Faustus: That Damned Woman (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Chris Bush

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 95

Beschreibung

'Oh, if you knew the lives we women lead You'd understand the Devil is a catch.' In this radical reimagining of the classic cautionary tale, Johanna Faustus makes the ultimate sacrifice and sells her soul to wrestle control of her own destiny. She travels through time and changes the course of human history, but can she escape eternal damnation? Chris Bush's devilishly provocative new play is inspired by the works of Marlowe, Goethe and other versions of the Faust myth – and explores what women must sacrifice to achieve greatness, and the legacies that are left behind. Faustus: That Damned Woman was co-produced by Headlong and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, in association with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in 2020 before touring the UK. 'One of the UK's most exciting young playwrights' The Stage 'A writer of great wit and empathy' The Times

Leseprobe

Chris Bush

FAUSTUS:

THAT DAMNED

WOMAN

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Introduction

Original Production

Dedication

Characters

Faustus: That Damned Woman

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

Chris Bush

The Faust myth is one of the great stories of the Western canon – a man (because it is almost always a man) strikes a deal for greatness and pays a terrible price for it. The original Johann Georg Faust was a fifteenth-century German alchemist, astronomer and magician, whose rumoured exploits inspired the works of Marlowe, Goethe, Berlioz and others, but the idea of a diabolical pact with undesirable consequences goes back much further, and exists in thousands of different forms.

It is, in essence, a morality tale. It teaches us to be careful of what we wish for, that pride comes before a fall, that nothing comes for free. Faustus is bored by the limits of his mortality (and his humanity) and so seeks supernatural aid. Only when the Devil comes to claim his due does Faustus finally realise he has reached too far. He begs forgiveness, but it’s too late - he’s made his bed and now he must lie in it.

The story endures because greed endures, and ambition endures, and we are never short of contemporary figures who believe they can beat the system, or that the rules needn’t apply to them. A modern Faustus might be a tech billionaire, a doctor playing God, or an unscrupulous politician signing over his soul to a Mephistophelian fixer - the only part that may feel like a stretch is that in most versions, Faustus gets his comeuppance.

In the UK, we’re perhaps most familiar with Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, which for all its genius can also be deeply unsatisfying. The text thoroughly derails itself in the middle, primarily because Faustus doesn’t really do anything of note with his powers. He is granted near unlimited gifts and he squanders them pulling pranks and playing tricks. This is partially because Marlowe’s Faustus never has a real need for the Devil. He is already a successful medical doctor whose ‘bills [are] hung up as monuments, whereby whole cities have escaped the plague’. He’s on top as it is. Now, the story of a man who has everything and yet still yearns for more is not uninteresting, but it feels like a missed opportunity.

My Faustus is a young woman in seventeenth-century London with no wealth and little agency, living on the fringes of society. When she comes to meet Lucifer she understands what’s at stake, but sees his offer as the least-worst option available to her. She sells her soul not out of greed or boredom, but in order to control her own destiny. Of course this is only the beginning of the story, and despite the Devil’s assistance, Faustus continues to be treated differently because of her sex (and social class). Through this, That Damned Woman becomes a study of how we judge women who pursue greatness, and how traits that seem admirable in men here might warrant literal damnation.

The regendering of figures from classical literature isn’t a fad or a fashion. As I see it, the purpose is twofold. Firstly, it’s one useful, practical way we can redress the gender imbalance that still exists across our stages. The Western canon is dominated by male leads, and our industry is stuffed with incredible women who shouldn’t be relegated to always playing someone’s wife or someone’s mother. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, it makes the work more interesting. Inserting a woman into a traditionally male narrative complicates things. It creates more edges and obstacles. It highlights the way in which women still operate in a world designed by and for men, and their very presence can send a story we think we know into strange and exciting directions.

The Faust myth is robust, and endures because it is universal. This is still the same story of vaulting ambition, hubris and exceptionalism, of what we’re prepared to sacrifice to achieve greatness, of the tantalising thought that despite all the evidence, we might finally be the one to outsmart the devil. None of this is lost by having a female Faustus, and she is still just as vainglorious and headstrong and morally compromised as any other iteration. She just happens to be a woman, and that means her narrative plays out in a different way. We should always be striving to fill our stages with women just as messy, complicated and conflicted as any of their male counterparts.

