Doctor Faustus (Shakespeare's Globe Theatre)

Already seen it. . .because I was there
I was incredibly fortunate enough to visit the Globe and see this fantastic production of Doctor Faustus. Not only that. . .I was actually there while they were taping the show. I was a "groundling" for this production, and it was one of the greatest theatrical experiences of my life. It was an excellent summer evening beneath the stars, and this production made me forget that I was standing for 2.5 hours. Using incredible puppetry, costuming, magic, and humor, this production soars. At one moment it is hysterically funny, at another incredibly magical, at another incredibly moving, at another incredibly dark and ominious. It would be an excellent counterpoint for any Shakespeare teacher to show their students who his contemporaries were. What I loved about being a groundling was the amount of audience interaction. We got all kinds of things thrown upon us or asked of us. I have been waiting for a year and a half for this DVD to come out, and I was thrilled when I saw this on Amazon.

Wonderful representation of sprawling play at the Globe
The first thing you need to know is that this production was performed using the "B" script, published in 1616, which is over 600 lines longer than the "A" script, published in 1604. That means this is a very large cast, with scenes spread throughout history. The magical aspect of the production is that all of this is done within the confines of the stage of the reconstructed Globe theater, the theater of Shakespeare.

Since the cast is so big, many actors play two or three roles, which is no problem, because so many roles are just on stage for a minute or so, like the seven vices. At the time of Christopher Marlowe's untimely death, he was probably more popular than Shakespeare, who had only a half dozen plays on the boards by that time. And Shakespeare was a great admirer of Marlowe. "Doctor Faustus" was probably the "Ben-Hur" or "Cleopatra" of the day. It's delightful to see how such a sprawling story can be told, with only pure stagecraft. Among Marlowe's plays, there...

Great product!
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I ordered this DVD, but it had a great quality. I just wished there was a subtitles option.

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