Christopher Marlowe’s Faust is transplanted to the American frontier. Videos below, music cues also posted.
D No: 608
Text - Author or Scripture: RWD & Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Performing Forces: Solo, org, percussion, two electric guitars, keyboard
Date Published: MS
Date of Composition: 1976
Notes: Christopher Marlowe’s “The Historie of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus” with additional words and music by Richard Dirksen.
As part of the 1976 Bicentennial celebration the cathedral nave was finished and dedicated. The summer festival that year was special for there was a lot of new space to fill. This original production of Marlowe’s masterpiece was staged and produced by Ted Walsh and his Shakespeare & Co. in the crossing of the cathedral for five performances, August 4–8, 1976.
Our prototype was “The Ballad of Cat Ballou,” a favorite film of mine. Precedent for setting morality plays in other periods than their original is long established. In this production, set in the old gold rush California west, Faustus is a travelling medicine and preaching man, placed in a surrealistic time and condition that will make his “Damnable life and deserved death” vividly melodramatic. Mephistopheles is a Franciscan Friar, who comes to Faustus’ medicine wagon to tempt him. Lucifer is the wealthiest land and mine owner in the west, and wears formal dress but with a red vest.
The American “westerns” are folk morality plays dealing with pride, lust, greed, and temptation. Those are the traits embodied in the stereotypical characters that move around Faustus. The eerie procession and dance of the Seven Deadly Sins through a wild western saloon, and the nude Helen of Troy who, appearing deliciously in his dreams, devastatingly lures Faustus to lust, are but two scenes of many powerful ones in this unique staging of Marlowe’s play.
One short scene was cut from the play, and the remaining eleven were compressed into nine. The ballad opens with five verses as prologue, and then verses continue to be sung in comment on the story between each scene. The strolling ballad singer was Gene Tucker, tenor. Faust was played by Howard Witt and Mephistopheles by Stanley Anderson, both of the Arena Stage Company. Fifty members of Shakespeare & Co played other roles, created costumes and sets, and made it all run.
The whole had to be amplified, and we believe that the thirteen body microphones used was the largest number theretofore attempted in any stage production. Geoffrey Dirksen was the sound engineer. The orchestra, seated with me in the Great Choir just behind and above the large stage built in the Crossing, consisted of two electric guitars, percussion, synthesizer, and the Great Organ at times for large effect. (Performance time is 1 hour and 35 minutes with no intermission.)
As part of the 1976 Bicentennial celebration the cathedral nave was finished and dedicated. The summer festival that year was special for there was a lot of new space to fill. This original production of Marlowe’s masterpiece was staged and produced by Ted Walsh and his Shakespeare & Co. in the crossing of the cathedral for five performances, August 4–8, 1976.
Our prototype was “The Ballad of Cat Ballou,” a favorite film of mine. Precedent for setting morality plays in other periods than their original is long established. In this production, set in the old gold rush California west, Faustus is a travelling medicine and preaching man, placed in a surrealistic time and condition that will make his “Damnable life and deserved death” vividly melodramatic. Mephistopheles is a Franciscan Friar, who comes to Faustus’ medicine wagon to tempt him. Lucifer is the wealthiest land and mine owner in the west, and wears formal dress but with a red vest.
The American “westerns” are folk morality plays dealing with pride, lust, greed, and temptation. Those are the traits embodied in the stereotypical characters that move around Faustus. The eerie procession and dance of the Seven Deadly Sins through a wild western saloon, and the nude Helen of Troy who, appearing deliciously in his dreams, devastatingly lures Faustus to lust, are but two scenes of many powerful ones in this unique staging of Marlowe’s play.
One short scene was cut from the play, and the remaining eleven were compressed into nine. The ballad opens with five verses as prologue, and then verses continue to be sung in comment on the story between each scene. The strolling ballad singer was Gene Tucker, tenor. Faust was played by Howard Witt and Mephistopheles by Stanley Anderson, both of the Arena Stage Company. Fifty members of Shakespeare & Co played other roles, created costumes and sets, and made it all run.
The whole had to be amplified, and we believe that the thirteen body microphones used was the largest number theretofore attempted in any stage production. Geoffrey Dirksen was the sound engineer. The orchestra, seated with me in the Great Choir just behind and above the large stage built in the Crossing, consisted of two electric guitars, percussion, synthesizer, and the Great Organ at times for large effect. (Performance time is 1 hour and 35 minutes with no intermission.)
Categorized as: 600 Theater
Tagged as: guitar, keyboard, organ, percussion, play, solo vocal