Faustus: That Damned Woman was commissioned by Headlong and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre as part of an ongoing commitment to commissioning new works of scale from women writers. It was first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, on 28 January 2020 (previews from 22 January), in a co-production between Headlong and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre. The cast was as follows:

CORNELIA/JENNY/ALICE

Katherine Carlton

VIOLET/MARIE

Alicia Charles

KATHERINE/DOCTOR GARRETT/ISABEL

Emmanuella Cole

JOHANNA FAUSTUS

Jodie McNee

THOMAS/LUCIFER

Barnaby Power

NEWBURY/JUDGE/PIERRE

Tim Samuels

MEPHISTOPHELES

Danny Lee Wynter

Director

Caroline Byrne

Set Designer

Ana Inés Jabares-Pita

Costume Designer

Line Bech

Lighting Designer

Richard Howell

Composer and Sound Designer

Giles Thomas

Video Designer

Ian William Galloway

Movement Director

Shelley Maxwell

Casting Director

Annelie Powell CDG

Associate Director

Ebenezer Bamgboye

Costume Supervisor

Jackie Orton

Fight Director

Rachel Bown-Williams of Rc-Annie Ltd

Associate Fight Director

Bethan Clark of Rc-Annie Ltd

Voice Coach

Tess Dignan

Intimacy Co-Ordinator

Jess Tucker Boyd

Casting Associate

Hayley Kaimakliotis CDG

Production Manager

Tom Lee

Company Stage Manager

Paul C Deavin

Deputy Stage Manager

Alex Burke

Assistant Stage Manager

Kirsten Buckmaster

Head of Wardrobe/Assistant Costume Supervisor

Vicki Halliday

Head of Video

David Brown

Wardrobe Assistant

Velia Ansorg

For Roni, my damned woman

Characters

1600s

KATHERINE, Johanna's mother

WITCHFINDER

JUDGE

JOHANNA FAUSTUS

VIOLET

CORNELIA, her daughter

THOMAS, Johanna's father

DOCTOR NEWBURY

MEPHISTOPHELES

LUCIFER

ISABEL, Newbury's wife

1800s-1900s

SINGER

ELIZABETH GARRETT

MARIE CURIE

PIERRE CURIE

2000s onwards

VIDEO VOICE-OVER

JENNY

WAR

FAMINE

PESTILENCE

ALICE

Doubling all negotiable. Other non-speaking parts played by the company.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ACT ONE

Scene One

Essex, 1645/London 1665.

In London, JOHANNA FAUSTUS, VIOLET and CORNELIA gather. A ceremony of sorts is taking place – rustic, earthy, no airs and graces. In front of them is a large, wide bucket/basin of water. CORNELIA is nervous. VIOLET looks to FAUSTUS. FAUSTUS nods, and VIOLET and CORNELIA thrust FAUSTUS's head down into the water. On this, we snap to –

1645. Essex. A cell. KATHERINE appears, soaking wet and shivering, having just been dunked as part of her witch trial. She has survived, just. She gasps for air. The WITCHFINDER is with her, as is a silent GUARD.

WITCHFINDER. There you have it.

KATHERINE. Please –

WITCHFINDER. See how she could not be drowned? That is the Devil’s doing.

KATHERINE. No.

WITCHFINDER. How else could she survive it?

KATHERINE. I’m not… Always swam, ever since a girl. Always strong.

WITCHFINDER. Supernatural strong.

KATHERINE. No. I promise. I promise.

WITCHFINDER. Unnatural murderer.

KATHERINE. Babies die sometimes – I never –

WITCHFINDER. If doubt remains, put her back under.

In 1665, FAUSTUS comes up from the water, spluttering. Lights down on 1645.

FAUSTUS. Did you see her? Again.

