For anyone who hasn’t seen this yet – Nicolas Stemann’s Faust as our contemporary, and a radical individualist – this is your chance: Parts I and II as an almost nine-hour-long marathon, or if you want to leave earlier you can limit yourself to the first part. The devil will be whispering in your ear whatever you do.
This Faust has travelled far. It is one of the most important works of the two artistic directors of Schauspielhaus Zürich and was invited to the Berlin-based Theatertreffen festival in 2012. The magazine Theater Heute voted it production of the year, Benjamin von Blomberg was distinguished as dramaturge of the year, and Sebastian Rudolph was voted actor of the year. The jury for the 3sat prize at Theatertreffen explained their decision as follows: “Nobody has ever seen a production of Faust Ⅰ & Ⅱ like this one by Nicolas Stemann. His production itself is a Faustian event, a musing and exploration of what holds this drama together at the deepest level, and what it has to offer – for us today.” The fact that Faust appears as a contemporary today is unsettling, but this is the present that Goethe is talking about: a liberated society of radical individualists who are incapable of engaging in a community or collective forms of work. And the devil whispers in their years: be your own benchmark! This production, now enriched by a few extra years and experiences, will now be shown in Zurich at last in a new version at the Schauspielhaus.
