Faust, by Charles Gonoud
Faust is about a man’s deal with the devil for power. Faust and the devil Mephistopheles, explore the metropolis world abusing their powers in violent ways. This sparked my curiosity for how to tell this story through a contemporary lens. Looking into the crimes of Jeffery Epstein and Harvey Weinstein inspired my design for Faust and the devil. It’s important to see them as team initially, mirroring eachother to show how humans and evil resemble one another. My designs challenge the very romantic music by focusing on the violence and abuse that still exists in our world today.
Act 1 - Beginning in a mental hospital, we see the old Doctor Faust, young doctors, orderlies and a female patient. This establishes a visual power structure and jealousy in Faust as he contemplates death. Instead he wants to feel the power of youth, and all he’s missed in a life’s pursuit of science. The devil enters as a pharmaceutical salesman, and makes himself more comfortable by underdressing his coat. Faust makes a deal with Mephistopheles, trading his soul for youth. On stage he rips the old man prosthetics, grey hair, glasses off. He opens his shirt to reveal a strong man’s chest. The devil conjures a young girl that Faust becomes obsessed with. Mephistopheles conjures Marguerite as a skateboarding child in a fairy costume, the way parent will upload their children to internet and social media.
Act 2 – The world we see is uniform based to reflect power structures. We see police riding on motorcycles, street cops, nuns, and catholic school children, all heading into an elite sex party. The space is transformed into a bacchanali party as the students change to infantilizing costumes and money falls from the ceiling. Think an elite $50,000 ticket sex party. We need to see and understand the violence of child trafficking and how children are fetishized, especially by those in power. Madams and strippers who work the party, masked guests and matrons with intense plastic surgery fill the space and enjoy. The matrons have body padding foundations and highly stylized make-up to create this extreme and grotesque, violent effect of body distortion. This collision of power, sex, and violence is explicitly seen through the officer’s bodycams. The layers of government and religious institutions have been peeled back, and we see how people with money benefit.
A high-ranking officer, Valentine, shares concern for his young sister Marguerite. They’ve lost their mother and he will be leaving, needing someone to care for her. She is a young 14/15-year-old girl who skateboards. Seibel and Marthe are charged with this task. When they introduce Marguerite to Faust, she rejects his advances. Faust pursues her even more.
Act 3 - Following Marguerite to a rooftop garden, her home where we see a playground set. She is left flowers by Seibel and jewels by Mephistopheles. The devil distracts Marthe, while Faust continues to pursue Marguerite. He gets her pregnant and abandons her.
Act 4 – Marguerite is 9 months pregnant, exiled by society. She seeks guidance from the God and goes to church. The devil has become the priest, we see the violence of his position silhouetted with a young boy, preforming oral sex. The church chorus fills with men and women dressed in grey suits and animal skinned dresses, the children in uniform, and nuns. Being in church they have to add the layers to hide from any responsibility or accountability for their actions of the previous acts.
The soldiers and her brother return, outraged by what she has done. Faust returns and kills Valentine. In his dying breathe, he blames Marguerite for his misfortune. She kills her baby, Faust and Mephistopheles escape.
Act 5 – The Walpurgisnatch Ballet. The burned bodies of witches gather, and the 2 men break this ceremony. They are wearing skin like slips with burn scars, prosthetics and make-up to create the burned effect. Mephistopheles is showing Faust sides of hell. We see human souls in agony, tormented, vulnerable, and constantly suffering. The dancers are using human sized puppets of themselves, connected at the head and stuffed. We see the two bodies conflict, shed, fight and struggle as they suffer in hell, frozen in this eternity. Faust is reminded of Marguerite in her first costume, and returns to her.
Finding her in prison, Faust and Mephistopheles offer her escape. She rejects them, and dies. As she removes her jumpsuit and pig tail wig, we see the young girl die. Faust is left alone on stage with scratches of people he’s raped and assaulted, based on Kirk Taylor Martin. A prison guard arrested for raping prisoners, and his mugshot revealed scratches of people he assaulted.
