playwright who originated the play upon which this adaptation is based, revolutionised Italian theatre. He abandoned commedia dell'arte and created comedies full of characters, characterisation and social comment, comparable to Molière. What he would have made of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's confused 1969 adaptation (as newly translated here by Jeremy Sams), I cannot imagine.

Social satire, witty barbs aimed at the bourgeoisie and shysters getting their just desserts; all of this is replaced by an ugly undertone of cruelty, melodrama and infrequent laughter, dressed up in an eccentric surrealism reminiscent of Jean Genet. Unlike with Genet, however, by the end of this depressing evening, the audience has ceased to have any interest in the outcome of the convoluted relationships played out on stage.

Although Goldoni's farce was originally set in Venice, Fassbinder's version could easily be set anywhere else, or indeed nowhere at all. Goldon...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (193.118.203.3) - 23 July 2003:

What was this all about? No characterisation, no laughs, no anything. The set is stylish but not particularly Venetian. I love Goldoni but dont know this one..what have Fassbinder and others done to it...it must have stsrted out better than this....

Read more and add your own review