‘Dr Faustus’ at the RSC

This is a review of the current Royal Shakespeare Company production of Dr Faustus showing in Stratford upon Avon.

‘Dr Faustus’ at the RSC

Dr Faustus is a play by Shakespeare's Contemporary Marlowe. It introduces us to the Faustian figure and asks us many questions about the nature of hell and what is enough in this life to balance out punishment in the next.

The play is centred around a struggle for earthly power and the consequences of our decisions. Dr Faustus was a learned figure who decided that necromancy was the way to enlightenment and as a result he summoned a demon to do his work. He gains power beyond our understanding, for 24 years, but had to sell his soul to the devil to gain this power. Once the 24 years are up his soul is taken to hell for eternity.

There are many stories written around the Faustian figure, a man who sells himself to the devil for earthly gain. All these stories investigate the lengths people will go to gain power and authority. It is interesting to think that many people would take up a pact like this so that they have earthly power but not thinking about the consequences. I think that the play would have had more impact as a philosophical work when it was written however, because back then everybody believed in a fiery hell where people were subjected to everlasting torture, whereas views now have changed.

The most interesting thing about the play is that which actor plays Mephistopheles and which plays Faustus is decided in front of the audience by the lighting of a match. The actor who's match burns out first plays Faustus and the other Mephistopheles. This creates a great atmosphere in the auditorium because it makes the actors as uncertain as the audience as to what will happen next.

It is a very short play, with no interval, so it has to deliver its point very quickly, which I think it succeeds in doing. I found that the scene which made the most impact on me was the scene where Mephistopheles tells Faustus that he fell from heaven with the devil and now everywhere that is not heaven is like hell to him. I found this scene meaningful because I felt that it showed that our perfect world is nothing compared with God's kingdom, or at least that that was what even hell's workers thought.

In the performance I saw I watched Oliver Ryan as Faustus and I thought that he played it very well. I felt that he played the mood swings between following the devil and repenting to God very well and I thought that he expressed Faustus's reasoning very clearly and believably. Sandy Grierson played Mephistopheles and I thought that he too was very good. I thought that he played a very complex character because he was in the service of Faustus and did Faustus's bidding but he was not fully submissive and seemed at points to be controlling Faustus rather the other way around.

I would highly recommend that you go and watch the play because I thought that it was brilliant. It runs until the 4th August, in Stratford-upon-Avon, and then moves to the Barbican, in London, from the 7th September - 1st October 2016.

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