STAGE REVIEW : A Rich Rendition of Welles’ Version of Faust

Orson Welles’ business was theatrical magic. His avocation was real magic. In 1937, he had a rare occasion for combining the two, in his own adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.” He made people appear and vanish (his famous “Nuremberg lights” did the trick) among other sleights of hand. And he transformed Marlowe’s heavy Elizabethan melodrama into a shape and size compatible with the contemporary ear and sensibility. If one must hack away at the classics this looks very much like the way to do it.

Fifty-three years later, USC inaugurates its Contemporary Artists in the Theatre series with the Welles adaptation, and it sounds just fine. It hasn’t aged a bit. Welles was a bit more contemporary than he realized.

The curtain rises on an impressive image created by the scenic design of very modern painter/ sculptor Richard Artschwager. Bathed in a slight mist, a hangar-shaped archway curves widely above a sort of table, carved to resemble an ancient book lying open to divulge its mystical secrets. From the sides of the archway a wire-mesh stairway ascends backward and upward to a seeming infinity, a sort of highway of human incident, focusing momentarily, beneath the arch, on Doctor Faustus’ study.

Under the flashy, intricate lighting designed by Nick Pagliante the steps become many things, among them cages that sometimes confine the hounds of hell, writhing as they watch the action unfold. The concept Artschwager has brought to the production would have pleased Welles.

There is further magic afoot. Noted magician Harry Blackstone has conceived and supervised some interesting illusions, but nothing as startling as the set on which they take place (and couldn’t the wires atop Faustus’ shuttle to Hell have been better hidden?).

The company of USC Drama Department students handles the text well under the imaginative direction of Steven Kent and Richard Toscan. They have humor (one friar who sings off-key and rings the world’s worst sounding bell is right out of Monty Python) and some knowledge of the desperation of human endeavor. Scott Atkinson makes the strongest impression as Wagner, the narrator, who takes other shapes as well; he’s also very funny playing second banana to Todd R. Hansen’s witty, athletic Robin. Timothy Omundson hasn’t found much power to fuel his Faustus. He knows his way around the dialogue but not how to get inside it to set it aflame.

Why isn’t the Welles adaptation revived more frequently? Probably because its effects are as much in the realm of its designers as its performers. With a powerful original score by Michele Brourman (fine sound design by John D. Palmer) and the incisive costumes by Ritchie Spencer, this is a production of high technical quality, one that cares about Welles’ rich reworking of the legend and embraces its spirit and heart.

At Bing Theatre, USC Campus; plays Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays 2 p.m.; ends February 18. Tickets: $4; (213) 743-7111.