Faustus

Fitzpatrick Hall, Queens’ College, 7.30pm, Tues 5th – Sat 9th November, £5 

This fifth of November was met not with fireworks and toffee apples, but instead with something equally explosive in the form of Marlowe’s classic, Faustus. Although I’m sure many of you are familiar with this play, BATS’ adaptation was able to portray it in a new light.

The show concerns the eponymous character’s dissatisfaction with life despite his impressive academic accomplishments and lofty position in an excellent university (you guessed it – Cambridge). The character’s mental ennui reaches a point where he sells his soul to a demon in order to receive all worldly knowledge and pleasures. However, this life of decadence cannot be maintained, resulting in pervasive regret.

The Fitzpatrick Hall is one of the lesser known venues in Cambridge and is thus lacking the technical facilities of larger theatres, and unfortunately this impacted negatively on the production as a whole. Any time the music was played it was far too loud (for the dialogue to be heard that is, I’m not that old). This was particularly to the detriment of the scene in which the seven deadly sins are introduced. Usually one of my favourite scenes, in this production sadly the impact was ruined as I couldn’t hear a single word. The lighting was generally better though maybe a little slow off the mark on occasions, with at one point the audience being plunged into darkness for no apparent reason.

However, I take my hat off to Tristram Fane-Saunders for a fantastic portrayal of an otherworldly Mephistopheles. His character’s barely contained anger and sarcasm, combined with the way he danced around the stage in an almost feline manner made him a real joy to watch. Douglas Tawn also deserves to be commended as Lucifer. Despite his small role, his dialogue and acting was always impeccable and his presence on stage was perfect for the part. Unfortunately, Peter Martin’s Faustus was over-acted and lacked any of the subtlety that would make the character really come alive.

Overall, the show was underwhelming, lacking subtlety a lot of the time. It suffered from easily avoidable technical faults and its ending was slightly cringe-worthy. The show would benefit from a bit of polish – the cast really need to keep the noise levels down backstage, especially during the quieter scenes. The story itself is great and there was some excellent acting from some members of the cast, so with some more work this show has a lot of potential. As it is, even if you don’t know the story, it’s still worth a watch.