Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Social Sciences Studies
Year: 2025
DOI:
[PDF]
Dissecting Faustus: A Radical Approach to Marlowe’s Mighty Line
Anthony Tassa
ABSTRACT:
This paper explores the techniques and devices implemented in restaging and re-imagining The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. At the American University of Sharjah in spring of 2024, a production was mounted that sought to re-explore the classic tragedy in a new and profound manner. Utilizing radical avant-garde movement techniques, dance, and colloquial speech, the play was brought to life for an audience previously unaware of the tragedy’s existence. Or if aware, never having viewed a stage version of it. In some cases, a balance, or dynamic play between iamic pentameter and colloquial language was utilized. The goal of the production was to reinvent the piece for the modern audience, but remain faithful to the playwright’s thematic intentions. In this radical approach to the staging of a four-hundred-year-old masterpiece, now simply entitled Faustus, did the director’s conceptualization adhere to the original thematic intent of the playwright?
keywords: Devising, Drama, Elizabethan, Theatre, Tragedy