Faustus
based on Christopher Marlowe’s ‘The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus From the Quarto of 1616’
The story of Faustus originates from an old German legend and is possibly based on the figure of Dr. Johann Georg Faustus who was a renaissance magician and alchemist. The plot of the story is based around a pact with the devil, in which Faustus sells his soul for the vain pleasure of unlimited magical power and life in all voluptuousness.
For the first time the story reached theatrical stage with Christopher Marlowe’s play. In that very time Elizabethan court was the residence of a person, who might have become an inspiration for Marlowe to resurrect the old legend and adapt it into a form of a play. John Dee, a consultant to Queen Elizabeth I, was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, and occultist. He developed his angel magic heavily based on the science of mathematics combined with cabbalistic mysticism. At the same time, in the other end of Europe, in Poland, a similar story of Pan Twardowski was born. The speculations as to the origins of that story also trace it back to Dee, who later lived in Krakow, where legendary Twardowski lived.
The story of Faustus did not die with the renaissance fascination with magic and alchemy. It was returning as a metaphor of the quest for the true essence of life. The best known story of Faustus was written by Goethe in the XIX century. The great epic of Goethe expands the story and pictures the inner striving of Faustus for the greater understanding of human kind.
The story we presented was based on Marlowe’s play. However, we wanted it to be a metaphor of both the quest for greater understanding and the temptations of selling one’s souls. Today’s Faustus is no longer a religious story, but a story on the attempts of mankind to achieve more than nature permits, and the attempts to sell one’s soul for wealth and power, the forms of devilry, which have tempted mankind since the earliest ages.
Performed by Helsinki Attic Theatre on:
May 9th 2008 at 20.00 in Caisa, Mikonkatu 17 C, Helsinki
May 17th 2008 at 18.00 in Järvenpään Kellariteatteri, Hallintokatu 4, Järvenpäa
For the first time the story reached theatrical stage with Christopher Marlowe’s play. In that very time Elizabethan court was the residence of a person, who might have become an inspiration for Marlowe to resurrect the old legend and adapt it into a form of a play. John Dee, a consultant to Queen Elizabeth I, was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, and occultist. He developed his angel magic heavily based on the science of mathematics combined with cabbalistic mysticism. At the same time, in the other end of Europe, in Poland, a similar story of Pan Twardowski was born. The speculations as to the origins of that story also trace it back to Dee, who later lived in Krakow, where legendary Twardowski lived.
The story of Faustus did not die with the renaissance fascination with magic and alchemy. It was returning as a metaphor of the quest for the true essence of life. The best known story of Faustus was written by Goethe in the XIX century. The great epic of Goethe expands the story and pictures the inner striving of Faustus for the greater understanding of human kind.
The story we presented was based on Marlowe’s play. However, we wanted it to be a metaphor of both the quest for greater understanding and the temptations of selling one’s souls. Today’s Faustus is no longer a religious story, but a story on the attempts of mankind to achieve more than nature permits, and the attempts to sell one’s soul for wealth and power, the forms of devilry, which have tempted mankind since the earliest ages.
Performed by Helsinki Attic Theatre on:
May 9th 2008 at 20.00 in Caisa, Mikonkatu 17 C, Helsinki
May 17th 2008 at 18.00 in Järvenpään Kellariteatteri, Hallintokatu 4, Järvenpäa