This is a sponsored competition on behalf of the Royal Shakespeare Company
The opening of the Royal Shakespeare Company's visceral adaptation of Doctor Faustus is unique.
Two actors enter. Each lights a match and watches it burn. Whoever’s goes out first ‘loses’ and must play the fated doctor, while the other plays the demon Mephistophilis, in this notorious tale of vanity, greed and damnation.
Faustus is a solitary scholar who has exhausted the confines of human knowledge. Frustrated with the futility of religion, law and science, he is desperate for a deeper understanding of the universe – and the fame it will bring.
Risking everything, he conjures Mephistophilis and asks him to strike a deal with Lucifer. He agrees to 24 years of absolute knowledge — in exchange for his soul.
Transferring to the Barbican, following its successful run at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon, Maria Aberg’s punchy production updates Marlowe for our times with ritual, cabaret and carnival.
Described by The Times as "soul-scouring theatre", and by The Stage as bristling "with originality and vision", it stars Sandy Grierson (The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors 2012) and Oliver Ryan (As You Like It and Hamlet 2013) in the roles of the doctor and the demon.
Who will play Faustus when you see it?
This unmissable, critically-acclaimed production is at the Barbican for only four weeks, and we have a pair of tickets to give away, worth almost £100. This competition is now closed.
Doctor Faustus runs at the Barbican from 7 September-1 October. Tickets are £10-49.50, available from the Barbican box office.
