Faustus is Back

What goes around comes around. Dr. Faustus sold his soul to Lucifer, just so he could parade around like an arrogant jerkball with Mephistopheles as his demon manservant. He wound up in eternal damnation.

On the other hand, veteran Chicago actor Colm O’Reilly put in hours of non-speaking, non-moving stage time as the tormented Mephistopheles in Theater Oobleck’s 1999 production of An Apology for the Course & Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening. Not only did O’Reilly’s efforts earn him great reviews, but now, a decade later, he’ll be starring as Dr. Faustus in the play’s revival. Justice is served.

In An Apology . . . , writer Mickle Maher re-imagines the Faustus story in a tragi-comic monologue. On the last night of his life, about to meet his fate in Hell, Faustus rails on about his evil deeds and remains “repentant of nothing save his failure to keep a proper diary.” After the first production opened, New City called the play “an inspired feat of literary imagination” and the Reader called O’Reilly “remarkable – despite the fact that he neither speaks nor moves.”

With classic cases of Faustian behavior hitting the news every day (Blago probably thinks this show is about him too!), we can certainly use a good chuckle at the expense of the arrogant.

Now thru Oct. 24 at the Chopin Theatre. $12 (“more if you’ve got it, free if you’re broke”).