"Dr Faustus" - Marlowe (19) (Prologue // Characters)

Prologue: This lesson we completed our prologue. After being put down (having been lifted) and drawing on the flat nearest us, Rhiannon and I walk towards each other and walk a half circle around each other. This half circle represents the half circle we have just drawn on the flats. We then do our short hymn hand section and run to the other flat to complete the circle. We walk back in to the middle to walk another half circle round each other (to show completion and it is too late for Faustus to turn back), and then we join the rest of the group in a circle around Faustus (who is sitting down on his chair). We all move our hands in slow-motion towards him, as if we were going to stab or strangle him, whilst Lewis shows him a scroll. Once we are about to touch him in slow-motion, we instantly move outwards at a fast pace. We then went back to the beginning of the prologue when we all stand behind him. We had a rather heated discussion about whether we should have us all performing arm movements behind Faustus and Charlie the whole time, or only part way through. The argument for arms the whole time was that it looked strange having us all standing behind them and not doing anything. However, my argument against this was that us all doing arms from the start would distract the audience from the movement involving Faustus. Moreover, by adding arms in a bit later enables the tension to build a little bit. We decided on the latter of the two so added these arms in. We made sure that we all reached up to represent the desperation to get to Heaven. We also decided it would be nice to end our play with how we ended our prologue, apart from Faustus could look down as if he has been killed. However, we will sort this out when we get to the final scene.

Chorus introduction: At the beginning of our version of the play, there was some dialogue that the chorus say together. We came up with a few ideas of how we could present this section. One idea we had was speaking in blackout whilst wandering around the audience - we thought this was very Artaud as the audience is left feeling vulnerable and there is a high level of tension. We could split the lines up, but all say the final line of "Decided for yourselves you have the time..." together as it is a very significant line, as it mentions the theme of "time".  However, we thought that it could be nice to continue the idea of puppetry from the prologue whilst speaking these lines - also, this is quite a long time to have a black out and may look as if we couldn't think of what to do during this section. Another idea we had was speaking the lines with different intentions - Rhiannon and I could say the first line quite naturally, Lewis could say the line about being "dark and maybe a little scary" in a sadistic manner, the line about introducing the audience to Faustus could be very over-the-top as if at a circus (to suggest necromancy is entertaining), and "decided for yourself" could be very eerie and spoken in black out. In the end, we decided that we wouldn't actually include this chorus section at all as everything that it foreshadows and tells the audience we feel our prologue portrayed anyway. Therefore, we felt that there was no need to add this chorus section in. Moreover, Faustus is left in his chair on his own, at the end of the prologue, so this works nicely as he begins his monologue in the same position.

Characters: Below are the notes I made in the lesson about our thoughts on certain characters:

• Faustus:
  
  • OK - Mid 20s. Angry. Arrogant. Autistic.
  • RA - Old Man. "Wants to go out with a bang". Be remembered.
  • RD - Controlled. Condescending rather than angry. Angry when under-mined.
  • CS - Doesn't worry about appearance. Only cares for work.
  • COSTUME - initially thought very smart (waist coat, etc.) but now considering quite scruffy modern look for someone approximately 27?
•  Murdock:
  
  • LC - Childhood friend. Very trying. Cares for Faustus. Faustus helped him in the past so feels duty to tend to him.
  • JBC - Faustus was left a lot of money to buy a butler - Murdock.
  • RD - Still feels like he has to try to ensure they stay friends. Feels guilty that Faustus is so obsessed with his learning. 
  • COSTUME - Start casual (sloppy university student) then suit (to show he has graduated. become a business man).
•  Valdes & Cornelius:
  
  • OK - Internet friends. Met through forums. Online gamers.
  • CS - Older than Faustus. Online gaming friends.
  • LC - Gamers. Faustus gets a higher rank on the game. They find a cheat mode to cause him to lose. The whole play is a game. The play plays tricks on the audiences mind (as at the time the play was written people were extremely religious and would have strongly believed in the sins and that you should repent if you did sin - they would have felt more conscious watching the play and would have been quite frightened by it).
•  Mephistopheles:
  
  • RD - Very chill. Seen thousands like him.
  • LF - Everyone has their own Mephistopheles. Reflection of Faustus. Wear the same thing?