REVIEW – DOCTOR FAUSTUS – SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE

Posted on by Amy Rye

Christopher Marlowe wrote Doctor Faustus in the 1590s, since then the play has had countless retellings, including a West End run in 2016 starring Kit Harrington.

Credit: Charles Flint

Lazurus Theatre Company’s production is currently residing in The Little of Southwark Playhouse. As soon as you enter the space your eyes are immediately drawn to the back wall of the stage, which is covered in pictures, drawings and papers. Sorcha Corcoran’s set is made up of 3 desks and a number of props. I cannot fault the set design and the intrigued it built upon first glance. Suddenly smoke fills the space and a shirtless male walks across the stage in slow motion.

Doctor Faustus is an Elizabethan tragedy centering around John Faustus who sells his soul to the Devil for 24 years of unlimited knowledge, power and fame. Ricky Dukes’ production retains the original middle English lines of Marlowe’s script. This production bills itself as multi-sensory; however, I didn’t feel as though it was. There was a very small amount of interaction with the audience members in the front row, and apart from this nothing about the production was immersive. I was also left confused about when this play was supposedly set. For the most part it seemed a period piece; however, there is a moment in which two characters take a selfie on a mobile phone with Faustus, which further muddled things.

This production doesn’t appear to know what it wants to be – it’s trying to fit into a range of genres and tick all the boxes. But by attempting to do everything, it subsequently falls flat in each area. There are parts incorporating horror and gore, but this is not fully realised or done enough to make this a horror production. The Hokey Cokey is slotted in the show which seems rather random. There is a dance number in which each member of the company is a different planet. And then there is a Seven Deadly Sins song, ‘She’s a sin, she’s a sin, she’s a sexy sexy sin’, which I could see they were vying for a Rocky Horror Show style number. But to be quite blunt, this song is one that should have been left on the cutting room floor.

It’s very clear this production has been crafted to have a clearly defined target audience, and the show is rigid in its flexibility to allow other audience members into this secret club. I’m sure if you are in this target market, you’ll enjoy it – however for people watching Marlowe’s work for the first time, the show will leave you behind and the plot will probably be quite difficult for you to follow.

Credit: Charles Flint

Jamie O-Neill plays John Faustus charismatically, but at times the wordiness of the script came off as slightly rambling. David Angland gave a confident performance as Mephistopheles, and Candis Butler Jones’ performance as Lucifer (Lucy) was also notable.  

Unfortunately, this production simply tries to do too much and subsequently doesn’t do enough in any one area, leaving a rather incoherent plot, which despite the hard work of the cast, simply couldn’t be saved. Some editing is very much required. I wish there was more to like here. I gain no pleasure from writing a review like this one, but the heavy eyelids of the audience members surrounding me towards the end of the performance says it all.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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