FAUST PARTS I AND II. To 8 April.

Edinburgh

FAUST Parts I and II
by Goethe adapted by John Clifford

Royal Lyceum Theatre To 8 April 2006
Tue-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Runs Part I: 2hr 20min Part II 1hr 55min One interval each part

TICKETS: 0131 248 4848
www.lyceum.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4,5 April

Vastly ambitious, Scotland now has a Faust to stand beside earlier ones in Wales and England.Even among Euro-geniuses, Goethe's often reckoned the tops, so any attempt to adapt his two-part mega-hour tragedy (never intended for staging) is defeated before it starts. Yet Paradise Lost's as tall an order and that had 2 productions last year (one being revived for tour now). Jane Eyre's pretty intractable too -or was until Polly Teale got her teeth into it; it's now out for the umpteenth time. And as for Nicholas Nickleby, well, that's RSC history (and about to fill Chichester's main stage too).

Besides. the inevitability of failure is germane to this story. The first part's fairly conventional: Prof. Faust grows bored with knowledge, so sells his soul in hope of finding meaning in life. Instead the devil turns out to be the (lack of) soul of emptiness. Faust falls for a simple, good-hearted lass buys and destroys her. And that's it.

Part II has no truck with such things as story. Instead it's Goethe's trawl of learning from the classics to science, stopping only when Mephistopheles has Faust in his grasp when he ceases striving for progress and wants one moment stretched eternally. Only Gretchen, now the form of the eternal feminine saves him by driving him on. Angels rejoice, the devil's furious.

John Clifford abridged Anna Karenina brilliantly for the Lyceum last year. This is even longer and a taller order. While his interest in gender-bending is fascinating (the eternal feminine might draw me on; and finding the female inside me might well be worth the effort. But what about 52% of the others treading the earth?) his remorseless obscenity and the presentation of Gretchen's friend Martha (Margaret, I thought it was, and Mephistopheles does call her that once) as a brassy whore seems cheap and easy in the reflection of Liverpool's verbatim Unprotected which told it how it really is with sex on the streets.

Clifford's decision to give the story a local habitation and a present-day setting helps with clarity but creates new gripes. Academics might not make the filthy rich list but a Scottish professor today can hardly complain of living in squalour without losing sympathy. As for troubles of the academic life, how much nicer it must be as a redundant steel-worker or a minimuim-wage security-guard. (Yet the setting allows a neat stab at educationalist jargon and a critique of the post-Thatcher university.)

Faustian progress doesn't necessarily carry a positive moral tone. The relation with Mephistopheles begins uncertainly (contrast the slow, nervous precision with which Faust disrobes at the devil's demand in Part I with his swift self-baring in the second part). There's a lot of early doubt. But before the end Faust speeds into the diabolic net, crushing even his gender-swapping poet-creator, grasping power in a way that aligns him with the protagonist of that 19th century dramatist's not-for-staging epic poem Peer Gynt.

Mark Thomson's production revels in lead performances by Liam Brennan's resonant Faust, in the first part constantly squeezing his spectacle-less eyes in search of more life,and Dugald Bruce-Lockhart's red-suited Mephistopheles, confidently insolent with blades of fury when infuriated. In the strong ensemble, Ruth Connell's Gretchen's also outstanding, as is her Part II sex-weary Helen of Troy. The return of Gretchen in her fatal red dress, along with the Martha (or Margarita) of Molly Innes proves that, whatever the philosophy, it's strong, familiar characters that hold the attention.

Francis O'Connor's huge book-case set, collapsing its volumes at the blood-pact, later becomes a huge cage. A trucked room, Gretchen's neat housing-scheme home or, ripped-up, her prison-cell, wheels back and forward, making for astonishing changes in perspective on its inhabitants. The stage is sometimes filled with action; at other times its space (with Simon Mills' bravura lighting) focuses the loneliness of a dialogue like Helen's with Faust.

Even with 12 actors, this is a massive commitment but, aided at moments by Philip Pinsky's piquant score and Malcolm Shields' fantasticated movement, Mark Thomson has created the most ambitious production on this stage since Ian Wooldridtge's early nineties 2-parter of Tankred Dorst's Merlin.

(Part I) (Part II)
Faust: Faust: Liam Brennen
Mephistopheles: Mephistopheles: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart

Gretchen: Ex-Gretchen/Chorus/
Siren/Helen/Grey
Woman/Una
Poenitentium: Ruth Connell

Earth Spirit/ Phorcyad/Nymph/
Martha: Chorus/Baucis/
Grey Woman/Magna
Peccatrix: Molly Innes

Angel Raphael/ Poet/Angel:
Witch/
Gretchen's Mother: Isabella Jarrett

Angel Gabriel/ Prick/Chorus/
Waiter/Witch: Nereus/Haaltefest/
Lemur/Angel: Keith McPherson

Wagner/ Wagner/Chorus/
McDonald/ Raufebald/Boy
Baboon: Angel/Lemur: Barnaby Power

Exotic Creature/ Homonculus/
McTavish/ Chorus/Centaur/
Baboon/ Habebald/
Valentine/ Lemur/Angel: Douglas Rankine

Citizen/ Phorcyad/Sphinx/
Exotic Creature/ Siren/Chorus/
Witch/Singing Sorge/Angel:
Angel:
Witch: Jennifer Rhodes

Director/God/ Chorus/Lyncaeus/
McKenzie/ Boy/Lemur/Angel:
Baboon/Witch: Malcolm Shields

Poet/Witch: Emperor/Chorus/
Philemon/Lemur/
Angel: Aaron Shirley

Young Woman/ Graduate/Phorcyad/
Cat/Witch: Siren/Chorus/Grey
Woman/Mulier
Samaritana: Mary Wells

Director: Mark Thomson
Designer: Francis O'Connor
Lighting: Simon Mills
Video design: Mike Windle
Composer/Musical Director: Philip Pinsky
Choreographer: Malcolm Shields
Assistant director: Fergus Ford
Associate Lighting: Simon Wilkinson

2006-04-05 18:34:37