The Observer on Silviu Purcarete's "Faust": I'd sell my soul to see this Faust again

„Quite the most blisteringly stunning theatrical experience of this (or, appropriately enough, any other) life, Faust (Ingliston Lowland Hall) seared and stuck like hot tar on bare skin. This Romanian production, in a hangar of a shed near the airport, left most of us mesmerised and enthralled, and left me saddened only in one perverse way: I may never see a grander, more theatrical event in my life”, The Observer writes about the „Faust” by Goethe adaptation of Romanian director Silviu Purcarete.

The play was presented during the Edinburgh International Festival. The most prestigious performing arts festival is taking place during August 14 – September 6. Faust has been staged staring August 18 and ending August 22, at Lowland Hall, according to Edinburgh International Festival website.

„An hour on, the entire stage, the whole wall, everything, disappears. It’s just removed. We are led, cajoled, ushered, by men in hog masks, through to the vast back half of the hangar, where the bad Dr F is enjoying Walpurgis Night. I’d thought it was theatre before: this was theatre. Wild, booming, terrifying theatre”, The Observer goes on.

„In the many reworkings of the original legend, from Marlowe to Goethe and beyond, there have been endless reinterpretations over what Faust sought: knowledge, reason, riches or earthly pleasure: reinterpretations, basically, of the Enlightenment. Silvio Purcarete’s production goes for all of them at once: as ambitious but as apt as the event itself”, the critic Euan Ferguson goes on to say.

„Faust” is produced by „Radu Stanca” National Theatre from Sibiu (Central Romania). Shortly after its premiere was in 2007, it became one of the most enjoyed plays in the „Sibiu – European Capital of Culture” programme, winning the UNITER award for the best scenography and the best leading actress.

The play features Silviu Purcarete – director, Helmut Sturmer – scenographer, Lia Mantoc – costumes, Vasile Sirli – original music, Doru Apreotesei – sound arrangement, Daniel Raduta – scenography assistant. The performance casts Ilie Gheorghe as Faust, Ofelia Popii as Mephisto, alongside over 100 actors and musicians.

Ofelia Popii received theHerlad Angel Awardon Saturday, during the festival in Great Britain, for her role in „Faust”.