Doctor Faustus

Am not as familiar with Christopher Marlowe, who had an intriguing and tragic life, compared to Shakespeare, but he did write some interesting work. 'Doctor Faustus' was a relatively new discovery and it is an interesting take on the Faust tale, despite a somewhat dull middle section it is devillishly bleak and darkly comic with fun characters. It won't be one of my favourite plays any time soon, but it was nice to have a change from Shakespeare, Chekhov etc once in a while.

Have been on a roll since early last year watching the 2008-2020 productions available on DVD, mostly Shakespeare. There have been some real highs and no real misfires, but a few did disappoint. This 'Doctor Faustus' is not one of those disappointments, but it is also not one of the highs. It is an interesting and entertaining production and a valuable document for anybody wanting to see a stage production available to watch, but it could have done more with the concept.

'Doctor Faustus' succeeds in many areas. Paul Hilton is a charming lead and captures the wounded side of the character poignantly and the striving for knowledge side with eagerness. Pearce Quigley shows once again expertly that he can play comic characters brilliantly, he has hilarious comic timing and doesn't overplay the more physical aspects. Nothing feels forced or like mugging and the most entertaining aspects come from him. Reviews on Arthur Darvill have been mixed, personally liked his sardonic approach to Mephistopheles and he does bring out some menace as well. Wouldn't have said no to him being more devilish. Gluttony, Envy and Lechery are very amusingly and unsettlingly portrayed, Envy particularly due to his athletic presence.

It looks great, capturing the play's bleakness very well and there is a lot of atmosphere in the lighting. The music is also very evocative. The staging does really well keeping the comedy moving along, and it's thankfully comedy that is genuinely funny in a dark way, and really shines with Quigley and with the puppetry. It doesn't hold back on the brutality either. There is also a good deal of charm and Marlowe's text shines. It's well video directed and did like the intimacy and how well it does at making one feel like they are there in the audience.

There was room for improvement. While nailing the comedy, the more dramatic elements aren't as well realised, especially in the rather static and dully paced middle, and when things are meant to be dark and devillish it felt too under-explored.

Don't know what was going on with Lucifer, who looks ridiculous and comes over as more silly than sinister.

Overall, liked it a good deal but wanted to love it. 7/10.

I've written about several Globe productions; I find they're the most enjoyable classical theatre being done in the world today. The sets, costumes and music--especially the music--are all first rate and some of the acting can't be bettered. Paul Hilton as Faustus doesn't have the power that a Paul Schofield would have brought to the part, but he satisfies me very much; he plays the wounded quality of the man's striving after knowledge effectively. Only Arthur (Dr. Who) Darvill disappointed me: he's not devilish enough and his voice is small. I wanted an Orson Welles type of voice for Mephistopheles.

The supporting cast do well. If you have a taste for Elizabethan humour, you'll have a great time with Jonathan Cullen as Gluttony, the incredibly acrobatic Richard Clews as Envy and Iris Roberts as Lechery. A woman emptying a bucket of slops on stage might be less appealing however. Finally, listen to the music by Jules Maxwell, it's very evocative.

I've been to Shakespeare's Globe - it's fun and if you can get there it's certainly worth doing. If you can't get there, this provides the next best thing: the stage production filmed in a way that does its very best to capture the experience of watching the live performance although of course nothing is quite like being packed in with other audience members and potentially participating in some of the action (various things, including an extracted tooth, get thrown from the stage and with the way the Globe works, there's nowhere for them to go but into the audience!).

Paul Hilton as Faustus and Arthur Darvill as Mephistopheles both give sound performances and deliver the text as if they mean it - no mean feat with Elizabethan blank verse that can prove tricky to modern ears. There are some nice set pieces and the "special effects" are in keeping with feel of the Globe - great use of costumes, make-up and puppets to provide a sometimes surprisingly disturbing vision of hell. The odd modern quirk (a helium balloon, for example) adds to the tongue-in-cheek feel of the humour.

And there is humour - despite being a bleak piece overall as one man sells his soul to the Devil and then fails to find redemption, Christopher Marlowe was a man who knew the audience of the day so there are plenty of humorous interludes. Darvill brings a sardonic touch to Mephistopheles that makes the darkness at his core all the more disturbing.

If you're used to the very naturalistic approach of modern drama, this might feel like a bit of a stretch but as a slice of Elizabethan drama, presented in a theatre that comes as close to an original as modern health and safety allows, it's certainly worth an evening's viewing.