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Post by David J on Jan 22, 2016 13:57:50 GMT
This is starting in 2 weeks time. Anyone planning to see it?
This will be my introduction to the play when I go up the week leading up to Shakespeare's birthday weekend. Maria Aberg don't let me down
Actually contrary to what I said in the old forum, Sandy Grierson and Oliver Ryan do not have a set schedule for their alternating performances as Faustus and Mephistopheles.
It's decided by one of those toss of the coin moments on the night of the performance, except the two will come on and light a match together. The one whose match goes out soonest is Faustus.
Personally I'd like to see Grierson as Mephistopheles. I loved his ethereal Ariel next to Jonathan Slinger in The Tempest
By the way I thought I'd try out the poll function. Vote if you have seen this
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 22, 2016 17:00:26 GMT
It did amuse me to receive the RSC email this morning telling me that this production opens in Feb 2016 as the start of their Summer season...
I know we have global warming and all that, but Summer starting in Feb? Sloppy work from the RSC press team methinks
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2016 17:38:16 GMT
A couple of years ago, the RSC Summer started in January with The Taming of the Shrew, so it seems they are gradually learning from experience.
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Post by maggiem on Apr 18, 2016 10:25:17 GMT
I saw it on Saturday (matinee). Oliver's match lit, but Sandy's didn't. Big laugh from the audience as Oliver walked off the stage and Sandy had to begin straight away as Faustus.
Both actors were bloody good and when Sandy drew a circle and pentagram on the stage, then arranged the boxes with fire in them at the points, the atmosphere got really spooky! The movement was balletic, the 7 deadly sins a riot and the ending..... it was so quiet and horrifying. The audience didn't applaud until Sandy got up as the other cast came on to take their bows.
I'd love to see the alternate version, but the way it's being decided who plays what, how would I be able to book it?
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Post by David J on Apr 20, 2016 15:32:52 GMT
I'm afraid I was bored by this
The problem is is that this is the first time I saw the play performed, with only a general knowledge of the story
This is not the perfect production for newcomers. Heavily cut to make a 1 hour and 45 minute show with no interval (which I felt tick by), with lots of filler and choreographed moments sprinkled in.
Watch out Barbican and be amazed at watching Faustus do some tidying up and draw the magic circle for 5 minutes max
Never really felt Faustus 24 year magical mastery pass by, some of the costumes were confusing (the Devils minions dressed up as Jews?), and the whole Faustus/Mephistopheles being one went over my head. Maybe I'll get it if I saw the two swap roles, but I am not prepared to see the show multiple times before I get to see that
The funny thing is is that (despite divided opinion) Maria abergs bizarre King John was a great introduction to the play for me. With White Devil and this, she's going way over head with her gimmicks and directorial decisions that I'm just left out in the cold. Whatever masterful writing is in Marlowes piece was lost to me, and I was unengaged
enjoyed the music, and enjoyed Sandy Grierson as Faustus, picking through the different books of study before picking magic at the start
I am going to watch the globe recording before I even set foot in the Duke of Yorks for the Jamie Lloyd production
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Post by lynette on Jul 27, 2016 22:31:03 GMT
The Devils weren't Jews, David, but worryingly dressed in black coats with headgear. What Wos she thinking of? Well, probably German intellectuals...maybe. I didn't not enjoy this though I think it was too long. It was 1.45 with no interval but could have been 1.20 with no loss. Some lovely passages such as the Helen of Troy dance and the words spoken by Mephistophles rather than Faustus, nice touch, near the end, but to me this felt like a translation of a European play so far was it from the Elizabethan original. To be fair it isn't strong with the arc idea; it has brilliant opening and ending but the middle is just the calling up of the unsatisfying stuff Faustus thinks he wants. I thought it was banal to have the angels represented as they were with wings and so on and being doubled with the friends. No criticism of the acting, same company as The Alchemist, and must have been jolly doing the seven deadlies..
I have hated this director's work in the past and I won't rush to her next show but she did have a good bash at this one albeit with a sledgehammer.
We saw the tall one playing Faustus. Would love to see the other guy do it but I couldn't sit though it all again and anyway you don't know who it will be til it starts. Maybe they will put a few bits on YouTube.
