Faustus: That Damned Woman - Chester Storyhouse - Tuesday 7th February 2023

Wendy
Feb 9, 2023
3 min read

In an original reimagining of the legend of Faust, one woman sells her soul to the devil to change the course of human history and attempt to seize control of her own destiny.

This dark, intense play written by Chris Bush for Storyhouse was a thought provoking look at addiction to power, witchcraft and the devil incarnate, Lucifer.

Story

The story of Faustus started off dark, creepy and sinister as we began at a Witch trial in plague ridden London, with someone being dunked literally head first into a bucket of water.

It definitely set the scene right from the word go and the dark themes remained throughout the show. Touching on addiction, self-harm and torture it was great to see a content warning displayed outside the auditorium to let people know what was coming (below).

As we flew through history from the plagued times all the way through to the modern future, I will say that the story got weaker. I feel like the second act rushed to get to the resolution of the story and doing so it lost some of it's grit.

Cast

I love it when a cast play multiple characters as we get to see the range of acting skills they have, and this cast did not disappoint.

Every single one of them delivered a gritty, dark and also humorous performance. Their physical theatre skills were also top notch and helped us see parts of the story through physical movement.

Although all were top level, shoutouts this time go to Miriam O'Brien as 1 take on Mephistopheles. She brought a more humorous side to the character and her facial expressions made her time as the character ever funnier.

Mephistopheles had 4 different versions throughout the show and this may be me reading into it too much but I felt like each person got darker and more sinister from beginning to end as Johanna became more and more obsessed with changing history. If this was deliberate then it was a clever move and I LOVED IT!

Sound/Music

The atmospheric music used throughout the show really did help set the scene and ramped up the suspense at certain parts!

The only criticism I have is that it was quite jarring when the music started or stopped meaning it didn't flow in the best away and sometimes made me lose the connection I had with the story as I realised I was sat in a theatre.

Set/Lighting

The staging was minimal and consisted of chairs, a hole on the front centre of the stage and some hanging trees/lights throughout the show. This was very effective and to be honest it didn't need much more.

The highlight for the staging and set for me was the use of the dripping water at certain parts. Literal dripping water was falling from the ceiling on to the stage! And at the beginning of act 2.... there's a very wet surprise. That's all I'm going to say!

There was also some controlled fire used at the end of act 1 which was a surprise and was not expected!