TheSpace on The Mile (V39), 19-24 August, 19:05 (50 mins) Full price £9, concessions £6.50.
Act One, the Cardiff University Drama Society, premiere ‘Faustus and the Snakes’ at this year’s Fringe. An original play inspired by the medieval Germanic legend of the Faustian pact, but unmistakably modern in its subject matter. The fevered delusions of addicts blur with the mysticism of the original story, and the religious warnings against pride are subverted in a Godless world powered by bravado, money and drive. This production explores the consequences of greed and ambition via the means of an explosive urban fairy-tale; conceived and performed entirely by students at Cardiff University.
As one of the largest student drama societies in the UK, Act One work across the calendar to open shows to the public in their native Cardiff. Their successes in Cardiff have financed an increased presence at the Fringe in recent years, ranging from beloved stories such as ‘King Lear’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’, to daring original writing like ‘Writer’s Block’ and ‘The Institute’. This year, Act One presents ‘Faustus and the Snakes’ as an exhibition of young Cardiff talent in writing and performing new drama.
Dr. John Faustus, a former chemistry prodigy, returns to the squalid estate on which he grew up with a daring ‘get rich quick’ scheme, the production of a brand new hallucinogenic narcotic of his own creation; necromancine. When the distribution deal for the drug goes awry, John must learn that when dealing with the devil, more than life and death is at stake.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
