FAUST SHOP: New Lands (Performance)

Description

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MEPHISTOPHELES.

Just fancy that! One does depend / On one’s own creatures, in the end.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Faust, translated by David Luke.

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In the beginning there was power.

Faust, working with the Devil, embarks on the work of a God: the creation of a new land.

In our time, this new world unfolds across the digital realm. Amidst the creation of this magical living space, a world of digital humans and hybrid actors rises from a sea of data.

You think you are not an actor on this stage? Will you sign yourself over to this devilish new world?

You choose.

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Technology offers us the world – but what does it take away? What is the bargain here? The FAUST SHOP: New Lands, an augmented theatrical experience embedded in an everyday street, asks these and related questions. Stepping into this pop-up shop you’ll be offered an experience of magical space that moves you: the only question is, where to? How does digital space influence us? Should you accept this offer? We take such decisions in our everyday engagements with technology: we routinely click, accept, and agree. The FAUST SHOP creates a theatrical experience of sensuous delight that suggests that you might just want to think again. What are you willing to give?

In the setting of the Faust Shop, both the virtual environment (on LED screens) and the physical locale gradually become active agents, increasingly entangled with the characters of the drama. In so doing, this space examines the goods and evils of digital technology. The story is an adaptation of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s world-famous Faust, based on the English translation by David Constantine, to the digital age. It unfolds around the creation of an augmented world: Faust’s new lands.

We witness Faust as he crosses several boundaries. Everything evolves around his pact with the devil. Their deal gives him access to new technologies that lead to the creation of digital doubles and his winning of a new living space. Faust’s new lands eventually expand into the space of the Faust Shop where the audience receives a special offer: to buy back their digital soul.

The FAUST SHOP: New Lands is part of the performance-based research project Re-staging public spaces, led by Research Fellow Dr Annja Neumann at Cambridge Digital Humanities. Collaborative work by a cross-faculty student ensemble, a team of artists, researchers and professionals is at the heart of the production. The FAUST SHOP project is supported by Cambridge Digital Humanities at University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, Space Popular and Sook Space.

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Further information

Age Restrictions: 6 years+
Accessibility: Step-free access. Get in touch to discuss further requirements.

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FAUST.

To dominate, to make things mine.
And not for fame, for the deed alone.
My eye is drawn to barring
The masterful sea from coming near the shore,
Set limits on its stretch of wet,
Build massive doors that close the entrance
And cram it deep back down its own gullet.

From Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Faust, translated by David Constantine.

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External partners and sponsors:

Sook Space, Adaptive Retail Space
Cambridge School of Creative Industries, Anglia Ruskin University
Space Popular, Architecture, Design and Media Studio

Creative team:

Dr Annja Neumann: Co-director and co-writer
Alexander Mentzel, Co-director and co-writer
Dr Kirk Woolford, Artistic technical director
Rebekah King, Artistic Producer and Research Assistant
Dr Eva Aymamí Reñé, Movement director and dancer

Cast:  

Sylvia Keck, Poet
Olivia Railton, Director
Michelle Zhang, Homunculus
Oscar Hudson, Intellectual
Johanna Freistedt, Wagner
Linseigh Green, Faust I
Maddy Power, Mephisto I/Comic
Imogen Gray, Mephistopheles II
Lingquan Kong: Technologist/ Shop Assistant II
TBC, Wealthy Collector
Alex Mentzel, Shop Assistant, Faust II

Credits:

Hybrid environments by Space Popular

And special thanks to David Constantine for granting the permission to adapt to the stage his translation of Faust I & II (published by Penguin Books) and to Martin Swales for sharing his wisdom and insight on Goethe’s Faust with the cast and creative team.

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