A reviews round-up for Doctor Faustus at the Duke of York’s Theatre
Jamie Lloyd’s much anticipated production of Doctor Faustus starring Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington has now opened. Surprisingly for Lloyd, most reviews have taken a dim view of his updated take on Marlow’s iconic tale. Jenna Russell almost steals the show post interval when she sing Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell and Harington more than holds his own, however the production is oft referred to as incoherent, baffling and a Marlovian mish-mash.
Here’s a round-up of reviews from The Guardian, Observer, Time Out, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Stage.
Doctor Faustus runs until 25 June 2016 at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
BOOKING
Book tickets to Doctor Faustus
Average Critics Rating
★★★
REVIEWS ROUND-UP
Time Out
★★★
“without Harington’s bug-eyed, blood covered, frequently topless presence, I suspect Jamie Lloyd’s often baffling production might struggle in the risk-averse West End.”
“Teevan’s vast middle section, though loosely a rewrite of the weakest segment of the original, feels like a different play entirely. It’s a hallucinogenic, scatalogical, madly improbable fantasy in which Faustus has become a superstar magician who hangs out with Obama and the Pope, who can perform godlike tricks, and whose every witticism is punctuated by laughter and canned applause. The effect is, er, pretty out there.”
“At times it feels willfully incoherent – though much about it is compelling. Harington is definitely a lot more than a chiselled chest – though if that’s what you’re here for, don’t worry, you see plenty of it.”
“the show is really stolen by alt musical star Jenna Russell as a sullen, sarcastic and terrifying Mephistopheles.. she’s great, she gets to sing Meatloaf’s ‘Bat Out of Hell’, .. she’s integral to the peculiar je ne sais quoi”
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out Read more
The Guardian
★★
“The Game of Thrones actor gives us a sense of the scholar’s flailing despair but Jamie Lloyd’s excessive version of the tragedy comes with a trite message”
The presence of Game of Thrones’s Kit Harington, who is a perfectly good actor, in the title role will guarantee a young audience but what they will see is a Marlovian mish-mash.”
[Harington] is much more than a TV icon and, when the production allows him, he gives us a sense of Faustus’s flailing despair: I’d certainly like to see him venture further into classical theatre. Russell also lends Mephistopheles a commanding presence, greeting a good angel with a steely gaze and suggesting the character is driven by sexual, as well as spiritual, jealousy. Jade Anouka, meanwhile, turns Wagner into the image of loving constancy and Forbes Masson is a suitably diabolical Lucifer although, when we see him noisily taking a dump, I felt we were confronted by those old familiar faeces.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian Read more
The Independent
★★★
“Though there aren't enough colours in his voice as yet to convey the interior music of Marlowe's mighty line, Harington throws himself into the part with audacious commitment, restlessly signalling the pit of soul hunger that no amount of applause or material gratification (a whole pizza gobbled down in strips) can fill.”
“Ambitious but incoherent, it's a show that embraces some of the good as well as the unfortunate meanings of “diabolical”.
Paul Taylor, The Independent Read more
The Observer
★
