Goethe's Faust 1 for the pop music generation
A Collage of the edited play with popular music of different generations, performed as one-woman-show with handpuppets
In a spectacular show as a one-woman-performance with hand puppets and pop music
Bridge Markland conjures “Faust“ out of the box.
She performs high speed changes between Mephisto, Faust and Margaret while using hand puppets as her opponents.
Bridge Markland acts with intense physicality lip-syncing to the brilliant soundcollage of the voices of the various protagonists, plus compelling music.
Well known quotations from this most renowned of German dramas in English language are juxtaposed with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Metallica, Pink, Elvis, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, Depeche Mode, Placebo and many other music artists.
The classic play finds it's contemporary equivalent in the sounds and lyrics of modern music and thus is opened up for many different generations.
This “Faust“ interpretation is not a parody, but a modern method of dealing with a classic. At the same time it demonstrates parallels between different streams of popular culture.
Audiences are amazed at how much the lyrics of a pop song have in common with a classic play. The central themes which occupy human beings remain the same. The piece carries the audiences to laughter and to tears as the storyline unfolds before them with humour, emotion, great sensibility and much grotesqueness.
Bridge Markland performs “Faust“ in and out of a square box. A simple, but very effective stage prop which changes it’s meaning according to the scene.
This „Faust“ interpretation delights audiences from 12 – 96 years of age.
Voice over artists: Bridge Markland (Mephisto), Uli Ames (Faust), Laura Cameron (Gretchen), Tomas Fitzpatrick (The Lord), Victoria Pickett (Witch), Priscilla Be (Dame Martha), Tomas Spencer (Ghost), Mala Ghedia (Lisbeth), Lisa Marie Beck (The young witch)
Directed by: Bridge Markland + Heike Gäßler
Soundtrack concept: Bridge Markland
Sound Design: Claus B. + Jurij Panfilowitsch + Jens Tröndle
Award:
1st Prize at Schwerter Kleinkunstwochen 2023 (Germany)
what the media said:
"...Markland’s show—a combination of puppets, American pop music, Barbie dolls, and one extremely talented and well-deployed human tongue—should be the laughingstock that Very Serious Theater expects it to be. And it would be a laughingstock, if it weren’t so damn good... we are presented with Faust singing along to rock-and-roll ballads in a way that not only entertains, but also elucidates the plot at key points and is almost scarily relevant at every turn. I often found myself wondering if American musicians had for the past 60 years conspired to produce only music that was relevant to Faust. ..."
Alec Long, The Student Life, The Newspaper of the Claremont Colleges, California/USA, 14 Feb 2014
" ...The parallels between the well known text and it’s translation into pop songs of the past four decades are impressive and funny at the same time. Bridge Markland walks on the rather narrow edge between modern debate and persiflage.
When Margaret recognises at the end that she is on AC/DCs "Highway to hell", this borderline finally becomes blurred in a great and new attempt to interpret the classic for many generations. This comprehensive attempt was successful.“
Bernd Mand, Mannheimer Morgen, 7 May 2008
”...Bridge Markland brings out the piece’s many levels. For her, as for Goethe, it’s about love and suffering, God and the devil. A simple parody which did nothing but ridicule could never be as enthralling and entertaining as this performance in a cardboard box.”
