‘Faust Projekt’ Is a Good Deal With the Devil

The best thing about “The Faust Projekt,” now at the Odyssey Theatre, is its utter refusal to treat Goethe’s formidable life’s work like a big deal.

It is one, of course: Uncut, its two parts taken together plus intermissions, the cosmically searching piece spans nearly 20 hours of stage time. In spirit, however, Goethe’s treatment of the Faust legend is a lark. It subverts the tidier Christopher Marlowe “Doctor Faustus,” while transcending it. In that regard Goethe wrote the longest, largest, deepest satyr play in history.

The Odyssey “Faust Projekt” favors Goethe’s antic streak. In a little over three hours, director-adapter Ron Sossi’s KOAN ensemble (named after the Zen riddles) delivers an uneven but lively staging. Unusually for productions in America, this one doesn’t neglect the seldom-seen Part Two, which takes Faust up to the age of 104.

From one angle, Goethe’s obsessive antihero is just another frustrated academic. Desperate for knowledge, Faust seeks out the black arts and runs smack into Mephisto. Two actors, Beth Hogan (so good in the Odyssey’s “Greeks” staging) and avuncular Tom Lillard, share the stage as Mephisto; Faust, at different ages, is played by three different actors.

Faust’s deal with the devil makes him a younger, vital man, whereupon he spies the virginal Gretchen (Melenie Freedom Flynn, earnest but struggling). This incarnation of femininity pays dearly for her dalliance with Faust. Like her fellow humans, she may have “a gleam of heaven’s light in [her] poor head,” but life on earth isn’t all roses.

In its whirligig of heaven, hell, earth, of Walpurgis-Night orgies and time travel, any “Faust” must acknowledge what this adaptation calls its “tasteless sideshow” quality. Sossi’s staging needs more of it. Though scenic designer John H. Binkley creates a simple series of elevated metal platforms on wheels, the settings require much between-scenes shifting. “Faust” is a metaphysical fever dream; it doesn’t respond well to pokey scene changes.

Bearded, wild-eyed Jim Petersmith’s Faust (the middle-aged one) suggests a particularly short-tempered drama professor. In the wild-eyed department, for better or worse, he’s exceeded by Lillard’s Mephisto. Hogan’s impish Mephisto is more varied and effective, morphing from yapping poodle to wily devil in human form.

Among the supporting ranks there’s a particularly good performance from Lindsay Beamish. One of Goethe’s nuttier conceits is the creation of the Homonculus, a Frankenstein’s monster that, in fact, inspired Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” Beamish locates a terrific, precise body language for this assemblage of body parts. She’s funny, too.

“Faust” very consciously has it all in its literal and figurative search for meaning. The world drama’s great searchers--Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, Faust, Peer Gynt--are also the agents of their own folly. They’re blind to the consequences of their actions, yet the plays containing them are lucid, painfully ironic visions. So much for anyone who contends irony is primarily a late 20th century American indulgence.

Chalk up the Odyssey’s “Faust Projekt” as an engaging answer to Goethe’s questions.

* “The Faust Projekt,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Wednesdays, 7 p.m.; Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Also: 2 p.m. June 17 and July 1. No performance tonight or July 4. Ends July 15. $10-$23.50. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 3 hours, 10 minutes.

Jim Petersmith: Faust/God

Beth Hogan: Mephisto

Tom Lillard: Mephisto

Melenie Freedom Flynn: Gretchen

Luis Zambrano: Young Faust

Lindsay Beamish: Homonculus

Alan Abelew: Old Faust

Written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Adapted by Ron Sossi and the KOAN ensemble. Directed by Ron Sossi. Scenic design by John H. Binkley. Costumes by Yevgenia Nayberg. Lighting by Joe Morrissey and Paul Millet. Composer Sean Paxton. Movement by Christopher Vened. Production stage manager Manika Kilpatrick.