GOETHES FAUST 1+2

In the organizer's words:

The Shakespeare Company Coelln presents
Goethe's Faust 1+2 in a contemporary production of a special kind and has chosen the venue "Zum scheuen Reh". The legendary bar has many a surprise in store for the story of Dr. Faustus.
(Rumor has it that Mephisto even likes to drink his Kölsch at this bar!)

Direction and dramaturgy: Hans-Peter Speicher
Assistant director: Nico Feiden
Cast: Renate Fuhrmann, Noah Khelifi, Liesa Strehler, Hans-Peter Speicher, Johannes Schönberg, Reinhard Ermen, Fiete Krenzer


Forget everything you know about Faust!
Well, maybe not everything.

After all, you should know that Faust is a tragedy by Goethe. A tragedy, so to speak. But this work, which you have just so lightly dismissed as a tragedy, is actually more of a comedy. Or perhaps both.

"By the way, the Germans are strange people!" Goethe is said to have once said to his secretary Eckermann. "They come and ask: what idea am I trying to embody in my Faust? As if I knew that myself."

So Goethe himself had no idea?
Maybe he did. But that didn't stop him from constantly polishing and tweaking this super work and finally adding a second part.

Goethe didn't even think up Faust. No one did. Johann Georg Faust was born sometime around 1480 and earned his living as a miracle healer and alchemist. He quickly gained a reputation as a charlatan and child molester, which was not a good reputation at the time.

Faust is said to have died as a result of an explosion during chemical experiments. Allegedly, he was trying to make gold. TOLL! thought some writers. They include Christopher Marlowe, Christian Dietrich Grabbe and, of course, GOETHE.

For this production, director Hans-Peter Speicher has combined the two Goethe works (slightly abridged!!) into one play and interwoven the classic with excerpts from the other Faust stories.

For Goethe already knew:

"The more incomprehensible a poetic production is to the mind, the better."