Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre: Doctor Faustus trailer (2011)

The Daily Express **** The Independent **** The Times **** Doctor Faustus, restless for knowledge, forsakes scholarship for magic and makes a pact with the Devil: if the tortured spirit Mephistopheles will serve him for 24 years, Faustus will yield his soul to the Devil after death. Transformed into an arena of wild spectacle and dark illusion, the Globe becomes the scene for an epic battle between Lucifer and the angels for one man’s soul. Larger than life puppets, huge flying dragons and horned stilt walkers bring Marlowe’s fantastical world to life. Mephistopheles will be played by Arthur Darvill, best known for the role of Rory in Doctor Who. Doctor Faustus is played by Paul Hilton, who was last seen at the Globe in 1998 as Orlando in As You Like It and whose other credits include Rosmersholm (Almeida Theatre), The Daughter-in-Law (Young Vic) and Silk (BBC). Doctor Faustus is considered the greatest tragedy in English before Shakespeare. Marlowe places some of the greatest poetry ever written for the stage and a good deal of anarchic comedy at the service of this mythic tale illustrating mankind’s insatiable desire for knowledge and power.