Faust

Faust program cover
Mephistopholes
Faust practices necromancy: he calls up Judith of Bethulia with the head of Holofernes
He also calls up Samson and Delilah
Pluto and his demons laugh heartily as they plan Faust's downfall in the Mouth of Hell.
When Faust at the last moment plans to repent, Mephistopheles calls up the divine Helen of Troy to seduce him.
In his chambers, Faust resolves to practice necromancy.
Mephistopheles holds out the contract for Faust to sign.
Charon the Ferryman summons Pluto.

Once upon a time in Germany, there was a traveling mountebank who was thought to have sold his soul for magical powers. A pamphlet of this "strange, eventful history" came into the hands of Christopher Marlowe, who wrote his greatest tragedy based on this. Oddly enough, the play was performed in Germany, and puppeteers saw at once that this could be a gold mine. They worked up scripts, fitted up puppets, and a star was reborn!

Alice Wallace located 5 different German scripts of this play, translated them, and brought them together into one two-hour tragedy. Two parallel characters show the tragic and the comic side of this drama: Faust, whose ambition is boundless, wants power and knowledge; Hanswurst, his servant, just wants to know where his next meal is coming from. As time runs out, Faust wracks his brain to escape his fate. Does he?

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