"This is Hell nor am I out of it," says Mephistopheles in Marlowe's Dr Faustus.

Charlotte Windmill as Mephistopheles and Julian Blundell as Lucifer

Watching the Shakespeare Company production of the Elizabethan masterpiece at Wadham College Garden is like peering into the jaws of hell itself.

The pleasant college grounds are over-run with screaming spirits, evil truncated fiends and misshapen devils for the show, which runs until the end of August.

Phillip Edgerley plays the unfortunate Faustus who sells his soul to the devil in return for power, riches, wealth and the services of Mephistopheles for 24 years.

He skilfully brings out the many shades of his character -- proud, mischievous, selfish, naive, tormented, and terrified.

Ever at his side is Mephistopheles, played with delightful malignant presence by Charlotte Windmill, whose evil only occasionally erupts from beneath a veneer of control.

Faustus' moral conflict is externalised by Sarah Goddard who impressively shifts her voice as if possessed from gruff menacing Evil Angel to the sweet-toned Good Angel while colourful masks dance in her hands.

Her blood-red costume and evil grimace are strong hints at which side will win the day but she draws many laughs, darting around the stage, flashing evil eyes at the audience and sloping around in the background.

Julian Blundell delivers a blood-curdlingly cool Lucifer and a comically petrified Pope when Faustus and Mephistopheles play tricks on him.

This is a brilliant fire and brimstone piece of theatre with a lot of laughs. Performances are at 7.30pm and run alternately with Much Ado About Nothing until August 30.