RITA DI SANTO assesses the winners of the most politically charged festival to date
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Faustus: That Damned Woman, Lyric Theatre Hammersmith
Ingenious reworking of Dr Faustus less than the sum of its parts
IN FOCUS THROUGHOUT: Jodie McNee as Johanna
[Manuel Harlan]
KATARZYNA KOSMALA introduces a retrospective by one of the most significant figures in contemporary US photography
MAYER WAKEFIELD is entertained but let down by an audacious production that, sadly, doesn't ring true
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by drama that, despite accomplished performances, cannot overcome an unfocused script
New releases from Sam Carter, Spell Songs and Les Thomas
AS CHRIS BUSH points out in the programme note to her new play, there’s no surprise that the Faustus story — selling one’s soul to the devil in exchange for power – is one of the great myths of world culture. It’s operating every day, not least in contemporary politics.
Whereas power has been the traditional province of men, Bush’s Johanna Faustus is a woman determined at all and any cost to discover whether her mother, hanged as a child murderess witch, had in fact worked in league with the devil.
The only way is to go to the fountainhead and purchase infinite knowledge from a Lucifer tellingly bearing her father’s face.
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