Faustus, a fire circus theatre show.

Aim: Hello there! Welcome to our crowdfund, we’re From Below and we’re thrilled to have you join us on our mad medieval journey.

Who are you?
From Below is a theatre company of fire circus performers, swordsmen, actors, acrobats, clowns, comedians and storytellers. And there’s only a few of us so we’re all juggling lots of jobs! For 4 years now we’ve travelled about staging new adaptations of old tales for huge audiences of any age, using fire magic, daring stunts and slapstick comedy to entertain, enthrall and inspire. Our mission is to create exciting, spectacular works of theatre to delight audiences who may otherwise be unsure of going to watch an old-timey classic. In truth, although our plays are inspired by ancient works of fiction, we have a lot more in common with Star Wars than Shakespeare.

What are you doing?

Faustus is our explosive adaptation of the classic Marlowe play with all the boring bits cut out and replaced with flamethrowers. This summer we’ll be taking it on the road, performing first by the river at Hull’s Stage@the Dock, then beneath a canopy of trees at East Anglia’s Thorington Theatre and finally by the seaside at the Brighton Open Air Theatre. With fire magic and mayhem choreographed by Hull Dance Award winner Ed Grimoldby, and a text written by Sunday Times Playwright Award winner Josh Overton,   Faustus is a thrillingly fun tale about friendship, why you probably shouldn’t hang out with demons, and how sometimes the smartest thing to do is set fire to a sword and hit the King of England with it. The show has already delighted over a thousand audience members in the North of England and now we want to take it on the road!

Reviews for Faustus

4*s, “A Summer Spectacular!” - The Stage

“Laugh out loud hilarious” and “genuinely exciting” - Exeunt.

How does my couple of quid help?

More than you’d think! Unsurprisingly, travelling around the country with a vanload of fire swords, explosive mushroom spores, and skeleton costumes gets pretty expensive, and as part of our mission to make our plays as accessible as possible we always perform a minimum of two shows on a pay-what-you-want basis, meaning some folk can see us for as little as a pound. So we’ve become adept at making our performances on small budgets. We receive small amounts of funding from lots of different organisations but this is our biggest show yet and even a tiny donation goes far. For every few pounds you donate we can afford an extra explosion, fuel for the flamethrower or to let someone less well off see the show for peanuts. With your help we’re able to bring spectacular theatre to people who otherwise wouldn’t have seen it and pay our team what they deserve for risking catching fire to entertain them. But you don’t have to do it just because you’re an excellent soul, we also have fabulous goodies to offer as thanks for your generosity. So check out our donation perks!

We’re so grateful for your help on our mission, your donations allow us to do what we love and entertain hundreds of people across the country. Let’s make the world a slightly sillier place and set loads of things on fire.

Ed, Josh, and the From Below Team.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 24th August 2025 at 12:00pm