The playwright directed his own new take on the classic story at the California stage. The production began performances Feb. 24 and was originally slated to end March 21.

David Rasche plays the title character Faustus while Dominic Hoffman will take on Magus, the tempter Magician. Broadway and West End veteran Colin Stinton and newcomer Sandra Lindquist are also featured in the cast.

The Faust legend — made famous in separate plays by Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe — is given a new spin by the playwright. Mamet's Dr. Faustus looks at how a rivalry between a philosopher and a magician causes the title character to neglect his own family, even as his wife prepares for their sickly son’s birthday.

The new work will get its New York premiere at the Atlantic Theatre Company — which Mamet co-founded in 1985 with actor William H. Macy. Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe will direct the work slated for a February-March 2005 run.

Rasche has collaborated with Mamet on Broadway in Speed The Plow and Off Broadway in Edmond. Other credits include Broadway's Getting and Spending, Lunch Hours, Loose Ends, The Shadow Box. Actor Ricky Jay, who was set to star in the world premiere, was forced to drop out of the production on doctor's orders. Hoffman replaced the sleight-of-hand artist, who now serves as consultant on the production's magic.

Jay performed his one-man sleight-of-hand shows Ricky Jay: On the Stem and Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants Off-Broadway under the direction of Mamet. His film credits include roles in Mamet's "Heist," "State and Main" and "The Spanish Prisoner" as well as such non-Mamet works as "Boogie Nights," "Magnolia" and "Tomorrow Never Dies."

Stinton is also a veteran of Mamet works having appeared in premieres of Mr. Happiness, A Sermon, and Speed-the-Plow at the Royal National Theatre in London. Other Mamet works include The Old Neighborhood and Edmond in the West End as well as Broadway’s The Water Engine.

Hoffman, who recently completed an episode of "The Shield" directed by Mamet, won two Ovation Awards for his one-man show, Uncle Jacques’ Symphony. Actress Lindquist recently completed filming on Mamet’s new project "Spartan" which is set to debut in the spring.

The design team for Dr. Faustus includes Peter Larkin (set), Russell H. Champa (light), Fumiko Bielefedt (costume) and Sarah Ellen Joynt (properties).

Dr. Faustus performed at the Magic Theatre, at the Fort Mason Center (Building D) in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit the Magic Theatre website at www.magictheatre.org.