Dissecting Faustus: A Radical Approach to Marlowe’s Mighty Line

This paper explores the techniques and devices implemented in restaging and re-imagining The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. At the American University of Sharjah in spring of 2024, a production was mounted that sought to re-explore the classic tragedy in a new and significant manner. Utilizing radical avant-garde movement techniques, dance, and colloquial speech, the play was brought to life for an audience previously unaware of the tragedy’s existence, or if aware, never having viewed it on stage. In some cases, a balance, or dynamic play between iambic pentameter and colloquial language was utilized. The goal of the production was to reinvent the piece for the modern audience, while remaining faithful to the playwright’s thematic intentions. By selectively examining pieces of key adapted text used in this radical approach to the staging of the four-hundred-year-old masterpiece, now simply entitled Faustus, it will be determined whether or not the director’s conceptualization adhered to the original thematic intent of the playwright.