Faust discussion evening
On 16 October the new Faust team at the Goetheanum spoke about text cuts, casting, the speech choir and Faust weekends in relation to the new production of 2020.
By now, the Faust team has completed its task of reducing the performance time of Goethe’s Faust Parts 1 and 2 from seventeen to around nine hours. Some of the forty people who attended the Faust discussion spoke the parts in the (abridged) Upper and Lower Peneios scenes in order to get an impression of how the actual text cuts work. Director Andrea Pfaehler described the dynamic as «more youthful».
The new production will portray the various levels of existence in different ways. Mephisto and Helena will, for instance, be portrayed both through eurythmy (in the spiritual world) and acting (in Faust’s empirical world), while four different actors will present diverse aspects of Faust’s being. This focus on essential characteristics has also had an influence on the text. As Eduardo Torres, who is in charge of eurythmy, pointed out, more text is needed to create the quality of the dreamy sphere in both Peneios scenes than for individual acting scenes. In addition, says Andrea Pfaehler, the beings presented often move in monologic situations.
For the new production a group of speech artists has formed as well as a speech choir of 36 people from around the Goetheanum (directed by Agnes Zehnter). Both will speak for the eurythmy.
By setting the Euphorion Scene to music, Elmar Lampson has both realized a wish expressed by Goethe and added another musical level to the Faust.
The next Faust discussion evening will take place on 19 February 2020, 6 p.m., at the Goetheanum (costumes, stage set, lights).