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The Human Desire for Meaning and Transcendence

Faust is driven by his desire to understand the meaning of life and to connect with the infinitude of nature. From one perspective, this makes him like everyone else, as we all desire meaning and to be part of something larger than ourselves.

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“Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend, based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( c. 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.”

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When reading the play a scene that seemed really important in my opinion was when god and the devil were discussing fraust, and god handed over fraust to the devil.

I believe this is a key scene in the play as it not only sets the story line for the rest of the play but also we see god be unloyal and unkind, like the devil himself. When god says “do your worst”, showing he has no compassion for fraust, but also on a contradicting note he believes that the devil won’t be able to destroy fraust, which can either mean he believes in fraust’s strength or has already done his worst so knows he can not be destroyed, which I believe is left to the audience’s interpretation. My own opinion is that God treats fraust like the devil would. When he says “‘My servant” I feel as if that lacks respect and love, and god purely does see faust as a thing to serve him. But I do believe that god also does believe in him, believing that he will stay true to his faith.

I also feel as if the devil, Mephistopheles, and God think so little of him they simply see him as a bet and not a person with feelings, showing the insignificance of Faust from the beginning, which actually shows at the end as well as despite Faust doing everything the devil had asked, he gets sent to hell for eternity anyway. Because of this the clear main lesson of the play is that having so much greed will lead to a persons downfall.

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When they show up, thunder and rain sounds will start. I chose this because I want the thunder to represent Mephistopheles and his darkness and evil, and the rain to show the calm exterior of god, as I believe he is the calmest throughout the scene.

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THUNDER and RAIN Sounds for Sleeping BLACK SCREEN | Sleep and Relaxation | Dark Screen Nature Sounds

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When the audience first arrive to my chosen site they will have the sounds of the waves and the smell of sea air, this is to show the tranquility, these sounds will keep going until God and Mephistopheles show up.

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Sea Waves Washing on Rocks | Ocean Sounds for Sleeping Babies, Relaxing, Stress: Nature Brown Noise

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This is my chosen sound for when Faust enters the scene. When listening to this sound it made me feel empowered but also a bit intimidated which I believe captures how he’s feeling perfectly.

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Who is Mephistopheles?
Mephistopheles is the devils representative.!He agrees to give Faust ultimate knowledge in exchange for Faust to be his servant and do whatever he asks.

Who is Faust?
Faust is the main protagonist in this play. He is a German necromancer or astrologer who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Faust is not happy with his life and attempts to end it, that’s when he makes a deal with Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles will serve Faust with his magic powers for a set number of years, but at the end of the term, the Devil will claim Faust's soul, and Faust will be eternally enslaved.

How would I recontextualise?
The way I would recontextualise them to make them for a contemporary and modern audience is by changing them to real life people rather then a religion or myth. I would make Faust an intern at a big work company who wants to be the boss, and obviously get the girl, Gretchen. And I would make Mephistopheles the owner of the company who deep down Faust wants to be.

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I would stage my scene in an outdoor amphitheater looking over the ocean. I chose this to be my location as when I was reading the play I kept on thinking about how the after life and what happened before us and what will happen after us, and if myths are real and about the god and the devil, and when I look at the ocean I always see the line and wonder what’s beyond it, I know that it’s more water but what if there’s something that we can’t see. So that is why I chose this as my staging. I would stage it towards the evening when the sun is setting, and the further the play goes along the darker the sky gets and we fall later into night time, as the play does get darker the more you read.

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Technology wise I would need a speaker to play my background music, my chosen site has outdoor speakers which I would be able to use.
I would also need strobe lighting as I would like to have lightning style lighting whenever a great power enters the scene like god or the devil.

I think this is necessary for my performance as the whole play is very loud, in the sense there’s always something going on and I want to give the same vibe throughout it, I also want it to be interesting watch. I also like when certain characters have a theme song or specific entrance and that’s what I want to have for my characters, especially such powerful characters.

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How will my Audience receive their invitations?

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How will my Audience receive their invitations?

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To include technology into my modern performance I would send a video to my audience members, different ones throughout the day, giving little clues to where the performance is which will start in the evening. I would send my first video at 10:00am, with the first clue and send them to different locations which all have significance to the play. For example, my first location would be a church, and then when they arrived to the church I would send another sending them to a theatre coffee shop where they would have to eat devil cake and so on a so fourth. I feel as if this is a modern and fun way to do this yet still capturing the original essence of the play.