Light-hearted look at develish character

8:00am Sunday 11th May 2008

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The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus presented by Third Party at the Rondo Theatre, Bath THE story of Faust trading his soul to the devil is familiar to many people, but possibly only for that key element..

Going beyond the deal', there are many questions - was it for eternal life that he was prepared to forfeit whatever we think a soul is?

In the programme notes to this production, we are told that Christopher Marlowe's original play actually creates Doctor Faustus as an intellectual who, having mastered all the academic disciplines of his age, turns to black magic, abjures God and sells his soul to the Devil for twenty four years of magic power.' I didn't read the programme before the show; but the intellectual nature of the central character was clear from the start (quite apart from his title') - the stage was set with a well-stocked bookcase and a desk adorned with books hanging from it.

Between lines of serious philosophical pondering and wondering, the character of Faustus, alone on stage for some time, periodically chucked books over his shoulder.

Some of the audience found this funny but it seemed disconcerting and a bit crude to me.

The humour of this whole piece gradually unfolded, however, and by the end of the performance I felt it all blended together really well.

The dramatic words of the verse, including many Latin phrases, sat comfortably next to fluent sleights of hand, understated song and dance numbers and flights of fancy.

The seven deadly sins, offered to Faustus, are portrayed in a roller coaster dragon ride' through the universe (where a banana is the moon). Faust himself is parodied as a ventriloquist's dummy, being operated by Mephistophilis, the Devil's smooth operator' servant.

And Lucifer, played by Shelley Atkinson, sits nonchalantly reading alternately the Guardian and Heat, glides around the space with great poise and admires her photographic image projected onto Faust's belly - the stillness of her performance is wonderfully powerful.

Religious symbols such as communion wine and Christ's blood (Lucifer fights off a nose bleed every time Christ is mentioned) remind us that the play is exploring ideas about life, death and whether a man amounts to nothing but his mind'.

But the main thoughts I took away from this production were not really thoughts at all - more, pleasure in strange juxtapositions of images and styles; and appreciation of contrasting and imaginative performances.

The music was clever and pleasing too, songs at the beginning all containing words about heaven, hell, paradise, angels etc. And a show that includes the banjo song, Chinese Laundry Blues, without being irritating must have done something right.

This deserves to be seen in other small, local arts venues.