Oliver Kranz, Corso, Deutschlandfunk, 20 March 2008
Performances:
faust in the box / english version (selection of the performances that were done)
Germany:
- English Theatre Berlin, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
- "Here & Now 2.0 A Theatre Festival", TIG7, Mannheim, 2008
- Berufsakademie Mannheim, 2008
- Kulturhaus Osterfeld, Pforzheim, 2014
- Brotfabrik 2016, 2017
USA:
- University of Michigan Residential College, Ann Arbor / Michigan, 2009
- Goethe Institut, Chicago / Illinois, 2009
- Kranzberg Arts Center, presented by German Culture Centre St. Louis / Missouri, 2009
- Murray State University, Murray / Kentucky, 2009
- Aloha High School, Aloha / Oregon, 2011
- Scripps College, Claremont / California, 2011
- Goethe Institut San Francisco / California, 2011
- University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2011
- Agnes Scott College, Decatur / Georgia, 2011
- Kutztown University / Pennsylvania, 2011
- University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, 2011
- Middlebury College / Vermont, 2012
- City College + Lick Wilmerding High School, San Francisco / California, 2013
- Waldorf High School, San Francisco / California, 2013
- Goethe Institut Boston / Massachusetts, 2013
- CENTRAL BOOKING Art Space, New York City, 2013
- Dickinson College, Carlisle / Pennsylvania, 2013
- Connecticut College, New London, 2013
- University of Dayton / Ohio, 2013
- Cheyenne Mountain High School, Colorado Springs, 2014
- Pomona College, Claremont / California, 2014
Canada:
- University of Waterloo / Ontario, 2012
- Goethe Institut Toronto, 2012
- University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, 2012
- Cultural Week, German Embassy, Ottawa, 2014
UK:
- Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009
Denmark:
- Hojskole, Logumkloster, 2010
faust in the box / german (selection of the performances that were done)
Germany:
- Saalbau Neukölln, Berlin, 2006, 2007, 2008
- 100° Festival Berlin 2007
- 15. International festival of puppetry / Figurentheaterfestival, Nuremberg, 2007
- Theaterherbst Greiz, Thüringen, 2008
- Penguin's Days - children and young people's theatre festival, Moers, 2009
- Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, 2010
- 2. Monospektakel, Theater Reutlingen / Die Tonne, 2012
- Festival KammerMachen, Chemnitz, 2012
- Faust Museum / Faust Archive, Knittlingen, 2012
- Bürgerhaus Stollwerck, Cologne, 2013, 2014, 2016
- Goethe Museum, Düsseldorf, 2013
- St. Spiritus, Greifswald, 2013, 2021
- Alte Dorfschule Rudow, Berlin, 2014
- Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Fringe Festival 2014
- Meranier Gymnasium, Lichtenfels/Bavaria, 2014
- Oskar-Picht-Gymnasium, Pasewalk / Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022
- Brotfabrik, Berlin, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
- PUC Kulturcentrum Puchheim / Bavaria, 2016
- Kulturhaus Wilster, Schleswig-Holstein, 2017
- Bayer Kultur, Erholungshaus, Leverkusen, 2017
- Emsdettener Theatertage, 2017
- Faust Festival Munich: MUCA/Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art, 2018
- Faust Festival Munich: Zum Kurfürst/Saal/Oberschleißheim, 2018
- Faust Festival Munich: Public Library Neuhausen, 2018
- Faust Festival Munich: Kunstforum Arabellapark, 2018
- Stadtbücherei / Public Library, Tettnang/Bodensee, 2018
- Stadtbücherei / Public Library, Bad Waldsee/Bodensee, 2018
- Stadtbücherei / Public Library, Überlingen/Bodensee, 2018
- Robert-Jungk-Oberschule (High School) Berlin, Wilmersdorf, 2019
- Heinz-Berggruen-Gymnasium (High School), Berlin Charlottenburg, 2019
- Theater Lindau, 2022
- Stadtbücherei / Public Library im Kornhaus, Wangen / Bavaria 2022
- Kleinkunstwochen Schwerte / North-Rhine-Westphalia, 2023
- 500 years of Auerbachs Keller, 16 February + 4 May 2025
Austria:
- Kulturlabor Stromboli, Hall in Tirol, 2010, 2019
- Kultur.Werk.Axams, Axams/Tirolia, 2018
- Theaterkreis Altach, KOM, Altach/Vorarlberg, 2022
Belgium:
- Goethe Institut Brussels, 2015
USA:
- University to Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2007
- Saint John’s University, Minnesota, 2007
- Goethe Institut, Chicago / Illinois, 2009
- Kranzberg Arts Center, presented by German Culture Centre St. Louis / Missouri, 2009
- German School of the East Bay, Oakland / California, 2011
- German American School of Palo Alto / California, 2011
- American Association of Teachers of German / AATG Conference at Goethe Institut San Francisco / California, 2011
- Middlebury College German Summer School / Vermont, 2013
- Brown University, Providence / Rhode Island, 2014
Canada:
- University of Waterloo / Ontario, 2012
- Goethe Institut Toronto, 2012
- Goethe Institut Montreal, 2012
- Goethe Institut Ottawa, 2012
and many other venues…
