Very good play on the orginal Faustus. It uses the tricks that Mamet loves. It has a hidden unread book, an idea that we sort of understand and imagine its implcations. Faustus makes his choices and has the same aims as the orginal Fautus but Mamet looks at the implciation of choice and decision for Faust in a new way. I really like the magic and staging idea in the play, the idea that magic may be real or a trick in the play and never clear which one for great swaths of the play make it suspenseful. Mamet is a great writer of dialog and this does not disappoint. He uses our imagination and gives us just what we need to see with our own minds. Mamet showes that the tragdey of Faust is self inflicted and that Faust is aware of it.
First, I'm not a playwright, or much of a reader of plays. I grabbed this because I enjoyed "Oleanna," and was curious about the story of Faustus. I don't know how this play was received, but I do know I found it completely brilliant. The language felt archaic, but still fresh, to wit: "Who am I to balk another of his freak? I knew a villain, said he lived to count the stars. Each darkness found him, with his pen and ledger, out of the house, happy as a grig." The structure is lovely: the two acts echo one another to devastating effect, as the past comes back to haunt Faustus.
What do You think about Faustus (2004)?
A Raspberry for sure....Sunday 27 March 2005 20:10-21:30 (Radio 3)British Premiere of David Mamet's new play Faustus. In a timeless setting Mamet directs his own working of the Faustian legend.Neglectful of his son on his birthday, Faustus is drawn into a deadly wager with the party 'entertainer' in which logic and reason are shown to be feeble weapons against the power of chance, mystery and magic. Will intellectual pride precede the ultimate fall of man? Faustus ......... .Ed O'NeillThe Friend
—Bettie☯
