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I can see this being tons of fun to watch and even more fun to act in. The humor—clever, dirty, and slapstick—evokes contemporary improv and sketch comedy. And the satire still bites. Jonson leans into the fair as a topsy-turvy world where the hierarchies of daily life are overturned, skewering pomposity in all its forms. But where Jonson’s verse plays�The Alchemist, Volpone—were fun to read, this long play in prose was interminable. Without the inherent forward momentum of meter and relative economy of verse, I felt bogged-down in the wordplay and had trouble following the action. Which goes on and on. On stage, I suspect, the hours would fly by in rapid-fire repartee, but I found it hard to capture that energy as a reader.

Act 5—in which a dirty-minded puppet-show parody of Hero and Leander descends into mayhem, culminating in a debate between puritan spoilsport Zeal-of-the-Land Busy and a puppet of Dionysius, which the puppet wins by lifting up his clothes and proving that he is neither man nor woman and therefore can’t be accused of amoral cross-dressing—is legitimately hilarious. But even so, my overwhelming feeling on turning the last page was relief.

All in all, a fascinating play with much to recommend it, but as a reading experience it fell flat for me.