At first, the concept for Out, Out Damned Clock: Faust Meets Macbeth! seems a thought-provoking one. Faust and Macbeth, two of literature's most well-known characters, are so alike in their ambition and hubris that they could be brothers. The parallel may be easy to identify, but it's much more difficult to dramatize adeptly. In trying to do so, Footlight Players' production falls disappointingly short. As playwright and director Nathaniel Green writes, "The Faust theme is one of the most borrowed in world literature." Even a list of only the tale's most familiar incarnations must be abbreviated: Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, Goethe's Faust, Arrigo Boito's 1868 opera Mefistofele, Damn Yankees. Such a pedigree is difficult to live up to
Devil's Due
