The Faust legend, it seems, will never go away, and in Mephisto — adapted from Klaus Mann’s 1936 novel by Ariane Mnouchkine — it is given a sinister new setting with the rise of Nazism as its backdrop.

Set in Germany between the two world wars, the play follows the fortunes of Hendrik Höfgen, an actor with the Hamburg Artists’ Theater, who accepts Nazi patronage to further his career and social standing.

When he is offered Mephisto in Faust, it becomes one of his most successful roles. But gradually he realises that he has made his own pact with evil, and in doing so has abandoned his morals, and betrayed his friends and fellow actors.

Based on a true story, this is a hard-hitting play that explores the darker side of human nature. For director Milja Fenger, it forces us to confront our own behaviour.

“If I make theatre, I don’t want it to be just for fun and entertainment,” she says. “I don’t think that’s valuable enough. I think stories have to be important, and they can teach us something, they can subliminally tell us how to deal with our own lives.

“Mephisto does that, but not in a boring way. It’s very theatrical. There’s singing, there’s dancing, there’s comedy, and at the same time you have a group of true life characters that are going through one of the most difficult periods in their lives. Awful things are happening to them, and they’re all making different choices. “As an audience member you sit there and have fun, and you’re always surprised — you don’t know what’s going to happen next. At the same time, it’s not just trivial, there’s something deep and beautiful and ugly that we need to confront.”

Milja herself is something of a phenomenon; she has already written and directed several plays, and her first screenplay, The Road Home, filmed in India in 2010, has won several prizes and has been shortlisted for nomination for Best Short Film at the 2012 Academy Awards.

Her second full-length play, I Am Green, secured her a place on the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme.

Born in Holland, she came to England at the age of 18 to study at East 15 Acting School in Sussex, graduating with a BA in Acting and Contemporary Theatre. She is studying Human Sciences at Harris Manchester College. Her directing talents have developed alongside her play-writing. “It’s something that makes me feel really alive. It’s very humbling, because all you’re doing is guiding others to do their best. It’s never about you.”

This is evident in her approach to Mephisto. “I constantly do exercises to help the actors explore how their character might be feeling, how they might walk and behave. I give as much freedom to people as possible. At the same time I’m pushing them emotionally quite hard. “I want my actors to be aware that they can surprise the other person on stage with the way they say something, and that the response will surprise them.

“And I think as an audience you will feel that.”

Mephisto is at Oxford Playhouse, February 22-25 Box office: 01865 305305.