VIOLET and CORNELIA thrust her head back under again. Snap back to –

1645. KATHERINE is being walked round in a circle by the WITCHFINDER. She is beyond exhaustion. She stumbles.

WITCHFINDER. Keep her moving. Don’t let her stop.

KATHERINE. Can’t.

WITCHFINDER. On your feet.

KATHERINE. No.

WITCHFINDER. Then confess.

KATHERINE. Need my daughter.

WITCHFINDER. It ends when you confess.

Suddenly, KATHERINE pounces on the WITCHFINDER, knocking him to the floor.

KATHERINE. Little man, little man, little man. The Devil will come for you too.

The GUARD hauls her off as we snap back into 1665, FAUSTUS hauled out of the water, coughing spluttering.

VIOLET. Steady.

FAUSTUS. Keep going. I can keep going.

FAUSTUS goes back under. Back to 1645. KATHERINE’s mouth is gagged, hands bound.

WITCHFINDER. You have seen how Lucifer speaks through her, gives her unnatural strength, provokes in her these outbursts –

KATHERINE lunges toward him.

And now we shall uncover where he left his mark on her. (To the GUARD.) Take off her dress.

KATHERINE struggles. Back into 1665. FAUSTUS brought out of the water again.

FAUSTUS. More.

VIOLET. That’s enough now.

FAUSTUS. No. I’m close. Please.

More reluctantly, VIOLET and CORNELIA put her head back under. Into –

1645. KATHERINE is at the scaffold, gagged, a rope around her neck. A JUDGE intones.

JUDGE. Katherine Faustus, you have been found guilty of witchcraft, of conspiring with the Devil and signing your name in his book, of laying curses upon Goody Francis, and of the brewing of poisons resulting in the death of Owen Francis, not yet three months old. Therefore you are sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead, and may God have mercy on your immortal soul. Do you have anything to say?

KATHERINE’s gag is removed.

KATHERINE. Johanna? Where is she? Is she – ?

JUDGE. Calm yourself.

KATHERINE. Should bring her, should see. If she doesn’t see she’ll only imagine it, and that’ll be worse. Could anything be worse? Where is she?

JUDGE. This is your last opportunity to repent. Confess your sins and name your conspirators –

KATHERINE. And ask forgiveness?

JUDGE. Yes. And our Lord Jesus Christ in His Almighty –

KATHERINE. Forgive me then. Forgive me, Johanna. Forgive me, precious child. Wicked mother you have. They shall call me wicked and I can’t deny it. Most monstrous of all, to leave you here. I am abandoning you in the forest when you are a seedling still. Unnatural. Abhorrent, not to see you grown. Could I not have a little more time? One minute more. One minute and I could stretch each second to last a lifetime. Where is she?

JUDGE. Address your saviour.

KATHERINE. Saviour, yes. Saved by her – I will be. I had so much more to teach you. Names of plants and trees and the spaces in between things where the old words fail us and we have to invent our own. So much invention –

JUDGE. That’s enough.

KATHERINE. Never enough.

JUDGE. If you have nothing to say to the Lord –

KATHERINE. Not to him. Not to you. Damn you both. But to her –

JUDGE. Very well.

KATHERINE. The Devil take you.

The rope tightens. KATHERINE spreads her arms out and for a second almost appears to fly. Then suddenly any calm/confidence disappears. She reaches forward.

Wait!

A sense of a rope jerking upwards before the image disappears into darkness.

Scene Two

London, 1665.

Immediately following on, CORNELIA and VIOLET haul FAUSTUS out of the water. For a moment she seems limp, unresponsive.

VIOLET. Johanna? Come on, girl.

VIOLET coaxes some of the water out of FAUSTUS and she splutters back to life.

Easy now.

FAUSTUS. Was that real? Is she real?

VIOLET. Yes.

FAUSTUS. Not a trick?

CORNELIA. No.

FAUSTUS. So where is she now? She must be somewhere – somewhere in the space between things.

CORNELIA. With you. Within you.

FAUSTUS. No. No, I know that much. She’s not been with me for twenty years. I should’ve tried to find her sooner.