'Doctor Faustus' at Shakespeare's Globe

Last Sunday we went to see the new production of 'Doctor Faustus' at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. It's over 30 years since I saw 'Dr Faustus' and I've never been to the Globe before so I was looking forward to the experience. Luckily I'd booked cushions along with the tickets for the hard wooden benches.

I liked the experience of the Globe, with its roofless space, the audience being so close to the stage on three sides, the wooden structures and the very big stage. Above the stage was the musicians area where we could see them playing, rather than being hidden away behind the scenes. The main downside (other than the benches) was the aeroplanes flying overhead with depressing regularity.

'Dr Faustus' is a big play - big ideas, big cast of characters and it takes place over 24 years in the life of the good (or bad) doctor. We all know the story - he sells his soul to the devil for demonic powers and the services of Mephistopheles and who eventually is carried off into hell by a host of devils because he despairs of salvation. It gives Christopher Marlowe loads of opportunities to show off his university education with the discussions of different philosophies in the early scenes before Faustus decides to dabble in the black arts and summon a demon. And he gets the best in Mephistopheles.

We then witness his descent into damnation. From his early ambitions of wanting to create an empire, build a bridge across the Atlantic for his armies and build a wall of bronze around Germany, he descends into playing tricks on local farmers and eating all their hay. The message is clear that with great power comes corruption and failed ambition. The downside, of course is that this means we have to suffer with the traditional rustic and supposedly 'comic' characters, but I think they work better in this play than with most Elizabethan plays.

'Dr Faustus' is a two-header play - Faustus and Mephistopheles - with almost unlimited scope for more characters. I vaguely recall that when I saw the play in 1978 that Helen of Troy was an invisible character that Faustus talked to, whereas in this production she was a voluptuous actress that we could see. There were lots of characters running round the stage with most actors taking two or three parts and that added to the dynamism of the play. What I wasn't sure about was the generic chorus of 'students' dressed in black and wearing sunglasses that seemed to run about all over the place for no real purpose other than to show the size of the cast and fill the stage.

Faustus was played by Paul Hilton and Mephistopheles by Arthur Darvill (yes, from 'Dr Who'). They worked well together, striding around and twirling their cloaks, with matching skull caps and moments of anger and despair. I liked the depiction of Lucifer as a broken and damaged angel and I loved his wings in the final scene. I also loved the angel and the devil having sword fights every now and then for possession of Faustus's soul.

I enjoyed this production and my visit to the Globe. I may well read up on Marlowe now.