This started badly. Set in an old folks home in (presumably) Iceland at Christmas, it looks for five horrifying minutes like it’s just going to be some old guy in a dressing gown reading out the whole of a pretty average translation of Goethe’s Faust in a (presumably) Icelandic accent.
But then it all kicks off, and turns into the sort of thing that Health and Safety officers must wake up in the middle of the night screaming about.
The Young Vic (now with gloriously un-unreserved seating) is transformed into a hellish circus space in which the action takes place in front and, more often than not, above you.
The stagecraft here is highly theatrical rather than magical – the wires are meant to show and they do – but there’s no doubting the impact. There are some truly spectacular moments.
The plot too feels like it has been subsumed below the quest for boundary-pushing form, but that doesn’t matter too much – there are dozens of productions a year which tell the story of Faust in a workaday fashion, and that’s not the point here.
The point here is really a radical reinvention of both the story and the conventions of theatre. In the end it is the latter that’s most memorable, but it is pretty memorable indeed.
PS. May I humbly recommend choosing the stalls over the circle?
Went and saw this play as part of mu A level english lit coursework and was completely blown away. the acting and the acrobatibs were fantastic and very clever, the mix of horror, comedy and tradegy worked really well. big congatuations i feel should go to the main character, who can be stubborn, and also comical and completely heartfelt at teh end, begging for his forgiveness. Also the actor who play Mephisto was brilliantly funny and crude, perfect for a devil (although i wasn’t overly impressed with his singing on the glam rock song in the middle)
Many thanks for your kind words Thomas, as director of the play, it makes my life worth living when young, enterprising Students approve of my works. Good luck with the coursework!
Saw this as part of my A2 Theatre Studies and was absolutely BLOWN AWAY. it was the most thrilling, exciting, fascinating and captivating piece of theatre I have ever seen in my life, and the other 7 students of my class completely agree. It was almost like you were in the middle of a horror museum for parts, and yet I actually cried at the end. The actor playing Mephisto blew me away (the best thing was talking to everyone afterwards and realising they all were also strangely attracted to him!) as did the actor originally playing Johan. I had seen the same company’s production of Metamorphosis before, which had been my favorite theatre production to date, but following this, it has been sidelined!! Saw it on the second to last night and WISH I had gone earlier so I could see it again. Once in a lifetime experience, and absolutely AMAZING!