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Tag Archives: Doctor Faustus

Yet a While – or, Kit Marlowe’s Art of Fear

07 Thursday Jun 2018

Posted by la Clarina in Poetry, Theatre

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christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Edward II, fear

I think it’s safe to assume that we’ve all begged for one more minute as children: one more minute of play before bedtime, before going to do our homework, before  being given an injection… As though that “one more minute” might somehow change things…

As we grow up, it takes small, everyday forms – such as the “snooze” button of the alarm clock, or lingering a little over a coffee break before that unpleasant meeting, or procrastination in general. Or else, in really bad moments, we revert to that kind of panicked, irrational craving for “one more minute”, just to stave off the bad things a little longer, to keep them away – no matter how little – to not have them happen just yet. Continue reading →

Fairer than the Evening Star

14 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Poetry, Theatre

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Boy players, Christopher Marley, Doctor Faustus, Helen of Troy, The Admiral's Men

HelenboyNow imagine for a moment that you are a boy player with the Admiral’s Men, in the early 1590s. The company’s sharers are discussing: should they buy Kit Marlowe’s latest work, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, or not?

When the meeting is over, you bounce to ask your master – and yes, they’ll buy the play, Ned Alleyn will play the lead, and there are devils in it. You are a little alarmed, because you still play women’s parts, and Marlowe’s women are not always what you’d call a joy to play…

“And what of the women, master?” you ask. “What do I do?” Continue reading →

Faustuses

14 Saturday May 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

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christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Globe theatre, posters

I  expected it would be easier to gather a collection of Faustus posters… Anyway, this what I managed to put together:

Faustus1

GlobeFaustus035

Untitled 25

Untitled 22

Untitled 29

Untitled 28

Untitled 23

 

Devils, magic and ghosts – oh my!

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by la Clarina in History

≈ 1 Comment

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Alistair Gentry, christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Elizabethan science, Ian Mortimer, John Dee, Thomas Hariot

Gentry1Remember this post? And Alistair Gentry‘s video about Elizabethan metaphysics, and the math teacher worrying about what seemed a proximity of science and magic?

“I’m alarmed,” he wrote in a comment. “Must I consider myself akin to devils, ghosts and magic?”

Well no – but he certainly would have, had he been an Elizabethan mathematician. Or, at the very least, he wouldn’t have been especially alarmed to consider his studies akin to magic. Certainly any number of his contemporaries – not to mention several religious authorities would have thought so, with a potential array of more or less dangerous consequences. But it is safe to assume that the mathematician himself wouldn’t have disagreed at all… Continue reading →

Elizabethan Metaphysics

13 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in History, Things

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Alistair Gentry, beliefs, christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Elizabethan England

Magickal RealismI’ve always liked this video Alistair Gentry used as part of his performance “Magickal Realism”, addressing questions of what the Elizabethan believed or did not believe…

I remember posting it on my Italian blog, and an habitual reader, a math teacher, commenting on the presence of geometrical figures and formulas… “I’m a little alarmed,” he wrote. “Must I consider myself akin to devils, ghost and magic?”

And my answer was that he certainly would have, had he been an Elizabethan mathematician… After all magic was a science back then – if one with  many disreputable and dangerous implications… We are speaking of the world in which Marlowe created his Doctor Faustus, after all.

I’m fascinated by the history of beliefs, ideas and perceptions… It’s likely you’re going to see more of this. For now, do watch Gentry’s video – and have a nice weekend.

Virtual Rose

26 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by la Clarina in History, Theatre

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3d reconstruction, Admiral's Men, christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Ortelia, Rose playhouse

virtual RoseWho knew? Ortelia.com, specialising in “interactive environments”, among other things made a virtual model of the Rose Playhouse in Bankside – Philip Henslowe’s theatre, where the Admiral’s Men led by Ned Alleyn played for little less than a decade – with or without the addition of Lord Strange’s Men – until they moved to the newly-built Fortune.  Continue reading →

Italian Faustuses

23 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

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christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Italy, theatre, Translation

EricRavilious-1At one point today, together with a bunch of theatre folks we wondered when was Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus last staged in Italy.

After some head-scratching, we came to a baffling conclusion: nobody could remember ever seeing or even hearing or reading of any such thing. I’m not saying positively and absolutely that Faustus was never ever staged in the history of Italian theatre – but five well-informed, well-read and well-theatred actors, directors and drama teachers and one Marlowe buff, between the ages of forty and seventy, couldn’t recall one single production…

At the very least, Italian Faustuses must be few and far between.

A little research has yielded, so far, a 1978 tv adaptation called, a little unfortunately, “Il Fausto di Marlowe”, a radio adaptation about the same years, and a 2011 cantata for choir, tenor and orchestra by composer Matteo D’Amico – and nothing else. *

And the last Italian translation seems to be the one by Nemi D’Agostino, back in 1980.

As I said, I’m baffled.

I sort of knew that Marlowe is very little known and even less staged – but somehow I thought to find something more. Something at all, you know.

Which makes our work with Il Palcoscenico di Carta all the more relevant and interesting, if you ask me… But this is not the point. The point is that this made us all want to do it ourselves.

To stage Faustus – or some other Marlowe, come to think of it, but Faustus especially. And not just because nobody else does it, but because it is a great, powerful, deep, unsettling play that bloody well deserves to be staged and known. So we began discussing practicalities, such as a dramatis personae longer than my arm, and the 1604 and 1616 versions, and doubling, and visuals, and cuts perhaps, and would I object greatly to take active part in the thing…

It was mostly idle talk, for today – the sort of what-if games theatre folks will indulge in on a rainy day. And yet…

And yet I wonder if we didn’t put together seeds today. If it’s not something that will grow and bloom into a real project, and if we won’t find ourselves backstage, in some more or less near future, two or three days from first night, and ask each other: “Do you remember that day, when we wondered when was the last Italian Faustus?”

__________________________________

* Unless you want to count Salveti and Trionfo’s 1976 Faust Marlowe Burlesque – a very, very free adaptation mixing up Marlowe, Goethe, Emily Brontë and many others… I don’t want to.

Raising a bit of hell

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

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christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Edward Alleyn, John Aubrey, William Prynne

And, all things considered, here is Marlowe’s Faustus, calling the devil for the first time… Continue reading →

Il Palcoscenico di Carta Grows Up

10 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

≈ 4 Comments

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christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Il Palcoscenico di Carta, The Paper Stage

LocandinaFaustusPiccolaSo, il Palcoscenico di Carta/the Paper Stage is back.

For three weeks, starting next Tuesday, we’ll gather in “our” dear bookshop-cum-art gallery to read an Italian translation of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. We’re in a flurry, right now, handing out parts and trying to get the local press to mind us at least a little.

I won’t read any part, this time: my job is introducing the play – and it won’t be the easiest of tasks. You know, there was little reason to do this back in May, when we read Romeo and Juliet. We all know R&J, don’t we. We all know who Shakespeare was, we all know the story, we all know what to expect. Why, we’ve all seen a movie adaptation or three – and very likely also the play itself, once or twice. Continue reading →

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