Doctor Faustus (May 26th, 2016)

Doctor Faustus

May 26th, 2016 (matinee)

I'll be honest: this show wasn't on my radar at all. My trip to Doctor Faustus was the result of needing a Thursday matinee, and wanting to see something I hadn't seen. I thought of Doctor Faustus because it's next door to Mrs Henderson Presents, so I'd seen the marquis, and thought, "Eh, the guy from GOT is in it, it can't be that bad." So I bought my ticket at 2am, and that afternoon headed to the theatre with absolutely no expectations or preconceived notions (I didn't even know what the show was about - I ran out of time to wikipedia it). While I don't regret seeing it, I can't say I particularly enjoyed it. I'm keeping this review very brief, but will include my usual seat/venue review and a few comments on the show. I'm not going to attempt to describe the plot of the show; check that out here.

Seat/Venue Review: Doctor Faustus was presented at the Duke of York Theatre in Covent Garden. I sat in the Stalls in seat H4, and it was £65. Great view, appropriately priced. I wouldn't've paid more for premium as the view is no better, just slightly more centred. No issues with the theatre or the staff; the only thing I wasn't too fond of was the very loud music in the lobby - it got you in the mood for the show, certainly, but it was so loud I could barely hear the staff. I appreciate that the ushers allowed people to take photos before the show officially began and during curtain call. I believe that that attitude prevented people taking photos during the show. 

As I mentioned, I wasn't a fan of the show at all. First of all, it was not made accessible to a modern audience. An attempt was made to set it in a more modern (looked to be the 70's or 80's, and they included presidents and other notable contemporary characters) period, and the idea of Faustus becoming a magic-performing celebrity (almost a la Jesus Christ Superstar) was certainly comprehensible, but the dialogue remained difficult to understand and make sense of. By the time I'd thought through one piece of dialogue, I'd missed a significant amount of  the rest of the scene. It made it very hard to keep track of what was happening (hence, I didn't). The script was another problem; I never studied it, but a friend who performed it in school says it's very strange and hard to understand no matter how it's read. Perhaps if there had been less going on on stage, and more attention paid to the dialogue and establishment of a story, it would've been easier to follow the action of the play. I think that's the main pitfall of Doctor Faustus - there was just too much going on in one place, at one time. As The Stage points out, "It never shuts up!"

I really did not appreciate the costuming - or lack thereof, I should say. Nudity in a show like Mrs Henderson is necessary; the story cannot go on without it. In Doctor Faustus, the nudity was entirely gratuitous. There was no rhyme or reason for it; it seemed far to much like, "how many boobs do we have onstage and how much can we show them? Oh, and lets throw in a little male nudity to make it fair." I liked the idea of the costumes, when the characters had them on. Each wore white/grey underclothing or night clothing; since everyone played a number of characters, it created a nice blank slate for each character. I liked the contrast in the costuming between the good angel and the bad angel; the bad was wearing a satiny dress and the good was a simple white tank top and shorts. They very much personified the angel/devil on the shoulder (a la Emperor's New Groove). 

The acting itself was very good; each actor did an excellent job with the material they were given. I particularly enjoyed the actor who personified the seven deadly sins. Kit Harington is actually quite a good actor (and not too hard on the eyes either, which is good considering he spends most of the show in his underwear), and fully committed to the variety of unsavoury things his character had to do. I also enjoyed the actress who place Mephistopheles; she had a great voice, interacted wonderfully with the audience, and was appropriately darkly satirical. 

Although the cast gave their all, I feel like the direction (and the script itself) left a lot to be desired. The show was unnecessarily graphic (the sexual violence was particularly unsavoury), and disgusting for the sake of being shocking. I was left thinking not about the story or the moral message, but how grossed out I was by the sheer amount of fluid these actors were covered in. Even now, weeks later, it makes my stomach turn. Because of that, I would not recommend this to anyone unless they were mega Kit Harington fans with a very strong stomach.