Marlowe’s Dr Faustus is a brave choice for a student play, but updating the script and setting it in Cambridge was even braver.

Upon entering the theatre, I found Faustus already hard at work, surrounded by many books and a glass of what looked like scotch. The first thing I noticed, however, was the meticulously detailed set. The well-stocked student bookshelf, emergency tins of baked beans, Cambridge scarf, and of course the painting of The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog immediately indicated that this was no 1580s Germany.

Set instead in Cambridge in the year 1986, the updated script had varying degrees of success. While the odd new line did seem to jar with the play, other sections elicited many laughs from the audience. Faustus and Lucifer doing shots in Life, for instance, was a modernisation that maybe shouldn’t have worked, but one which the audience was definitely partial to. The exposition of the deadly sins took place in this club setting, a clever idea that unfortunately wasn’t entirely realised, although this was mainly due to the volume of music drowning out every single word a character said. Perhaps this was a form of realism, as it is of course neigh impossible to have a conversation in Life, but for the sake of the script and what is usually one of the most entertaining scenes of the play, we would have much rather been able to hear the words instead of blaring 80s music. That said, Martin Vella’s depiction of Gluttony clinging onto his cheesy chips was amusing even without the words. The ensemble actors, particularly Sam Clayton and Mikael Astrand, also provided wonderfully comic scenes.

Peter Martin (Faustus) and Tristram Fane-Saunders (Mephastophilis) are to be commended for their acting, although the devilish walk and mannerisms of the latter often became a distraction. What these characters lacked in chemistry was made up for by the impressive energy of the end sequence of Faustus’ damnation, something which was disturbingly effective.

There is much more scope for comedy in Marlowe’s script than the show makes use of – it feels like more effort has been put into throwing in Cambridge references rather than focussing on the humour and subtleties found in abundance in the original script. Nonetheless, it is impossible to deny that this production of Faustus was both cleverly re-written and skilfully performed.