Everyone knows the story of Dr Faustus. How he sells his soul to the devil in exchange for earthly, mortal pleasures but regrets it. Christopher Marlowe (who I prefer to Shakespeare) wrote his version sometime before 1594. I saw an updated version of Marlowe’s play tonight at the Electric Theatre in Guildford and it was fabulous.
Director John Wright has taken the Elizabethan text and moulded it to make sense to a modern audience. He has dragged the comedy, kicking and screaming from within Marlowe’s text and presented it, all guns blazing, in a tour de force of interpretation. This is how Shakespeare should be performed! With imagination in translation, so everyone can find it accessible instead of the art snobs who seem to think purity is so important.
The cast of three were wonderful. They played off each other superbly, with a confidence borne of utter belief in each word. Weaving magic tricks, songs and a ventriloquist’s dummy through it as seamlessly as if it was originally written that way.
Nicholas Collett as Faustus, Anthony Gleave as Mephistopholis and Shelley Atkinson as Lucifer all held the audience firmly in their hands. An audience, incidentally, mostly made up of high school kids obviously studying the original play. They were all buzzing with excitement in the foyer afterwards, discussing the central themes and performances like I’ve never seen at a Shakespeare performance. It was wonderful to hear.
However, for me, the best thing was that Dawn came with me and enjoyed it as much as I did. I was really worried she’d be incredibly bored but, no, she loved it too. We talked about it in the car afterwards, discussing the whats, whys and whos of the production.
A great night out, thoroughly enjoyed.
Sounds fab – you are buzzing yourself!
Attending the theatre- another one handed skill?
Wow – you swallowed some kind of something which makes you talk rubbish, my friend? We need to get you back into football 🙂 x