Commentary: The Play in Performance

Like any play, Doctor Faustus exists only partly on the page of a printed book. It was written for performance, and in performance it takes on a rich and complicated life. Countless decisions that go into staging a play: the casting of roles; inflection of lines; movement of actors; choice of costumes, properties, music, and special effects. In Doctor Faustus these staging decisions range from broad interpretive questions about the meaning of Faustus’s damnation to technical challenges like the representation of the Seven Deadly Sins. And even when all of these decisions are made, each performance still unfolds differently in the live, intimate communication of actors and audience.