Review Roundup: DOCTOR FAUSTUS, Starring Kit Harington, Opens in London

The Jamie Lloyd Company's production of DOCTOR FAUSTUS is playing an extended run at the Duke of York's Theatre, starring Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) in the title role, alongside Jenna Russell as Mephistopheles, Jade Anouka (Wagner), Tom Edden (Good Angel), Danielle Flett (Valdes), Brian Gilligan (Cornelius), Forbes Masson (Lucifer), Craig Stein (Evil Angel) and ensemble member Gabby Wong. Directed by Jamie Lloyd, Christopher Marlowe's masterwork is now booking until June 25.

With Colin Teevan's darkly comic scenes replacing the extant middle acts (widely believed not to have been written by Marlowe), the story of this 400-year-old play is being transported to a celebrity-obsessed society of greed and instant gratification, offering a fresh perspective that chimes with our times.

Faustus makes a pact with the Devil, selling his soul in return for the ability to perform anything he pleases with the power of black magic. This fatal decision catapults him into an intoxicating world of celebrity, as he becomes a world-renowned conjuror, international heartthrob and friend of the rich, famous and powerful. But what is the cost of his insatiable thirst for wealth and fame?

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: There's nothing intrinsically wrong with this sort of star-driven "event" theatre...But alas there's little that's intrinsically right about Jamie Lloyd's revival, which...verges on being totally incomprehensible in this dismally conceived rehash...Harington's own status perhaps adds another level of in-jokeyness or insight to proceedings...It says a lot that the most memorable moment of the night comes not with Faustus's midnight-hour finale but when Jenna Russell's melancholy Mephistopheles gives a tongue-in-cheek rendition of Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell after the interval. Anyone sensible would have got the hell out before that.

Holly Williams, WhatsOnStage: Take a classic Elizabethan play about a man who sells his soul to the devil, give it a modern-day twist as a satire on celebrity, and cast a pretty actor who shot to global fame in Game of Thrones. Seems like another smart idea by director Jamie Lloyd, who has form when it comes to hip stagings of classics with canny casting. Alas, Kit Harington...cannot carry this play. It's not for the want of trying: he does so much acting. So much. Not a line goes by without an accompanying grand gesture, hands twitching away; he minces and flops and broods, but his high declamatory delivery actually means speeches fail to register...This seems an overly-strenuous performance, in a production bogged down by its many attempts to find a modern and edgy take on Christopher Marlowe's play.

Matt Trueman, Variety: Must theater sell its soul for new audiences?...Canny casting pulls in a young crowd; flashy productions send them out breathlessly excited. The flip side is superficiality, and his "Doctor Faustus," starring Kit Harington of "Game of Thrones," is nothing if not that. If it gets away with it, it's because Colin Teevan's adaptation of the Christopher Marlowe play turns its focus on the seduction of surface appearances in the modern world...Harington transforms convincingly from superhacker to superstar - a feat few actors could pull off...Lloyd deploys a canny mix of reality and illusion, even if he's not always in total control of it...There's so much going on here that Lloyd's production starts to feel relentlessly restless...It's actually creepiest at its quietest, with the chorus looking on in horrified glee as Faustus self-destructs.

Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter: ...however much prolific director Jamie Lloyd and playwright Colin Teevan may have tinkered with Christopher Marlowe's 16th-century text, at least one thing is certain: Faustus is going to hell. But even if the last act can't be spoiled, there are still some pleasant surprises to be had from this lively, lusty and irreverent production, which takes aim at celebrity culture, religion, Pope Francis, David Cameron and Barack Obama alike...Some, unimpressed by his often wooden performances on the TV show...may also be pleasantly surprised at Harrington's confident, charismatic performance here. His enunciation and delivery could use polish, and it's noticeable that he can't make the meaning of every line transparent through expression alone the way much of the rest of the seasoned cast can. But Harrington has grace and presence, and in such an overwhelmingly physical piece of theater that counts for a lot.

Natasha Tripney, The Stage: By all things holy, this is a very busy production; it's cacophonous and fidgety, occasionally ingenious, often absurd. It never shuts up. There are comedy schlongs and canned laughter. There are gags about David Cameron (there are also actual gags of the bondage variety). There are an awful lot of bodily fluids. Blood but also spittle, spatter and leakage. Mouths froth. Wounds ooze. Amid all this Harington is nothing if not game. He drools and moons. He spends a lot of time on stage in his pants...But while [Lloyd's] West End productions might not be transcendent, they are incredibly savvy and never, ever dull...While the production sometimes strains to make Marlowe's own riff on the medieval morality play relevant, it's definitely going to get people talking.

Danny Coleman-Cooke, BritishTheatre.com: The German tale of Faust has inspired a number of productions over the years, but presumably none as gory and high-octane as this Jamie Lloyd Company adaptation...Despite some occasionally inspired moments, a lot of the new dialogue drags, failing to produce anything more than occasional revulsion. Character development is mainly eschewed in favour of shock tactics and panto-style popular culture references. There are so many competing ideas at work that the whole production often feels a rather jumbled mess...The relentless darkness and bleakness of the production was reinforced by some massively hysterical over-acting...Harington was brilliantly conflicted in the title role, making the most of an often laboured script.

Marianka Swain, theartsdesk.com: Blood, sexual violence, power games and lashings of nudity. Not Game of Thrones, whose new season has just premiered...and whose shadow Kit Harington is trying to escape -- but Jamie Lloyd's graphic take on Marlowe. It's a production determined to hold your attention, and, thanks to its comic carnival of excess, largely successful in that pursuit. However, like the magic tricks bestowed on its soul-selling protagonist, it's rather more flash than substance.

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