Can Ben Jonson's Volpone out-fox one and all at York's Shakespeare festival?

From Monday, Re:Verse Theatre will make a case for Ben Jonson being "better than Shakespeare" when presenting Volpone, a boisterous satire in verse by the Bard's friend and rival, at the Rowntree Park amphitheatre.

The rarely produced Volpone will be staged outdoors by another Ben, American theatre maker and academic Ben Prusiner, who now lives in York, where he directed the past two York Shakespeare Project productions, King Lear last autumn and Henry VIII this spring.

Why present Volpone, Ben? "When I started my company, Re:Verse Theatre, originally in New York, it was to focus on social issues in classical texts that have relevance today, and Volpone is a play about con artists, which is very topical," he says.

"What makes us susceptible to being fooled? Who can we trust? Who can't we trust? These feel like core issues for today, especially with Donald Trump's election victory; the fake news fiascos; and talking to Britons about their conflicting feelings over Brexit, asking just who can you trust?"

Volpone or Out-Foxed, to give Prusiner's show its full title, is both profound and entertaining, he suggests. "That's very important because I'm not interested in doing a preachy piece of propaganda at all, but hopefully this play will make people think about these issues and what makes us susceptible to being scammers. We're all prone to greed, which is the other big topic here."

Singer Fizz Margereson (Nano) and accordion player William Barnardo (Androgyno) on stage at the Rowntree Park amphitheatre

Prusiner has selected the Rowntree Park amphitheatre as the "perfect massive performance space" for Jonson's animal fable for grown-ups, filled with masked con artists on the prowl, wherein verse and street comedy will collide in a Venetian carnival.

"The characters are larger than life, and we're using big masks and wild costumes, so the whole thing will be outlandish and over the top, but like all satires, grounded in truth," he says.

"We're building a giant two-headed puppet Judge because the play really goes after the justice system in a delightfully humorous way that we want to emphasise.

"The three musicians in our cast who play Volpone's servants – accordion player William Barnardo's Androgyno, fiddler James Witchwood's Castrano and percussionist and singer Fizz Margereson's Nano – will also play the Judge, with William operating the hands and the other two speaking the Judge's lines as he's two-headed."

Prusiner is not only directing but also he is the lead designer, working with costume designer Laura Elizabeth Rice on the construction of the masks. "They're made with wire, papier mache and plastic, and all are made a little differently, such as Volpone's mask having fur," he says. "The Judge's two heads will each be 4ft wide, sort of like parade puppets in their design, inspired by political effigies."

Ben Prusiner's cast gathers for the first rehearsal of Re:Verse Theatre's Volpone

Prusiner, who first worked on a production of Volpone in New York, staged by Red Bull Theater in 2012, has introduced more female roles in his York staging. "Hopefully it will feel more universal, now that it's not just men who are being fooled," he reasons.

Audiences should expect a fast-moving Volpone. "I've cut a lot of text; it's now a very streamlined version, 90 minutes, no interval," says Prusiner. "The feedback I've got back from the actors is it's a lot easier to understand than Shakespeare, and hopefully that will transfer to the audience.

"Jonson writes in a muscular way with a lot of energy, and whereas Shakespeare writes how we think, Jonson writes with more intensity, so everything is more compressed, which drives the language forward, and the humour sparkles too because it's faster and the running time is shorter."

Yes, but is Johnson better than Shakespeare? You decide.

Re:Verse Theatre presents Volpone or Outfoxed, Rowntree Park, Terry Avenue, York, May 15 to 17, 7pm; May 20 and 21, 3pm and 7pm, as part of the York International Shakespeare Festival.

Audience members are invited to bring a blanket, chair or even a picnic. Tickets are free, although a suggested donation of £10 can be given at the door and reservations can be made at volpone-or-out-foxed.eventbrite.co.uk.

A street show of a scene from Volpone featuring Paul French's Volpone and Jim Johnson's Corvino, the musicians Nano and Androgyno, outrageous language and slapstick, will be staged on a loop from 12 noon to 1pm from May 15 to 19.