Faustus - Not Hell (nor I wouldn't want to be out of it)

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

Review: Burning Doors

'Burning Doors' is the latest work of the Belarus Free Theatre. Political exiles, the BFT specialise in performances that reflect on rebellion, politics, and injustice, and Burning Doors is no exception. With the début acting performance of Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot, Burning Doors tells the stories of Russian artist Petyr Pavlensky, Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov, currently serving a 20 year prison sentence, and Alyokhina herself.
The play is a brutal exploration of the consequences and limitations of freedom of expression. The physicality of the BFT ensemble is unforgiving, and the actors push themselves, and consequently the audience, way beyond their comfort zone, in order to represent the brutality of state versus body in the battle for order and control. There are points of the piece that are very difficult to watch, and not in a bloody, Titus-Andronicus-at-The-Globe kind of way. The raw, visceral nature of the performance is mapped onto conditions in Russian prisons, so there is nowhere for the audience to escape the feeling that the performed violence is real.
The discomfort of watching the show is a signal of its success - it would not be effective if it were safe. The only detraction from the piece is that at times it feels as if the performers are trying too hard to hammer a point home, and things descend too far into caricature. On saying this however, Burning Doors is a powerful piece of theatre, and its creators are not afraid to make their voices heard. The freedom to create and to hold opinions is, after all what this play is about, and part of the drive behind the piece is to raise awareness of Sentsov's situation, and to try and secure his release. The severity of his captivity is made very clear to the audience, and it is hard to leave the show without a sense of the injustice faced by artists who come into conflict with repressive state politics.

In short: Heavy-handedness balanced with moments of painful beauty. More importantly, a clear, unflinching, relevant politics. Go and see it for a wake up call and a shock to the system.

Note: For further information on BFT's part in the campaign to free Oleg Sentsov, see here.

Rating: 4/5

Disclaimer: I was invited to the press night for Burning Doors after supporting the development of the production on Kickstarter.