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DOCTOR FAUSTUS Send This Review to a Friend
The fate of Doctor Faustus may be tragic, but you may have a cheery good time at the Classic Stage Company’s presentation of a loose version adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s classic by David Bridel and Andrei Belgrader, with Belgrader directing. The adventures contained in the original are bizarre enough to lend themselves to comic treatment despite the seriousness at the heart of Marlowe’s play.
Doctor Faustus, who sells his soul to the devil via emissary Mephistopheles in exchange for years of power and prestige in a limited time before he must descend to hell, is played by Chris Noth, primarily of television fame. In the beginning at the performance I saw his voice was overly quiet, but it gathered strength as the play proceeded, as did his acting. However, I can’t say there was much feeling for Noth’s Faustus, either with sympathy or disdain, when it was time to meet his fate no matter how desperate his pleading.
The cast is effective within the concept of the adaptation. Zach Grenier plays Mephistopheles, and Jeffrey Binder portrays Lucifer and other roles. There is audience interplay, real and feigned. On the night I saw the production, in a portion about the seven deadly sins, a woman was plucked from the first row to illustrate pride, and much sport was made with her as she was asked to undress. She gamely got into the spirit, but the gag was that the buffoons who led her center stage were the ones dropping their pants. On another occasion, the woman who was pulled from the audience turned out to be Marina Lazzaretto, a cast member who gyrated in ways that no audience member would or could.
Lazzaretto has her major moment as the conjured up Helen of Troy, appearing nude in the arms of Faustus in a momentary scene of nuanced sensuality.
Various cast members in multiple roles include Ken Cheesman, Carmen M. Herlihy, Walter Jones, Geoffrey Owens and Lucas Caleb Rooney. The play is enlivened by slapstick, especially by Rooney as Robin and Cheesman as Dick, two daffy misfits.
There are excellent special effects near the end when Faustus disappears in a haze of smoke and what looks like the fires of hell.
The emphasis on comedy may not be to everyone’s liking or true to the original. But if accepted, it makes for an entertaining evening, despite its undercutting the seriousness of the message that temporary rewards don’t look as great after one has enjoyed them but is faced with the pre-arranged consequences. However, laughter has rewards of its own. At the Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street. Phone: 212-352-3101. Reviewed June 19, 2015.
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