11/17/09: La Damnation de Faust

two words: pure magic. gg and i were stunned. and i take back my warning about advent calendars: robert lepage's production was so tight, so imaginative, so necessary - i can't imagine a better way to do a modern faust. i loved every second and never wanted it to end.

one of my biggest pet peeves in theater/opera nowadays is the superfluous use of video and projection. let's throw a couple of random televisions on stage and run black and white static on them - BECAUSE WE CAN. if the production works when you take out the video, then the video hasn't been used to it's fullest capability. i really believe that.

and while this production of faust is lush and visual, it's also incredibly economic. two elements are never used when one can do - he just pushes the possibility of that one element as far as it will go. for example, when mephistopheles takes faust on a boat ride:

lepage take the boat lengthwise, across the stage, and then "dumps" faust out of the boat, letting him fall into "water" 3 projections deep. beautiful. poetic. perfect.

the production has closed for the season, ye unlucky non-viewers, but you can catch a little video clip here.