Faustus: That Damned Woman - Review

Lyric Hammersmith, London


**


Written by Chris Bush
Directed by Caroline Byrne

Jodie McNee

Life imitates art with the opening of Chris Bush’s latest play Faustus: That Damned Woman at the Lyric Hammersmith. For where the original tale saw Dr Faust bargain with the Devil to exchange his soul for all worldly knowledge – so here does Bush seek to swap the classic parable for a feminist-angled perspective that fails to hit its target.

There is fine work from Jodie McNee as Johanna Faustus and an equally enchanting turn from Danny Lee Wynter’s diabolical Mephistopheles. But as Ms Faustus seals her pact, and in the future encounters Marie (Curie) played by Alicia Charles, we see Bush scoring the most spectacular own goal. For rather than Curie’s achievements being celebrated for the (true) heroine that she was in her scientific discoveries, Bush relegates her to little more than a sidekick to husband Pierre (Tim Samuels) and where Marie could have been portrayed as a strong, smart and independent woman, Bush and director Caroline Byrne reduce her to little more than a spouse who is both humble and scared. This shallowness of perspective clouds the whole piece, and while there may be some wit in Bush’s words, it is overshadowed by a disappointing structure that sidelines real, factual female achievement in praise of the patriarchy.

The set and costume designs from Ana Inés Jabares-Pita and Line Bech impress, but not enough to avert a disappointing evening.

Faustus: That Damned Woman is a Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Headlong co-production, in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Playing at the Lyric Hammersmith until 22nd February before playing at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 24th February and then touring the UK, visiting Bristol Old Vic, Leeds Playhouse and Northern Stage throughout March and April 2020.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

1984

Almeida Theatre, London

*****

By George Orwell
Adapted and created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan

Mark Arends, (centre seated) and Company

This adaptation by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan of George Orwell's chillingly prescient classic, respects the story and its 65 year old heritage, yet gives it a disturbing relevance that speaks to our 21st century lives.

One wonders what Orwell would make of today’s multi-lane information superhighway. A world in which millions of digital fingerprints are left every day, creating a priceless seam of data to be mined or exploited by governments, corporations and bandits able to reach beyond the always outmoded and feeble data protection legislation. And that’s just here in the free West. Elsewhere dictatorships and fundamentalists across a spectrum of political and religious extremes tragically perpetuate the evils that Orwell’s oft quoted dystopian hell sought to mimic.

The Almeida’s co-production with Headlong and the Nottingham Playhouse is vivid and perceptive. Chloe Lamford’s set design shows meticulous detail in depicting Winston Smith’s world, details that literally fall away after his arrest, with the stark screened whiteness of Room 101 being so bleak that Smith’s blood, shed during harrowing torture scenes, provides a shocking splash of colour. Ingeniously Lamford deploys large video screens across every scene, graphically promoting the reality that Big Brother is watching everything.

Mark Arends’ Smith embodies the flawed everyman that Orwell intended and his grappling with desire, love and betrayal, against a backdrop of the pernicious Thought Police is as plausible as is his pain during torture that is almost unbearable to witness. Onstage throughout the single act 100 minute play, his performance is a flawless demonstration of his craft. Provoking and breaking Smith, Tim Dutton’s O’Brien is almost a cliché, were it not that the spook he represents is just so believably manipulative. Hara Yannas’ Julia, who loves Smith and yet who betrays him, as he betrays her under duress, gets the balance spot on in her character’s ambiguity.

Deservedly sold out, the play holds a mirror to our fractured world. That our democratic society provides a forum in which theatre such as 1984, together with the political debate it sparks, can thrive, is a liberty that in itself should be cherished. In far too many nations, the worst aspects of Orwell’s grim fantasy remain a terrible reality. 

Runs to 29th March 2014