'A surfeit of deadly sin...'

Today's cultural entertainment was Dr Faustus, mostly by Christopher Marlowe although with two new acts - not thankfully in faux archaic blank verse - replacing two of the original. It was a very busy production, possibly verging on the confusing. However much of the business was very good, with the special effects and illusions being a highlight. The cast were excellent with a special mention for Siobhan Redmond strutting her stuff in a basque as Mephistopheles.

"I don't remember putting Elvis in it"

Intellectually, I have to hold my hands up and admit that I have no idea what they were driving at. Sin is bad, perhaps? There were some nice digs at bankers and Australian media magnates, but possibly they were unnecessarily cruel to poor old Amy Winehouse. The staging of the exposition of the seven deadly sins reminded me of Jerry Springer: The Opera, which is no bad thing. The Pope spoke with what I believe was a German accent. Was that meant to be Benedict XVI in some sort of comment on the various scandals? Or was it simply that Faust was himself German? Redmond seemed to affect some sort of Mittel European accent, but she is from Glasgow so one should be grateful to understand her at all.

The relevance of this will be lost if you haven't seen the production

And, being shallow, I do like a play with a few recognisable quotes. "The face that launched a thousand ships"; that'll do nicely.