An entertaining descent into hell

The Tragedy of Dr Faustus, By Christopher Marlowe, directed by Devon Nuku Bats Theatre, Wellington, until July 1

One of the most featured works in all forms of art, literature and performance must be the story of Dr Faustus selling his soul to the Devil. And so, any presentation of this age-old story needs a new twist, which the current production of The Tragedy of Dr Faustus at Bats Theatre certainly has; the scholarly doctor is portrayed as a woman.

Dr Joan Faustus (Katie Boyle), having tried almost all academic pursuits, now decides to try magic, which she finds she is good at – being able to conjure up Mephistophilis (Tom Kereama), one of Lucifer’s henchman. She becomes so impressed with Mephistophilis that she does a deal with Lucifer (James Bayliss) to have him as her personal servant for 24 years, at the end of which she will give her life and soul over to Lucifer and spend the rest of her life damned in hell.

A contract is drawn up and is signed using her own blood. Dr Faustus then decides to live the high life with her personal servant and travel the world, including visiting Rome and the Pope.

And although she has a few misgivings about what she is doing, and about the fact she is achieving very little with her life, her sense of pride makes her continue.

However, when it all ends and Mephistophilis arrives to take her soul to hell, she tries to repent and remain on Earth, but to no avail: she has committed herself to being damned in hell forever.

Despite paring back the complexities of Marlow’s original story, giving it a modern context with modern dress and setting, it is nevertheless a meandering story, the pace and action needing to pick up to drive the narrative forward. Only when Dr Faustus reaches Rome and has an altercation with the Pope, and in Dr Faustus’ final demise, is there any real action seen on stage.

However, after a rather ponderous start, things do pick up when Mephistophilis comes on, and the two leads give wellsustained performances; Kereama’s affable Mephistophilis playing nicely against his underlying motives, while Boyle’s gung-ho approach to life as Dr Faustus and her flippancy are well played out, often with a knowing smile or cheeky grin.

The remainder of the large cast all gave solid performances and although, overall, this was a rather static production, it is fortunate that all the cast were vocally strong to master Marlow’s convoluted language, sustaining it well enough to make it an entertaining production. – Ewen Coleman