The story of Doctor
Faustus did not originate with Christopher Marlowe, but Marlowe’s version of
the story was enormously successful in its time. The story has been retold and
adapted hundreds of times in the intervening centuries. I think it’s difficult
to overstate the significance of this play.
The play is not without
its problems, though. It can be said the The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus occupies a
pivotal place in the development of English theatre. In some ways, the play is
a bridge between medieval and modern drama, and between the morality play and
the modern tragedy. In fact, at least one critic has called Doctor Faustus the
first tragedy written in English.
Early Modern English theatre is a passion of
mine. And while it’s important to me to respect the work, our actors will not
be playing to an early modern audience. They will be playing to an audience
that has very different expectations. I’ve decided to adapt the text somewhat
to try to minimize some of the problems that I anticipate. I certainly wouldn’t
say that anything I’m doing is an original idea – I’m sure most, if not all of
these things have been done before – but I will say that I arrived at them independently.
And I’m going to try to talk about them without spoilers. We’ll see how well I
do.
Modern audiences are accustomed to a higher
degree of realism in entertainment. We have more difficulty accepting storylines
involving twins played by actors who don’t look alike, or storylines involving
cross-dressing. One common device in early modern theatre was doubling of
roles. Audiences would likely key off of certain costume pieces, and merely
accept the fact that the actor who just walked offstage as one character walked
right back on as someone totally different. Doctor Faustus is a very episodic
play. Several characters appear in only one or two scenes and are never seen again.
It would require an enormous cast to stage the play with a different actor in
every role. Doubling is a must. I think I’ve found a way to make the doubling
clear to people who are unfamiliar with the concept.
Another issue with Doctor Faustus is Marlowe’s
tendency to give his actors very long speeches. Faustus has several very long
speeches in which he debates his choices with himself. I’m dividing some of
these speeches up between different actors. I think it’s going to work very
well, it will add more action and tension to the speeches, and there will be
more movement. Overall, I think it’ll be more interesting to watch without
losing much, if anything.
I think the challenge of doubling is partly on the person deciding on what to double, partly on the costumer, but largely on the actor. In my mind, it's better if you can avoid having an actor walk off stage as one character and then back on as another within the space of a few lines. Doubled roles should also be as different from each other as possible (servant and nobleman, for instance, rather than two different noblemen). Costuming helps, but doubling is most effective when the actor changes his or her voice, bearing, attitude, etc.
ReplyDeleteYou can also use kind of a meta level to make it clear to the audience, where it's clear that several or all of the actors are a sort of chorus who step into roles as needed.