At this point it is essential to mention the exceptional talent that is Olivia Sweeney who commands the stage from start to finish as Johanna with a dominance that is positively awe-inspiring. Associate Director Credits include: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre UK Tour and UK Schools Tour). Visually dynamic, well produced and thoroughly engaging, Storyhouse has produced a very memorable and striking production. You won’t be disappointed! This scene, as well as many others throughout the play, held up a shining mirror to oneself forcing us to look inwards at the sins we may be unwittingly fulfilling. Olivia Sweeney takes on the part of Johanna Faustus, and whereas in previous interpretations of the tale, the story itself judges the morality of Faustus’s actions, in this production it is the audience who are challenged to take on the role of jury. Do we believe that Sweeney’s Faustus is morally good? Overreaching her power? She is a complicated figure driven by grief, need, and, as the play moves on, almost drunk on opportunity and possibilities. Sweeny’s indefatigable take on the role gives all the more weight and urgency to the characters seemingly impossible aspirations.

The final master stroke which adds beauty, excitement and lyricism to the work is the essential role played by movement which sometimes breaks out into exhilarating dance routines devised by Paul Bayes-Kitcher, artistic director of Fallen Angels Dance Theatre with whom this is a co-production. As a male critic, I'm infinitely aware that there's a danger of this review being turned into an examination of how men treat women who aspire to that greatness or their desire to tell great stories. But a piece of theatre can only be judged on its own terms of whether it engages its audience or not. Despite a highly atmospheric production by Caroline Byrne, and lively performances by a seven-strong cast spiritedly led by Jodie McNee in the title role, I found myself mostly at a distance (and not just because I was seated in row M). Partly its the Faust story itself: it's not meant to be taken literally, of course, but with its time-travelling shifts of pace and place, it's difficult to care what actually happens to her. But there's also something muddled and muted in the storytelling here. As much as I wanted to embrace it, its stridency kept pushing me away. The concept is compelling. The ideas are fiendish. But, like Faustus herself, the play doesn’t really fulfil its vaulting ambition.

STAGE TALK

However, the production is definitely saved by a vivid stage design and an energetic and talented cast who throw themselves into the story wholeheartedly and deliver an enjoyable and thought-provoking performance. The Faust myth has fascinated writers for more than 400 years, inspiring two classics of Western theatre by Christopher Marlowe and Goethe. But this story of a man selling his soul to the devil in return for knowledge and fame has always been just that: a story of a man. Jocelyn Jee Esien played Doctor Faustus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse a year ago but, despite a few changes, it remained Marlowe’s text. Chris Bush has now created a female-led spin on the myth in Faustus: That Damned Woman, using it to explore how women navigate power within a patriarchal system. That Bush never seems to interrogate the morality ofJohanna’stinkering– when the classic version of the myth is almost entirely about the morality of Johann’s tinkering– is one of the things that lost me as the play wore on. Bush’s heroine seemsto be presented as an avatar of unbounded female potential…but she also arrogantlymanipulates humanity to the brink of extinction, a fact that is extremely glossed over in moral and emotional terms.

If the first half is a sort of mystical feminist revenge thriller then the second half is a sort of mystical feminist redemption saga, as Johanna resolves to do good with her power. Chris Bush's devilishly provocative play Faustus: That Damned Woman is inspired by the works of Marlowe, Goethe and other versions of the Faust myth – and explores what women must sacrifice to achieve greatness, and the legacies that are left behind. The opening scene sets the tone for the play amidst Johanna’s mothers hanging for witchcraft. Olivia Sweeney (Johanna) takes the audience on a journey through time whilst conveying a spectrum of emotions in the search for the truth of her mothers death. It is splendid to rethink this and other classic stories with a complex female anti-hero. But Johanna is never allowed moments of intimacy which would warm us towards her. Her most interesting bond is with Mephistopheles. When asked about her relationship with men, she replies, in one of the play’s well-placed comic moments, “It’s complicated.” For this is experimental theatre at its very best which sees writer Chris Bush effectively jettison everything connected to the notorious Christopher Marlowe original apart from the basic premise and takes it in directions that are simply mind-blowing.

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London is already awash with major re-workings of classic texts, whether nudged into contemporary verse and attitude ( Cyrano de Bergerac at the Playhouse), modern dress and language ( Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter) or undergoing wholesale cultural re-orientation ( Three Sisters at the National, relocated to Nigeria). Now, most radically or playfully of all, depending on how receptive you are to it, the Faustian myth is re-dramatised here in a re-gendered version, which signals its intentions in its title of "Faustus That Damned Woman" and propels its title character on a journey through some 144 years of life (an extension that she's bought at the expense of her soul).

A permanent theme explored throughout is the seemingly insurmountable range of obstacles women have to overcome to achieve anything in the face of a male-oriented society which leads Johanna to express incredulity when, after her first time jump, she encounters England’s first ever female doctor, so much so Faustus becomes convinced she too must have made the same pact with Lucifer. Francesca explains. “They’re like women who tried but have been persecuted. So, they’re there, existing on stage, willing the next woman to do it, which is the actress playing Faustus that night. Resident/Assistant Director Credits include: Driving Miss Daisy (Theatre Royal Bath/Tour); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Gielgud Theatre); The White Devil and The Roaring Girl (RSC Swan); Hope Light and Nowhere (Edinburgh Underbelly); A Christmas Carol (New Vic Theatre); Lady Windermere’s Fan; Miss Julie; The Gatekeeper; Beautiful Thing; Good (Royal Exchange); and Othello (Rose Bankside). The ideas behind Caroline Byrne’s production for the Lyric and Headlong are original and ambitious but don’t combine into a glorious whole. It is a shame because there is some fantastic revisionism here. As it is, the play ends up overreaching.Faustus: That Damned Woman continues at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, London W6, until 22 February. Phone 020 8741 6850. lyric.co.uk The character arc she has to pull off, written with such clarity and focus by Bush, is nothing short of miraculous for this is a story which doesn’t just span years but centuries and millennia.