Faust, Young Vic Theatre | reviews, news & interviews
Faust, Young Vic Theatre
Faust, Young Vic Theatre
Icelandic version of Goethe's masterpiece too acrobatic for its own good
Saturday, 02 October 2010
Icelandic 'Faust': Somewhere between Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade and Billy Smart's circusEddi
It's hard to overestimate the importance of Goethe's Faust to the German soul, though I did once have a German friend who valued George Eliot's Middlemarch more highly. If there's a real English competitor to Goethe in the literary stakes, it is of course Shakespeare, but that doesn't really work either, because, when not thinking of Goethe, many Germans consider Shakespeare neither better nor worse; simply theirs.
It's hard to overestimate the importance of Goethe's Faust to the German soul, though I did once have a German friend who valued George Eliot's Middlemarch more highly. If there's a real English competitor to Goethe in the literary stakes, it is of course Shakespeare, but that doesn't really work either, because, when not thinking of Goethe, many Germans consider Shakespeare neither better nor worse; simply theirs.
Add comment
more Theatre
Close-Up: The Twiggy Musical, Menier Chocolate Factory review - a tourist's view of a Sixties icon
Ben Elton has written an odd musical-documentary, part comic-strip, part lecture
Unbelievable, Criterion Theatre review - Derren Brown-directed show misses his otherworldly danger
Pantomime vibe undermines the unique frisson of the magician's art
Frank and Percy, The Other Palace review - two-hander fails to escape a very short leash
Ian McKellen and Roger Allam as the lonely men who bond over their dogs
Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play, Young Vic review - committed and important play let down by heavy-handed writing
Satirical comedy-drama labours its points across an uninterrupted two hours
Octopolis, Hampstead Theatre review - blue, blue, electric blue
New play about the relations between humans and other life forms has profound depths
Mlima's Tale, Kiln Theatre review - simple, powerful tale about the rape of Africa
Lynn Nottage’s 2018 play gets an exquisite staging with moving performances
Rebecca, Charing Cross Theatre review - troubled show about a troubled house nonetheless diverts
Austrian musical finally arrives in London to entertain, but not quite thrill
Operation Epsilon, Southwark Playhouse review - alternative Oppenheimer
Revival of Alan Brody’s award-winning 2013 history play is solid but plodding
It's Headed Straight Towards Us, Park Theatre review - indigestible mix of fact and fiction
Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer have muddled aims for a tale of warring actors
The White Factory, Marylebone Theatre review - what price dignity in hell?
Dazzling Russian production finds fresh relevance in the Lodz ghetto massacre
Pygmalion, Old Vic review - zappy wit and emotional intelligence
Patsy Ferran's vibrant Eliza Doolittle sparks Bertie Carvel's Henry Higgins into human life
anthropology, Hampstead Theatre review - AI thriller runs out of code
Lauren Gunderson’s new play is timely, tantalising but doesn’t quite hit its mark
Comments
...