Will Faust's pact with the Devil - for knowledge - be worth the price he must pay?

Simon Callow stars as Faust, with Ronald Pickup as Mephistopheles and Angharad Rees as Gretchen.

The medieval folk legend of Simon Magus, who makes a pact with the devil, forms the basis of Goethe's famous work. Disenchanted with the limitations of his academic knowledge, Dr Faust decides to study the arts of magic and to master the supernatural. Mephistopheles appears and offers Faust renewed youth and the power to experience the reality and the mystery of life and all the human suffering it will involve. Faust signs an agreement with the devil, but his soul will only be forfeited if ever his restless spirit is satisfied and content.

Louis Macneice with EL Stail translated this version and it was adapted for radio in by Anthony Vivis. Goethe originally wrote this story in two parts, the first in 1808 and the second in 1831, with various revisions in between.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1982. Show less