Grads with the inestimable Stephen Lee is doing Dr Faustus at the New Fortune - one performance left...

Grads with the inestimable Stephen Lee is doing Dr Faustus at the New Fortune - one performance left http://www.ticketswa.com/event/doctor-faustus

I have only ever seen it once before, I think it was at the Dolphin back in 1984 which was a very different production - very gloomy, and done with a lot of masks and costuming which made everyone except Faust look like grotesque caricatures. And even Faust wore a mask. But it made an impression.

It's a powerful play, whatever version you might view.

This is the play that has the famous line "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"

It's not Shakespeare, it's Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare's and influential upon his works, and really it would be good to see more of his works performed.

The original story is from an old German tale of a scholar who summons the Devil. This must have been hot stuff in Elizabethan times, some really blasphemous stuff going on - even people these days might find it disquieting. You've got talk of baby killing, you've got Satanic pentagrams and Lucifer himself appearing on the big screen amidst hellfire. You've got people being turned into animals. Considering the characters involved (not the actors, you were gems!) probably a step up.

You've got succubi - a marvelous Devil Wife and the 7 Deadly Sins - I guess Mr Lee, the Director, casting himself as Wrath knows what Directors are like, haha. 
You've got Good Angels and Bad Angels.

What's disquieting is Grant Malcolm's Mephistophilis, always watching, calculating, aloof and quietly confident as Dr Faustus's soul inches ever closer to his clutches.

What's disquieting is David Meadows's Doctor Faustus's creeping uncertainty limping out from his brash overbearing joy of power and influence.
 
Where have all the candles gone... there were dozens at the start? Pretty creepy.

But what you also have is some of the funniest Elizabethan theatre I've ever seen during the time when Dr. Faustus, intoxicated with the power, embarks on a tour of Europe (with holiday snaps) and displays of magic and some very, very, funny practical jokes.

Great set, great lighting, great sound, great moves, great show.

Very interesting, a real contrast to Shakespeare and really well done.

9/10 Intriguing and Funny. Death reading Reaper Man to Sir Terry Pratchett, in person on the Sid and Nancy Scale.