I saw Faustus at Sydney Opera House, which was, unfortunately, rather odd. It was billed as an "adaptation" of Marlowe's play, and the first hour was fine: basically, a really stripped-down and heavily cut version, with some nice staging moments (Faustus first appears as a paunchy middle-aged man, in a grey wig and spectacles. When he signs his soul over, a curtain drops. In silhouette, you see female demons stripping him down. And then a young, sexy Faustus emerges, with a mirror. And he can't stop looking at himself.)
At first I thought you meant it was one of those awful modern versions! It's a fascinating play though. I think it's especially interesting if you're like me and fascinated with how hero/antihero storylines have changed so much. I feel like in a modern play, there might be a bit more moral ambiguity. But that's a whole other topic of discussion - if you'd like me to get a bit more tl;dr, please let me know because I DO have a bazillion thoughts on the matter, but I don't know too many people who are interested in the whole "from Beowulf to LOTR to Harry Potter" thing.
Then, rather randomly, the adaptor decided to splice in a big chunk of a modern-English translation of Goethe. So all of a sudden, the play turned into this whole soap opera about Faustus's love affair with this girl named Gretchen. In rhymed couplets. It SO did not go together. And then there was a random chunk of Paradise Lost, and some bits from the Bible, and then for some reason Faustus recited "Batter my heart, three-personed God."
"...um, o... kay..." is about all I can muster. O_o
I love your pictures! What did you think of Canberra overall? One of my friends is from there.
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I saw Faustus at Sydney Opera House, which was, unfortunately, rather odd. It was billed as an "adaptation" of Marlowe's play, and the first hour was fine: basically, a really stripped-down and heavily cut version, with some nice staging moments (Faustus first appears as a paunchy middle-aged man, in a grey wig and spectacles. When he signs his soul over, a curtain drops. In silhouette, you see female demons stripping him down. And then a young, sexy Faustus emerges, with a mirror. And he can't stop looking at himself.)
At first I thought you meant it was one of those awful modern versions! It's a fascinating play though. I think it's especially interesting if you're like me and fascinated with how hero/antihero storylines have changed so much. I feel like in a modern play, there might be a bit more moral ambiguity. But that's a whole other topic of discussion - if you'd like me to get a bit more tl;dr, please let me know because I DO have a bazillion thoughts on the matter, but I don't know too many people who are interested in the whole "from Beowulf to LOTR to Harry Potter" thing.
Then, rather randomly, the adaptor decided to splice in a big chunk of a modern-English translation of Goethe. So all of a sudden, the play turned into this whole soap opera about Faustus's love affair with this girl named Gretchen. In rhymed couplets. It SO did not go together. And then there was a random chunk of Paradise Lost, and some bits from the Bible, and then for some reason Faustus recited "Batter my heart, three-personed God."
"...um, o... kay..." is about all I can muster. O_o
I love your pictures! What did you think of Canberra overall? One of my friends is from there.