Review: DOCTOR FAUSTUS at The Canon Shakespeare Company
Christopher Marlowe's early 1600s masterwork runs through May 17th.
You don't often get the chance to see DOCTOR FAUSTUS on stage. Christopher Marlowe's early 1600s masterwork is the ur-text of the Faustian bargain, the template for everything from the musical Damn Yankees to the Al Pacino-Keanu Reeves film The Devil's Advocate. And yet it rarely gets produced. Thankfully, Canon Shakespeare Company has brought this classic to stage in an evocative, well-acted production.
The story follows Doctor John Faustus, a brilliant scholar who, having mastered every field of human knowledge, finds himself restless and unsatisfied. Hungry for power beyond mortal limits, he turns to dark magic and summons Mephistopheles, a demon in service to Lucifer. The two strike a pact: Mephistopheles will grant Faustus 24 years of absolute power, knowledge, and pleasure. In return, Faustus will surrender his soul to hell. What follows is both a wild ride through the possibilities of unchecked desire and a slow, creeping reckoning with what Faustus has traded away. The play asks, with mounting dread, whether any earthly reward is worth damnation, and whether someone who has made such a bargain can ever truly repent.
This production plunges headfirst into the darkness. Through lighting, fog, and sheer physicality, director Jaime Fields and her cast conjure a world where the demonic feels genuinely present. There are moments here that are truly scary, helped in part by the tiny little space of Wyrd Hut, where the production takes place. The demons are literally everywhere.
Yet Marlowe, like Shakespeare, understood that unrelenting darkness becomes numbing. He breaks the tension with clowns and comic interludes, which this production leans into just as hard. The effect is to make both the laughter and the dread hit with maximal impact.
Alec Henneberger is excellent as Faustus, tracing the arc of a man who gets everything he wished for and slowly understands what it will cost him. As Mephostopheles, Isabelle Giordano is crafty and sinister as she grants Faustus's desires while quietly ensuring his damnation. The ensemble more than holds its own: Ryan Pfeiffer, Justin Duff, and Tristan Roseff bring sharp comic relief across a range of roles (Duff's brief turn as the Pope is a highlight). Owen Webb, Chloe Lovelady, and Maryellen Wood round out a cast that gives the show both range and depth.
This production illustrates one of my favorite things about Portland theatre – that you can still walk into an off-the-beaten-path venue and see a great show for less than $25. If you’re a Shakespeare fan, or curious about where the Faustian myth begins, don't let this one pass you by.
DOCTOR FAUSTUS runs through May 17th. Details and tickets here.
Photo credit: Signe Naranjo & Kevin Dyer
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