If you want to see a truly sizzling, brilliant scene, go to oustfaust of the National Theatre. It is the finale of the part before the intermission, the culmination of an hour and a half of built-up tension. Mark Rietman spins half circles around his prey as Mafisto, Romana Vrede as Faust. With wide eyes and demonic grin, he sneaks around her, working her with his alluring chant. Peace answers timidly, subdued, rubbing hands at first, until she takes a tack, and reveals herself as one furiously wanting to claim what’s due to her, in a blazing eruption. Goosebumps.
Faust is in love with the young Gretha, but hesitates in the advances. The devious Mafisto, who has a deal with Gretha, helps Faust conquer her. In the lyrical adaptation of Goethe’s 19th-century classic by Tom Lanoye, this is the new pact: a woman in exchange for the knowledge of Faust, who is a corona doctor and as a scientist researches the new human being.
The exuberant language cathedral designed by Lanoye is at the forefront of this EastFaust† Lanoye wrote a text with overflowing, self-loving, rhyming sentences, in his own idiom, which is effortlessly pompous and vulgar at the same time. “Mud Breeder” is one such Lanoye term that every theater enthusiast will recognize.
Crazy U-turns
The first forty-five minutes are a long exposé, and that is a bit of a bite for the viewer, but as Faust and Mafisto clash more and more, you also hear the language sing and crackle.
In his farewell performance at Het Nationale Theater it was entrusted to a great text director like Theu Boermans to let his actors conquer the sometimes demanding formality of the language and let the meaning of the words penetrate well. With Mark Rietman he also has an actor who is unparalleled in his cheerful falsity. That is a well-known quality of his, while Romana Vrede shines because she shows a rarely seen side of her acting: a nerdy timidity, of a scientist who doesn’t know what to do with her love. Besides them, Myrthe Huber (Gretha) and Joris Smit (Faust’s assistant) also impress.
After the break we see the dark side of Faust’s doubts and desires and there is plenty of room for Mafisto’s destructive hedonism. In his nightclub it becomes an exuberant, debauched party. Lanoye then needs two silly U-turns in the story – a suicide bomber, a ghost apparition – to end up straight ahead, at Faust’s lab.
While there is philosophizing about the destruction of the climate and derailing science, a visually exciting scene unfolds, in which man is presented with the bill for his reckless actions. It is a fitting final chord to a lavishly lavish theater evening.