Reader Reviews
Doctor Faustus (Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | One of the joys of theatregoing is when a show confounds expectations. My last experience of Marlowe was the excruciatingly dull Dido. . . at the Cottesloe which I abandoned at the interval. That sort of production would have been even worse at the Globe but Matthew Dunster plays up all the crowd-pleasing elements of Faustus, although I wonder how much of it Marlowe would have recognised. The confrontations between good and evil are played to the hilt as is the parade of the seven deadly sins and the clowns Robin and Dick milk their scenes for all they're worth. Frankly Paul Hilton and Artur Darvill aren't up to much as Faustus and Mephistopholes and there is almost no suggestion of a soul in torment or the devil's disciple. However this doesn't detract from what serves as an ideal introduction to Marlowe even if it didn't fire me with a desire to see a more reverent production. - David Baxter | 23 Jul 11 |
