IT sounded as if it might turn out to be that rather dull enterprise, the worthy project. The new Blue Rose company had resolved to present a relatively new version of Goethe's Faust, in honour of the 250th anniversary of his birth. Their script by Dr Dan Farrelly, an academic specialist in Goethe, is a translation based on an earlier one by Bertolt Brecht. An unfamiliar director and cast added to the uncertainty.
I should not have mentioned these reservations had they not been confounded by the event itself, a production that does honour to the birthday boy with a script that constitutes a genuine contribution to modern theatre. The language is sharply up-to-date, a rhythmic prose tilting into verse that blends colloquialism with literate clarity, always a dialogue that the actors may, and do, speak with conviction.
The story is structured in 20 sharp, pointed scenes. It opens with a brief homily from Mephisto, and moves to the scholar Faust seeking to break into a new freedom. He conjures up his particular demon, who smooths the path of pleasure for him. But when, driven by lust, he seeks to seduce Margareta, he finds a real person, one whom he loves. The nobler emotion undermines and finally destroys him.
The lead performances are very impressive. Martin Maguire's Mephisto is a sophisticated, sardonic creation who has seen it all before, a magnetic interpretation of his famous character. Kristian Marken's Faust matches him in authority, moving through the stages of his downward slide most convincingly. Martina Austin plays Margareta in fine-tune with her destroyers, and smaller roles are well played by Niamh Maguire, John Burke, Paul Mahon, Patrick O'Donnell and Maoliosa Ni Chleirigh.
Director Antoinette Duffy, making use of Chris Flynn's mirrored set design, harmonises her cast and script creatively. My only reservations concern the final scene, played in virtual darkness, and the abrupt ending, probably a feature of the early Goethe Urfaust base for this play. But the whole does credit to all the collaborators in this exciting new exploration of the old.
Plays to November 6th; booking at 01-6713387
