Director's Pre-Production Notes To Designers and Dramaturgs On Concept
This production of the play takes place in a theatre in Hell--a deconsecrated church. It is performed by a theatrical troupe in Hell, made up of the Seven Deadly Sins (playing most of the roles), Mephistopheles (playing himself), Beelzebub (as a member of the audience with lines, and as the "Old Man" near the end of the play).
The practical reason for doing this is to democratize the cast. There are a large number of tiny roles, and the play becomes almost hopelessly episodic, and the actor-challenge (and actor-interest) minimal without some kind of built-in through-line such as this.
There are other reasons as well. Theologically-Politically, Faustus is the victim of the mother of all con-games. Lucifer has no real power on earth. All Faustus has to do is repent and he will be saved. The task of the special team of confidence-devils is to distract and corrupt Faustus so that (a) he has no time to think about that easy-out repentence, and (b) he becomes convinced that he cannot go that route, that repentence isn't for him. At the end, the only sin that counts is the sin of "despair"--Faustus has it, and that's why he goes to Hell. All the other little sins notwithstanding.
(a) and (b) lead to other important throughlines in this production:
(a) Faustus must be distracted. We learn quickly that power can distract in the most mundane and inconsequential ways. So at first Faustus flies around the world, performs great deeds, learns great truths. But he's very quickly talked into abusing his power in minor ways, and before long he is, for the most part, playing practical jokes on anyone he doesn't like. Providing magical support to anyone who praises his power. It's a waste--but it's a distraction.
To me, this is shown clearly by the parallel story of the clowns Robin and Dick, who also call a devil and order him around. Robin is the grotesque shadow of Faustus. But this is also a clue to the devils in Hell, in general. They are to some extent all clowns--they are all ridiculous in the face of God's law. Their power is all in the momentary mockery of that fact.
(b) In the end, Faustus is convinced that he cannot be saved by believing in the power of Lucifer and Mephistopheles--to torture him, to dominate the scene. But everything in this play brings him to this belief. Every political story that we follow in the play--often cut because they seem so incidental--are like lesson plans for Faustus. They are Brechtian "lehrstucke"--"learning-plays"--political lessons in the incessant and cynical power struggles of the world. In Rome, Germany, and the world of the Duke of Van Holt, there is only power in the momentary oppression of others. Faustus learns this well. It comes back--literally--to haunt him in the final hours of his life.
These scenes will be played as if they are fables of power, presented by the devils for Faustus, so he can learn their version of power politics. It happens to be the world's version--but let that pass. There is a strong dose of the clown here, too. But more of the cool, confident actor-with-attitude, parodying everything to make a point. I hope.
PRAGMATICS: All roles are played by ten actors, something like this:
1 Actor: Faustus 1 Actor: Mephistopheles 1 Actor: Beelzebub, who plays Old Man. This role is played in the audience, watching the show. It should be a shock when Lucifer's right-hand devil then plays (ironically) the one character who tells Faustus the truth about despair and repentence. Seven Sins: 1--Student/Robin 2--Student/Dick 3--Wagner and miscellaneous clowns (Vintner, Horse-courser) 4, 5, 6, 7--play all the "historico-political" characters, including Cornelius and Valdes, the Pope and Bruno, the Emperor and Benvolio, Martino, Frederico (the three stooges), the Van Holts (the aristocrats from hell).
This is tentative, of course. All share roles as miscellaneous devils and ghosts.
I have a plan to make this a ROYAL COMMAND PERFORMANCE before his majesty, Lucifer, Lord of Darkness--with a guest Lucifer sitting in the audience every night. Lucifer appears twice in the play, and has lines that can be read. This emphasizes the "casting" of the audience as devils in hell (and provides a promotional tool).
SET: Scaffolding holding all sins in their own cubicle, watching, entering as needed. Everyone is visible at all times. In front of the scaffolding, there is a large circle with a five-pointed star inside, a conjuror's circle. Inside that area is "the world," outside is "hell."
COSTUMES: Either a uniform with pieces of costumes thrown over as needed; or something created by each devil, determining the time and place and class and culture that devil came from when on earth.
PROPS/SETPIECES: There are books, bowls, tables, food, etc, called for. These should be kept at a minimum. All props should be found objects, as if hell has no budget for props, but must steal from earth.
MOVEMENT: Each actor must have a base devil character that can be worked on. In addition to this, there are set-pieces where devils take over the stage. Note, for example, the "woman-bride" sequence, the "flying around the world" of Faustus, the appearance of "Darius" etc in the German court, the appearance of the Seven Deadly Sins as themselves. In addition to the base characters, there are good opportunities for choreographed set-pieces.