Faustus: That Damned Woman (NHB Modern Plays) (Nick Hern)

Product Information

A permanent theme explored throughout is the seemingly insurmountable range of obstacles women have to overcome to achieve anything in the face of a male-oriented society which leads Johanna to express incredulity when, after her first time jump, she encounters England’s first ever female doctor, so much so Faustus becomes convinced she too must have made the same pact with Lucifer. This scene, as well as many others throughout the play, held up a shining mirror to oneself forcing us to look inwards at the sins we may be unwittingly fulfilling. Johanna Faustus (Jodie McNee) is the epitome of powerless: a low-born, 17 th-century woman whose apothecary father (Barnaby Power) crushes her ideas (he prefers leeches to potentially life-saving herbs), preaches female docility – the cautionary tale is Johanna’s mother, who was hanged as a witch – and looks for ways to marry her off. Oh, and the bubonic plague is sweeping through London. It’s easy to believe Johanna when she quips that she’s already in Hell. Thus, she strikes a bargain with the Devil (also Power): 144 years of life, during which she will never age and has access to the supernatural powers of Mephistopheles (Danny Lee Wynter, pictured below right with McNee), in exchange for her soul. At this point it is essential to mention the exceptional talent that is Olivia Sweeney who commands the stage from start to finish as Johanna with a dominance that is positively awe-inspiring. Each taking on the role of the ever present devil Mephistopheles, along with other roles, the ensemble cast are, quite simply, excellent. There is nothing more pleasing than watching an ensemble so in tune with one another, in their interpretation of the movement produced in collaboration with Fallen Angels Dance Theatre, and throughout the production. In one scene, Dzey Z Smith and Miriam O’Brien both puppeteer the body of Pierre Curie. It’s a real standout moment of the show, a skilfully executed performance and testament to what a truly collaborative performance can produce.

However, the production is definitely saved by a vivid stage design and an energetic and talented cast who throw themselves into the story wholeheartedly and deliver an enjoyable and thought-provoking performance. The Jacobean tale of Faustus is given a modern reworking in Francesca Goodridge’s pleasingly dark production which retains the element of the diabolical pact of the original story, but only partially delivers on the central concept of feminist struggle. At the end of the show when Faustus is taken, it’s ‘let’s start again. Who’s the next woman who’s going to come out? It’s OK, we might fail, but there will always be another brilliant woman who is going to have a go. And that’s what we’ve got to cling on to’.”Emmanuella Cole ( pictured above with Danny Lee Wynter)and Alicia Charles are excellent in multiple roles, while Danny Lee Wynter makes for a delightfully flamboyant Mephistopheles – gestures are emphasised by his overlong sleeves, and he gives his devilish figure a silky insouciance (a doctor abusing young women is, he sighs, merely “tedious”). It’s an effective stylistic contrast with McNee’s zealous earnestness. However, we never really dig into this Mephistopheles’s psyche, other than getting a general enthusiasm for fire and blood. Despite its darkness, it’s very hopeful. It’s about legacy, it’s about living in a fearless way and facing death The opening scene sets the tone for the play amidst Johanna’s mothers hanging for witchcraft. Olivia Sweeney (Johanna) takes the audience on a journey through time whilst conveying a spectrum of emotions in the search for the truth of her mothers death.

Faustus has suffered all her life. Exhausted by her humanity, trapped inside the limits of her morality, and continuously having been tortured by the demons of her pastIn her excellent new book The Faust Legend, which gives a critical overview of the many iterations of the Faust story, Sara Munson Deats provides a damning gender-count. “All of the avatars treated in this study,” she notes, “with the exception of Yeats’s Countess Cathleen and Wedekind’s Franziska are male.” Every bit of this production is going into this woman’s psyche and seeing how she can use her skill and intelligence, and it’s how she navigates the obstacles in every time zone that she’s in Francesca continued: "In my mind, you’re watching Olivia play Faustus. But if you’d come an hour before, you might have seen another of the ensemble playing Faustus,” My Faustus is by no means a saint. She’s still just as vainglorious and headstrong and morally compromised as any other version. She just happens to be a woman, and that means her narrative plays out in a different way. We should be filling our stages with women just as messy, complicated and conflicted as any of their male counterpoints, and I hope she lives up to that.