Photo by: Charles Ng – Clarion Staff
Quod me alit, me extinguit. That which nourishes me, also destroys me. So begins Christopher Marlowe’s play, “The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus”. Adapted by Kim Axline, the play is the first main stage production of Theatre Department here on campus.
It is the story of Dr. John Faustus, who sells his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles, in order to gain pleasures and riches. Axline wrote her adaptation of Faustus from Marlowe’s “A” and “B” texts of the play as well as from pieces of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum.
The cast is made up of two primary actors who play Faustus (Scott) and Mephistopheles (Amy) and nine other actors. The troupe is primarily made up of demons who are controlled, becoming a variety of characters such as Alexander the Great and Helen of Troy, so Mephistopheles can convince Faustus to sell his soul.
“This has been the greatest production that I have ever taken part of at this school,” said Lyndsay Corbett, one of the troupe members, and many of her fellow performers agree.
Since rehearsals started back in September, the whole cast has been pushed to their very limits. They were trained by their movement coach, Angel Vigil.
This is the first time the theatre department will perform in the Byron Theatre with its in-the-round seating configuration. The seats are set up with no vomitoriums, requiring for all of the actors’ entrances and exits to happen from the aisles, below the stage, or from the lighting grid located 40 ft. above the stage. “This configuration that the theatre is currently was not one of the originally planned 42,” said scenic designer William Temple Davis head of the Theatre Department.
If you are looking for somthing to do on Halloween, this is certainly a great place to go for it is sure to send chills down your spine.
“Dr. Faustus” will be playing in the Byron Theatre and opens Thursday. Tickets to the opening weekend are free to students and faculty with a valid DU ID card. For Tickets call 303.871.7869.
