Faustus: That Damned Woman (NHB Modern Plays) (Nick Hern)

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However, I felt this was a successful decision by director Francesca, as it added an ethereal, otherworldly appearance to the character leaving me wonder - is there a devil in everyone? The opening scene sets the tone for the play amidst Johanna’s mothers hanging for witchcraft. Olivia Sweeney (Johanna) takes the audience on a journey through time whilst conveying a spectrum of emotions in the search for the truth of her mothers death. This play is also available as an A4 Edition. With spiral binding, a larger print size and additional space for notes, this format is ideal for directors, stage managers, actors and others to use in rehearsal and production.

A permanent theme explored throughout is the seemingly insurmountable range of obstacles women have to overcome to achieve anything in the face of a male-oriented society which leads Johanna to express incredulity when, after her first time jump, she encounters England’s first ever female doctor, so much so Faustus becomes convinced she too must have made the same pact with Lucifer.When researching the look and feel Francesca wants to bring to a production, she says she works with visual imagery more than words, and for Faustus she has explored ideas of physical theatre and contemporary dance, along with body art. The final master stroke which adds beauty, excitement and lyricism to the work is the essential role played by movement which sometimes breaks out into exhilarating dance routines devised by Paul Bayes-Kitcher, artistic director of Fallen Angels Dance Theatre with whom this is a co-production. In my new play, my Faustus is a young woman in 17th-century London, the daughter of a plague doctor father and a herbalist mother who was tried and killed as a witch when Faustus was a girl. She’s grown up with a mistrust of organised religion and a fascination with the occult, and exists on the fringes of society. She has no wealth and little agency. By the time she meets Lucifer she knows the risks but sees his offer as the least bad option available to her. As she tells him: The sheer quality of this version of the famous story deserves to turn it into the definitive version for the 21st century because I, for one, would consider selling my soul for the chance to see it again. However, in a significant and entirely believable development, this leads Johanna to realise that if she truly is to aid humanity, she cannot rely on the supernatural and will have to work hard to achieve it - which is exactly what she does.

Be careful what you wish for is the tag line of this astonishing reimagining of the classic tale about someone who sells their soul to the devil. The strength of the performance lies in the physicality of the performers who take on collective movement as easily as they embody the wit and emotion of characters. The demonic compelling tale is told from a female perspective, inverting its protagonist’s true gender, as Bush willingly places Faustus’ damned soul into a female body. She is most definitely not the first to have visualized Faustus as a woman, but from the few that have attempted to do so successfully over the centuries. If the first half is a sort of mystical feminist revenge thriller then the second half is a sort of mystical feminist redemption saga, as Johanna resolves to do good with her power.Emmanuella Cole ( pictured above with Danny Lee Wynter)and Alicia Charles are excellent in multiple roles, while Danny Lee Wynter makes for a delightfully flamboyant Mephistopheles – gestures are emphasised by his overlong sleeves, and he gives his devilish figure a silky insouciance (a doctor abusing young women is, he sighs, merely “tedious”). It’s an effective stylistic contrast with McNee’s zealous earnestness. However, we never really dig into this Mephistopheles’s psyche, other than getting a general enthusiasm for fire and blood.

Faustus: That Damned Woman continues at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, London W6, until 22 February. Phone 020 8741 6850. lyric.co.ukDirecting Credits include: Cymbeline; Parliament Square; Constellations; The Heresy of Love (LAMDA); Icarus (Nottingham Playhouse); The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (New Vic Theatre); The Blue Bird (Theatre503/Tour); Ballistic (King’s Head Theatre); Tomorrow Creeps (VAULT Festival); Macbeths; I Know You Of Old (Hope Theatre); Horniman’s Choice (Finborough Theatre); and Twelfth Night (Manchester Victoria Baths). At this point it is essential to mention the exceptional talent that is Olivia Sweeney who commands the stage from start to finish as Johanna with a dominance that is positively awe-inspiring.