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Show: Dr Faustus
Society: Royal Shakespeare Company – RSC (professional)
Venue: Barbican Theatre
Credits: Christopher Marlowe
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 13/09/2016
Dr Faustus
Chris Abbott | 14 Sep 2016 10:23am
Sandy Grierson and Oliver Ryan. Photo: Helen Maybanks
The entrance of the two protagonists instantly quietens the attentive – and younger than usual – audience for the RSC’s engrossing and thoughtful production of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus – directed by Maria Aberg at the Barbican Theatre. The striking of two matches and the early extinguishing of one of them meant the evening’s Faustus would be Sandy Grierson, who begins the play with Oliver Ryan left to assume the role of Mephistophilis.
Faustus is much occupied with sorting out his books during the narrative and this is apparent from the setting by Naomi Dawson, a mostly bare stage strewn with cardboard boxes and surrounded by rough wooden frames, some with plastic stretched between them. As expected, these flimsy screens are soon pierced or torn away, with the set acting as something of a visual metaphor for Faustus’ trajectory.
This is a stripped-down and sombre Expressionist production, the cast in Twentieth Century costumes of black, white and grey, the only colour coming from an occasional use of projections. Despite the absence of more traditional magical appearances or transformations, there is nevertheless a real sense of something untoward during this performance. This was particularly the case when Faustus marks the stage in order to begin the magic, doing so by using his ripped shirt as a paintbrush, and creating an other-worldly atmosphere through intense physicality underpinned by the excellent score from Orlando Gough.
The score is highly effective throughout, and played live by five musicians; the music adds colour to this production helping to create the impression of a headlong fall into the inevitable. The two central performances are powerful and complementary, sometimes trading lines as when Mephistophilis speaks those that Faustus usually delivers about Helen of Troy.
As Faustus, Sandy Grierson is never less then wholly subsumed by the part, unconvinced at first at what he had done but ever more despairing as the full effect becomes clear to him. Opposite, Oliver Ryan is an insidious and creepy Mephistophilis, always ready with a tempting word in the ear, and well supported by an ensemble cast of friends, sins, friars and scholars.
As is often the case when such doubling is offered, the immediate feeling is to yearn to see the production again but reversing the performances; not an easy task to achieve of course when casting each night relies on the behaviour of a match flame.
With two such strong central performances and a production centred on their conflict, it is difficult for other cast members to create memorable performances. However, as Wagner, Nicholas Lumley is a convincing foil in the human sense to the unworldly influences on his master, and Timothy Speyer contributes an authoritative cameo as the Pope (in the best hat of the evening). Will Bliss and John Cummins, doubling as Faustus’ friends and then as Good and Bad Angels, complete with wings, provide a suitably sardonic commentary on the narrative.
Maria Aberg’s production has a definite European aesthetic to it, unsurprising given her experience in Germany as well as her native Sweden, and it is good to see the RSC using her once more. The decision to run straight through for 1hr 45mins without an interval is understandable and certainly builds tension, although it raises a few problems for those who have to creep out before the end along the Barbican’s bench seating.
The RSC’s attention to detail is evident in the excellent programme. Just £4 might be the same price as many flimsier offerings elsewhere but with infinitely more to read and ponder, and of course there was a free cast-list.
There was a definite air of excitement in the audience, and it is good to see how the Barbican has built the audience for intelligent theatre, and of course very welcome that the RSC is back there, with The Alchemist, Cymbeline and King Lear to follow.
- : admin
- : 13/09/2016