The devil's in the detail

Published on Thursday 20 August 2009 19:11

THEATRE THE TRAGICAL HISTORY AND GLORIOUS DEMISE OF DOCTOR JOHN FAUSTUS THE SPACE @ VENUE 45 (VENUE 45) FAUST IN THE BOX UNDERBELLY (VENUE 61) DOCTOR FAUSTUS SWEET ECA (VENUE 186) DOCTOR FAUSTUS THE ZOO (VENUE 124)

SUSPENDERS, incest, puppets and mental hospitals; a myriad Faustus adaptations this year suggest that the fable of the doctor who sells his soul to experience his deepest desires is always open to interpretation.

The legend of delight and damnation inspired two of European drama's greatest works, Marlowe's The Tragical History and Glorious Demise of Doctor John Faustus, and Goethe's two-part drama Faust.

Attended by the demon Mephistopheles, and tempted by the seven deadly sins, Faustus's story conforms to a strict logic of exchange and balance, with damnation hanging over him even as he revels in sin (in all but Goethe's version of the tale). Its prevalence this year suggests that in a tumultuous financial and political climate we crave the harsh certainty of rules to rein in our pleasures – at least within the ritual of theatre.

Cardiff University's The Tragical History and Glorious Demise of Doctor John Faustus casts the devil as a suave Rat Pack king and Faustus as a failing university lecturer. Scott Hadley's generally commendable additions to Marlowe's text saddle the doctor with an additional complex: Mephistopheles appears in the alluring shape of Faustus's mother, played by Sarah Twomey in a mature performance. As a groomed temptress in black velvet and diamonds, mummy is more akin to manikin than woman.

This simple twist throws in all kinds of juicy oedipal tensions and invests one of Faustus's final utterances, "Curs'd be the parents that engender'd me", with throbbing resonance.

Some additions are less successful, such as the stage management's discussing their love lives as they change scenery, but in general it's a bold attempt to question our understanding of the tale with fresh frames of reference.

In Faust in the Box, Berlin-based transgender performer Bridge Markland lip-syncs to a soundtrack of her own voice and snippets from just about every song in pop history, while standing in a huge cardboard box. In a solo piece that is so bizarre it's briefly compelling, she narrates Goethe's play through talking to her puppets of Faust and his lover Martha. As a bald Mephistopheles with a white painted face, Markland is unnervingly demonic.

The novelty of puppet Faust bursting into, for instance, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, courtesy of U2, wears off after about ten minutes, and the piece becomes a regurgitated megamix from hell (pardon the pun), suggesting a misplaced self-confidence in Markland, and the dispensable quality of pop lyrics rather than the profundity of Goethe.

A state that wields unflinching power over the lost is the substitute for Lucifer's army in Oxford University's highly physical production of Doctor Faustus at Sweet ECA. A female Faustus is confined to a mental institution in a bleak vision of medical torture and physical restrictions. Despite inventive direction, the delivery of the script is lacklustre with several cast members racing through lines as though on amphetamines, rendering Marlowe's words almost meaningless.

They make fine use of white sheets as haunting props, especially in the seven deadly sins scene, where Gluttony forces the crumpled cloth into Faustus's mouth, but we are simply not invested enough in Faustus's rise to be moved by his fall as he lies dying.

From the clinical to the downright filthy: Doctor Faustus at The Zoo from theatre company Zig Zag Creations aims shamelessly at the genitals in an erotically-charged interrogation into Faustus's perversions.

In a superb cabaret adaptation foregrounding the skimpily clad seven deadly sins, the audience is drawn into an alluring hell set to the Vaudeville music of Circus Contraption. The aloof ringmaster Mephistopheles insists it's all a game, letting Faustus damn himself by running amok in ignorance. His perceived power is revealed as an illusion when he must play by the rules and keep his blindfold on as 'Helen of Troy' – who the audience recognise as a bloke in suspenders – presses herself against him.

The engaging sexuality of the performers and well-choreographed movement means we are complicit in Faustus's downfall from the start. The show is for us and about us, and testament to theatre as a gateway to forbidden experience.

By frolicking in Faustus's sins so freely, Zig Zag are able to dramatically puncture the intensity they create with an anaesthetising vision of hell. Faustus is denied his own final words and must lip-sync to Mephistopheles, who reels off his desperate pleas for salvation with idle indifference. Left blindfolded with a ticking clock, Faustus's face bears a mask of frozen horror as the sins manhandle his limp body.

LOUISE RIDLEY

The Tragical History…, until tomorrow, today 11pm; Faust in The Box, until 29 August, today 4:25pm; Doctor Faustus (Sweet ECA), until 30 August, today 3:05pm; Doctor Faustus (Zoo), until tomorrow, today 10:30pm