The Alchemist Exposed follows the company and creative team of Nicholas Hytner's new NT production as they strip back the years to reveal the dark arts of Ben Jonson's play 'The Alchemist'. As the actors and directors go back in time to unearth the play's characters, they discover that 1610 looks more and more like the present day. What are the details that conjure up this dizzying world of lethal con artists and money-minded Puritans, where the threat of plague is balanced by the prospect of limitless wealth? And when did any of them last check their own wallets?

Robert Butler was theatre critic at the Independent on Sunday from 1995-2000. He is the author of three books in the 'National Theatre at Work' series, of which 'The Art of Darkness' is published by Oberon.