REVIEW: Faustaff, Cockpit Theatre ✭✭

Faustaff

Cockpit Theatre

20th November

2 Stars

Faustaff’s brilliant title sets the bar high; the tale of Faustus with the comedy of Falstaff (who sadly never appears). Unfortunately, this British-Mexican production doesn’t live up to the standards of either Marlow or Shakespeare; instead it gives an underwhelming and occasionally baffling evening.

The premise of the play is clever, bringing the mythical character of Faust straight into the modern day. Writer Gily Jacoby sells her soul to the Devil, an evil ghostwriter who works with her to develop some increasingly macabre literary plots. She becomes convinced that life really is imitating art as her tales start coming true, killing some of those she cares about.

The central conceit is an interesting take on the price of modern day fame, however Diego Sosa’s script does not quite do it justice. The dialogue seems forced and laboured, especially the romantic scenes, which could have been lifted straight from this week’s Bad Sex in Fiction Awards. Perhaps it was a case of lost in translation, but the script too often veered towards the clichéd and the overdramatic.

The play describes itself as a ‘black comedy’ but laughs were few and far between. The intended comic relief seems to come from two detectives; one is a sort of autistic savant who becomes blind and the other a bumbling fool who becomes deaf. The joke wears thin very quickly and the scenes where they were on stage were undoubtedly the weakest sections.

Lesley Lightfoot put in a valiant effort as Gily Jacoby, convincingly portraying the afflicted writer; Bernard O’Sullivan also gives a natural performance as Detective Paterson. However, the clunky dialogue means the rest of the cast seemed to struggle in fleshing out their characters, especially Jonson Wilkinson whose multiple male parts felt indistinct.

Despite these stark issues, the Cockpit Theatre is a wonderful space and the lighting was well deployed to create some tense moments. Bizarrely, someone in the company seemed to think it was a good time to get some production shots, annoyingly snapping away throughout the entire show. Perhaps a task best left for the dress rehearsal…

Public opinion is not everything but four people from the already small audience independently walked out of Faustaff. Not a very subtle form of criticism but it was easy to see why; a great premise executed in a disappointing way.

Faustaff runs at the Cockpit Theatre until December 6.