Search for the RSC's current Doctor Faustus (now playing at the Barbican) and you'll find the following description:
Two actors enter. Each lights a match and watches it burn. Whoever’s goes out first ‘loses’ and must play the fated doctor, while the other plays the demon Mephistophilis, in this notorious tale of vanity, greed and damnation.That was intriguing enough to get me to buy a ticket, and I'm really glad I did.
From the moment the actors walk, unannounced, onto the stage, to the inevitable tragic ending, Maria Aberg’s brilliantly updated Marlowe charts the highs and the lows of the erring Doctor's life with slickness and style. Naomi Dawson's design for the show is striking, especially the summoning of Mephistophilis, and the sound design, courtesy of Orlando Gough and Claire Windsor, equally so. It is also clear that Doctor Faustus does not suffer from being trimmed to a one act play, either.
And then we consider the opening conceit - that Sandy Grierson and Oliver Ryan don't know who will be Faustus and who Mephistophilis before they are on stage. This is achieved so subtly that the tension built from it is incredible - as if whole audience has leant in, holding their breath.
Grierson (as Mephistophilis on the night I attended) and Ryan produce beautifully subtle and deeply unsettling performances that seem completely timeless in quality.
If you can get yourself to the Barbican before the show's close, do so. You are in for a magical night.
4/5 - A Devilish delight: summon up a ticket
The Barbican
Until 1st October
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