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Post by Snciole on Sept 8, 2016 8:30:30 GMT
Bumping this as it is now at the Barbican for those too lazy to drag their bottoms to Stratford Upon Avon.
I had no idea what was happening and with the exception of the two leads (We got Grierson as Faustus and Ryan as Mephistopheles) and Eleanor Wyld's turn as Lucifer it just felt like an amateur production, not purely because of performances (though the Seven Deadly Sins scene is even worse than Exposure the Musical's) but because the whole thing felt like it had been conceived at the last minute.
Maybe it was a rusty return after a while but as this was my first Faustus it was completely perplexing. Once Faustus makes his deal with the devil I had no idea what was happening!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2016 8:34:28 GMT
Personally, I think it's largely a poorly written piece. What it has in basic concept and certain quotes, it really lacks in coherence. I hated the Jamie Lloyd production, but I can fully get behind his need to have the entire middle rewritten. (Not seen this particular one yet, but going in a couple of weeks.)
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Post by lynette on Sept 8, 2016 9:13:01 GMT
Agreed. A play with a good beginning and a crackin ending. No middle. I wonder what they actually did when it was first performed? Maybe audience participation.
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Post by barelyathletic on Sept 8, 2016 13:52:12 GMT
Bumping this as it is now at the Barbican for those too lazy to drag their bottoms to Stratford Upon Avon. I had no idea what was happening and with the exception of the two leads (We got Grierson as Faustus and Ryan as Mephistopheles) and Eleanor Wyld's turn as Lucifer it just felt like an amateur production, not purely because of performances (though the Seven Deadly Sins scene is even worse than Exposure the Musical's) but because the whole thing felt like it had been conceived at the last minute. Maybe it was a rusty return after a while but as this was my first Faustus it was completely perplexing. Once Faustus makes his deal with the devil I had no idea what was happening! Please, please don't use 'amateur production' as a critical, derogatory term. Especially for professional companies and productions with vast resources of time, money and talent. There are plenty of amateur groups out there doing great work on tiny resources, and providing terrific theatre at truly affordable prices. All the time while holding down full time jobs. Theatre seems to be the only place where amateurs are not admired. You rarely hear amateur footballer, painter or musician used in a derogatory way. And nearly all successful writers were amateur until they hit the big time. Let's give those making theatre in their spare time due respect. Thanks. x |
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Post by Snciole on Sept 8, 2016 14:34:45 GMT
Sorry I mean amateur is terms of skill and experience, perhaps there was a better word but it seemed right when describing a production that had little professional aspect to it. It was hammy and looked cheap on the large Barbican stage . I have seen amateur productions which are far better than a lot of professional productions but I did find myself doubting if many of the professional actors in this production ensemble had ever been in any professional roles before but it felt unfocused and run by people who don't know why are doing (which in most amateur fields is the case) As an amateur blogger I know it doesn't mean lack of skill, just lack of experience/interest to be paid for it  |
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Post by Jan on Sept 16, 2016 6:30:30 GMT
Bumping this as it is now at the Barbican for those too lazy to drag their bottoms to Stratford Upon Avon. I had no idea what was happening and with the exception of the two leads (We got Grierson as Faustus and Ryan as Mephistopheles) and Eleanor Wyld's turn as Lucifer it just felt like an amateur production, not purely because of performances (though the Seven Deadly Sins scene is even worse than Exposure the Musical's) but because the whole thing felt like it had been conceived at the last minute. I know what you mean but I'd say "school" rather than "amateur" - there was lots of enthusiastic and imaginative over-acting from the support players. Maria Aberg is such a superficial director, just a rag-bag of flashy effects and disconnected ideas and she's always keen to throw a camp song and dance number in too - every production seems like her auditioning to direct a juke-box musical. In this case given the thinness and lack of coherence in the text she was probably a good choice but she didn't illuminate it much, I've seen it done better (and worse). The transfer from Swan to Barbican stage was quite well done but probably it was a better production in the smaller space. |
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Post by Snciole on Sept 16, 2016 9:05:36 GMT
Ha! School is much better, thanks Jan. In hindsight I think too much time was given to the two main leads from the director that the ensemble were allowed to run riot.
