Faustus Rehearsal Process May 25th

Friday 25th May 2012

Today we looked at where the sins introduce themselves to Faustus in the play, I am Covetousness. I had the idea of combining all my characters into my piece of text. So I read one of the lines as Covetousness a charcters who is really fascinated and overwhelmed with its surroundings, who just has to touch everything. I then read another line as Valdes and the next as the Pope, giving the text something realy different and have all these differen layers. This then gives a little introduction to the Pope as that charcters is shortly going to be introduced in the next few scenes. I am really excited to explore all these characters becuase they are all so different. Although Valdes and the Pope are both comedy acts they are such opposites and are both really interesting characters that have completley different out looks on life. 

We then talked about the concept of the play and the story that is really behind what drives the play all the way through. Everything is in Faustus's head, nothing is real but is real to Faustus and it is all in his mind. He has suffered a stroke, in the play it will be a subtle moment that gives the impression that he is having a stroke, the audience may miss it but we know that it is there. That is when the madness starts to happen and things get very dark and weird, the sins and all the characters are really parts of Faustus, Mephistopheles is really a younger version of Faustus, he can see a bit of himself in each character and sin he comes across throughout the play. At the end of the play, it then switches back to Faustus dead in his study having suffered a stroke. Though in fact the stroke itself would have lasted minutes, his unconscious state takes him on this journey that not even he knows isn't real as it has manifested from his brain.  
I think this is an interesting concept to go on, the audience may not necessarily get it but we still know and that is what helps us tell the story to its fullest.