ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
Latest editorial
Done deal with the devil
PETER MASON recommends a quirky gamble with tradition in Dr Faustus which pays off
In league with Lucifer: Jocelyn Jee Esien as Dr Faustus Pic: Marc Brenner
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
Doctor Faustus
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London
THE ATMOSPHERICALLY candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is just about the perfect setting for Doctor Faustus and director Paulette Randall has ensured that her interpretation of Christopher Marlowe's cautionary tale makes great use of the venue's claustrophobic attributes.
On a dark, wood-panelled and vaguely masonic set, with three minstrels scratching eerie sound effects in the balcony above, Faustus's deal with the devil unfurls in shadowy fashion as Marlowe's polymathic lead, played with great elan by Jocelyn Jee Esien, opts to put short-term gain ahead of long-term pain.
It's a story that's especially apposite in these times, as is Marlowe's suggestion that hell is as easily found on earth as anywhere down below.
Similar stories
MATTHEW HAWKINS checks out the centenary performance of Rambert Dance Company
WILL STONE witnesses an experimental piano concerto inspired by the work of a young Jewish victim of the Nazis
JAN WOOLF is beguiled by the tempting notion that Freud psychoanalysed Hitler in a comedy that explores the vulnerability of a damaged individual
While an as-yet-unnamed new left party struggles to be born, MAT COWARD looks at some of the wild and wonderful names of workers’ organisations past that have been lost to time