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Post by Polly1 on Sept 16, 2016 11:13:22 GMT
Were you there last night, Jan? I was in the front row (but forgot to wear my badge!) My first Faustus, had no trouble following it. Thought the two leads were great (Grierson as Faustus), bit disappointed that after the really spooky build-up, the entrance of Mephistopheles wasn't very dramatic! Loved the grotesques and the overall design of white/black/red. Entertaining but, as others have said, probably not the most enlightening of productions. Would be interested to hear what was added to the Kit Harrington version or how the middle section is usually played. Btw, those front row seats are a steal |
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Post by Jan on Sept 16, 2016 11:21:57 GMT
Were you there last night, Jan? I was in the front row (but forgot to wear my badge!) My first Faustus, had no trouble following it. Thought the two leads were great (Grierson as Faustus), bit disappointed that after the really spooky build-up, the entrance of Mephistopheles wasn't very dramatic! Loved the grotesques and the overall design of white/black/red. Entertaining but, as others have said, probably not the most enlightening of productions. Would be interested to hear what was added to the Kit Harrington version or how the middle section is usually played. Btw, those front row seats are a steal Yeah. Leads were pretty good except I kept thinking it would have been better if they'd played the opposite parts following the match business. You are right, the entrance of Mephistopheles was a big disappointment, he could at least have come up on a lift from the centre of the stage or something. I paid £10 for a top price centre stalls seat on a day ticket, so even more of a steal I guess. |
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Post by Snciole on Sept 16, 2016 11:54:40 GMT
Has anyone ever seen Oliver Ryan as Faustus, apart from press nights, it seems like it is set up for Grierson to be Faustus on most nights.
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Post by PalelyLaura on Sept 16, 2016 15:20:02 GMT
I saw Oliver Ryan as Faustus when I was at the RSC. Considering I really didn't like Maria Aberg's White Devil, I liked her production of this play. It's a flawed work but I thought she did a good job on it.
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Post by sondheimhats on Sept 16, 2016 16:57:19 GMT
I saw this on Tuesday. A very mixed mag, to say the least, but also extremely interesting. I won't go into a play-by-play breakdown of which things I liked and which things I didn't, because I'd be here all night, but suffice it to say that it was a very creative and compelling production, with a lot choices which I found to be really terrible. However, even when considering those worse choices, I think they were probably meant to be deliberately grotesque and unsettling.
I too saw Grierson as Faustus - based on the number of reports of heard and read here, I agree that he seems to play the role much more often for some reason. My professor saw Oliver Ryan as Faustus and Grierson as Mepho, however, and said that combination was much better. Still, I think the combination I saw was excellent.
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Post by Jan on Sept 16, 2016 17:50:52 GMT
I saw this on Tuesday. A very mixed mag, to say the least, but also extremely interesting. I won't go into a play-by-play breakdown of which things I liked and which things I didn't, because I'd be here all night, but suffice it to say that it was a very creative and compelling production, with a lot choices which I found to be really terrible. However, even when considering those worse choices, I think they were probably meant to be deliberately grotesque and unsettling. I too saw Grierson as Faustus - based on the number of reports of heard and read here, I agree that he seems to play the role much more often for some reason. My professor saw Oliver Ryan as Faustus and Grierson as Mepho, however, and said that combination was much better. Still, I think the combination I saw was excellent. They are far from equal parts are they. Can't recall how it worked - did the one who let the match burn for longest get the shorter part ? 30+ years ago I saw the last RSC production of this in the Swan. Gerard Murphy as Faust, Richard McCabe as a more distinctive Wagner, and David Bradley excellent as Mephistopheles, at the end a giant pit opened up in the stage with lots of fire and pyrotechnics. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2016 22:43:32 GMT
30+ years ago I saw the last RSC production of this in the Swan. Sorry to be pernickety, but... The Swan opened 30 years ago (in 1986) which is being celebrated there at this very moment with new productions of The Two Noble Kinsmen (which was the very first show) and The Rover (which also played in the very first season). |
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Post by Steve on Sept 17, 2016 7:55:16 GMT
