There seems to be a production of Dr Faustus every year at the Fringe. It’s hard to keep such a popular 400-year-old story fresh, but this new production by Lancaster Offshoots finds an exciting minimalist angle on Marlowe’s tragedy.
Dr Faustus is a prodigious scholar who has mastered and is bored with all the usual academic disciplines. To satisfy his curiosity, he engages in the dark art of necromancy, whereupon he summons the demon Mephastophilis who makes him an offer he can’t refuse; untold knowledge and power for 24 years, in exchange for his soul. The rest of the play deals with the turmoil that ensues from such a bargain.
I’ve never understood why Dr Faustus would sell his soul to the devil. Surely nothing is worth burning in hell for enternity? But by reinterpreting Mephastophilis from a scary, hideous demon to a seductive femme fatale, the motives of Faustus become more believable. What better key to understanding Faustus’s lust for knowledge and power than, well, lust itself? The lighter comic scenes (that many believe Marlowe did not write) don’t stick out like a sore thumb as much as they can do in other productions, and provide a welcome relief to the gloomier, more metaphysical scenes. Though the performances of Faustus and Mephastophilis are solid, it’s the two comic reliefs, with their likeable chemistry and anachronistic ad-libs, that really steal the show.
The minimalist production design often works in the show’s favour. The introduction of the seven deadly sins as silhouettes through the wall of the set is simple but impactful, however some of the costumes are a little bit too basic and ‘arts and crafts’. Sometimes less isn’t necessarily always more.
It’s impossible not to sacrifice some of the source material’s depth and intricacies when abridging it to 50 minutes, and the seams show a little sometimes, but overall this production of Dr Faustus is a funny, intriguing and lively take on this classic story.
