Videoclip - faust in the box -


A Collage of the edited play with popular music of different generations, performed as
one-woman-show with handpuppets


directed by: Bridge Markland / Heike Gäßler


In a spectacular show as a one-woman-performance with hand puppets and pop music
Bridge Markland  conjures “Faust“ out of the box.
She performs high speed changes between Mephisto, Faust and Margaret while using hand puppets as her opponents.
Bridge Markland acts with intense physicality lip-syncing to the brilliant soundcollage of the voices of the various protagonists, plus compelling music.

Well known quotations from this most renowned of German dramas are juxtaposed  with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Rammstein, Robbie Williams, Metallica, Pink, Elvis, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, Depeche Mode, Placebo, lots of popular German songs by Marika Rökk, Freddy Quinn, Grete Weiser, The Comedian Harmonists and many other music artists.
The classic play finds it's contemporary equivalent in the sounds and lyrics of modern music and thus is opened up for many different generations.
This “Faust“ interpretation is not a parody, but a modern method of dealing with a classic. At the same time it demonstrates parallels between different streams of popular culture.
Audiences are amazed at how much the lyrics of a popsong have in common with a classic play. The central themes which occupy human beings remain the same. The piece carries the audiences to laughter and to tears as the storyline unfolds before them with humour, emotion, great sensibility and much grotesqueness.
Bridge Markland  performs “Faust“ in and out of a cardboard box. A simple, but very effective stage prop which changes it’s meaning according to the scene.

This „Faust“ interpretation delights audiences from 15 – 90 years of age and was praised at performances in San Francisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Nuremberg and Berlin.



Pressvoices:

" ...The parallels between the well known text and it’s translation into pop songs of the past four decades are impressive and funny at the same time. Bridge Markland walks on the rather narrow edge between modern debate and persiflage.
When Margaret recognises at the end that she is on AC/DCs "Highway to hell", this borderline finally becomes blurred in a great and new attempt to interpret the classic for many generations. This comprehensive attempt was successful.“
Bernd Mand, Mannheimer Morgen, 7 May 08


”...Bridge Markland brings out the piece’s many levels. For her, as for Goethe, it’s about love and suffering, God and the devil. A simple parody which did nothing but ridicule could never be as enthralling and entertaining as this performance in a cardboard box.”
Oliver Kranz, Corso, Deutschlandfunk, 20 March 08



Performances:

faust in the box / german

Germany:
- Saalbau Neukölln, Berlin, 2006, 2007,2008
- 100° Festival Berlin 2007
- 15. International festival of puppetry / Figurentheaterfestival, Nuremberg, 2007
- Theaterherbst Greiz, Thüringen, 2008                                       
- Penguin's Days (children and young peoples theatre festival), Moers, 2009
- LesArt Literature Festival, Dortmund, 2009
- Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, 2010

Austria:
- Kulturlabor Stromboli, Hall in Tirol, 2010

USA:
- University to Minnesota / Minneapolis, , 2007
- Saint John’s University / Minnesota, 2007
- Goethe Institut Chicago / Illinois, 2009
- Kranzberg Arts Center, presented by German Culture Centre St. Louis / Missouri, 2009
- German School of the East Bay, Oakland / California, 2011
- German American School of Palo Alto / California, 2011
- Goethe Institut San Francisco / California, 2011

 and many other venues…


faust in the box / english version

Germany:
- English Theatre Berlin, 2008, 2009, 2010             
- "Here & Now 2.0 A Theatre Festival", TIG7, Mannheim, 2008
- Berufsakademie Mannheim, 2008 
                                                                   
USA:
- University of Michigan Residential College, Ann Arbor / Michigan, 2009
- Goethe Institut, Chicago / Illinois, 2009
- Kranzberg Arts Center, presented by German Culture Centre St. Louis / Missouri, 2009
- Murray State University, Murray / Kentucky, 2009
- Scripps College, Claremont / California, 2011
- Aloha High School, Aloha / Oregon, 2011
- Goethe Institut San Francisco / California, 2011
- University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2011
- Agnes Scott College, Decatur / Georgia, 2011
- Kutztown University / Pennsylvania, 2011
- University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, 2011

UK:
- Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009