Has anyone ever seen Oliver Ryan as Faustus, apart from press nights, it seems like it is set up for Grierson to be Faustus on most nights. I saw Ryan as Faustus. From my one-time anecdotal observation of the match lighting, which supposedly beckons blind fate to choose the winner (the longer burning match plays the bigger and better part of Faustus), this is a competition that Grierson is better at. Grierson held his match almost horizontally, and it burned weakly, exceedingly slowly, whereas Ryan held his match at 45 degrees, and it burned so fast and so furiously that an enormous flame almost scorched his fingers. It was an unexpected twist that Grierson infinitesimally overplayed his strategy of maintaining a slow burn rate, when his feeble flame unexpectedly burned itself out half way down his stick, less than a second before his inevitable victory. This resulted in a typecasting that worked well for the play. Ryan's lived-in face suggests the weatherbeaten look of a man who plunges headfirst and hungrily forward, like his match flame and Faustus himself, and gets repeatedly beaten about the face by life's punches. By contrast, the taller graceful Grierson's unspoiled smooth facial features have the silky sophistication of a Bond villain who has found a way to sneakily slide through life, placing his vicissitudes squarely on the shoulders of others. Ryan's recklessness in his match-burning strategy appeared to inform his subsequent performance, which was one of unabashed abandon. Ryan's Faustus is like a rollicking rollercoaster, without a landing platform, wherein even his vacillations about his deal with Mephistophilis appear as the doomed highs of the rollercoaster car before the inevitable dips ahead. Not once do we really doubt that Ryan's hunger for experience will ebb sufficiently to give him genuine pause in his riotous plunge to doom. Personally, I found Kit Harrington's suicidally static Faustus far more intrinsically interesting than Ryan's blazing bullet of a man, but there is no doubt that this production is the more viscerally exciting of the two, and that is down to Ryan's unstoppable momentum. There is one moment, involving his encounter with Jade Croot's virginally youthful and desperately innocent Helen of Troy, that smacks the audience in the face with the sheer eerie horror of what a hungry careening unconsidered life can mean when it collides with the life and experience of another person. Shocking, meaningful and memorable. All the while, Grierson's smarmy sly brilliant Mephistophilis slimes and oozes his way through oiling the tracks, of Faustus' headlong plunge into hell, with easy grace and the slightest trace of a smirk. I very much enjoyed the somewhat simplistic typecasting of Ryan as Faustus, just as I once enjoyed the equally obvious typecasting of Cumberbatch as a cold uber-intelligent Frankenstein (which role, when played by the more warm and gentle Jonny Lee Miller just did not work at all, Miller being more sympathetic as the much maligned Creature). However, I will not see Grierson in the Faustus role, so unlike in the Cumberbatch-Miller case, I can't assess the ramifications and rewards in this production of seeing the actors play against their types. 4 stars from me. |
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Post by Jan on Sept 17, 2016 8:01:19 GMT
30+ years ago I saw the last RSC production of this in the Swan. Sorry to be pernickety, but... The Swan opened 30 years ago (in 1986) which is being celebrated there at this very moment with new productions of The Two Noble Kinsmen (which was the very first show) and The Rover (which also played in the very first season). Oh I am sure you are not really sorry. Yes it was in 1989 now I check, I was confusing it with another production of the play I saw in 1984. |
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Post by crabtree on Sept 17, 2016 9:25:39 GMT
Does anyone remember the brilliant RSC version with Iam Mckellen and Emrys James, and some very sordid, distressed puppets as the sins and Helen. Stunning production. Ben Kingsley and James Maxwell at the Royal Exchange werer also in a memorable production.
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Post by Jan on Sept 17, 2016 10:05:43 GMT
Does anyone remember the brilliant RSC version with Iam Mckellen and Emrys James, and some very sordid, distressed puppets as the sins and Helen. Stunning production. Ben Kingsley and James Maxwell at the Royal Exchange werer also in a memorable production. That was 1974 ? Before my time I'm afraid. The production I saw in 1984 also had puppets as the sins and Helen, possibly influenced by that production (or more likely to save money). I saw an indifferent production at Greenwich in 2009 also. |
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Post by Polly1 on Sept 17, 2016 10:42:25 GMT
I notice from the programme that the understudies for Faustus and Mephistopheles are both women (Eleanor Wyld is one,can't remember the other). Does this mean that if either Grierson or Ryan is off, the other has to drop out as well? It would be pretty interesting gender-blind casting if not. Has it happened? Did anyone see the understudy run? Very intriguing, I would have thought.
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