Headlong and the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre today announced Faustus: That Damned Woman a new play from award-winning playwright and theatre maker Chris Bush (Standing at the Sky’s Edge) which will premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in January 2020 and at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in February 2020 before touring the UK.
Drawing on the works of Marlowe, Goethe, and other versions of the Faustus myth, Chris’s urgent reimagining asks what we must sacrifice to achieve greatness and the legacy that we leave behind.
“My name is Johanna Faustus. I was born almost four hundred years ago.
I gave my soul to achieve the impossible.
I watched this city grow sick and I swore to heal it.
I might be damned, but I would save the world to spite the Devil.”
Faustus: That Damned Woman is the first work to be commissioned as part of Headlong and the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre’s long-term commitment to commissioning and producing work of scale by women playwrights.
Caroline Byrne directs this radical new work in which the iconic character of Faustus is reimagined as a woman who makes the ultimate sacrifice to traverse centuries and change the course of history. The creative team are set designer Ana Inés Jabares-Pita, costume designer Line Bech, lighting designer Richard Howell, sound and composition designer Giles Thomas, video and projection designer Ian William Galloway and casting director Annelie Powell CDG.
The piece will have its world premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre on 22 January 2020, before playing at Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 26 February. The production will then tour throughout the Spring visiting Bristol Old Vic, Leeds Playhouse and Northern Stage from March and April 2020.
