At a modern Faust, evil is gradually coming

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Cecilia Djurberg about Faust's myth that returns to the drama

This is a cultural article which is part of Aftonbladet's journalism.

It passed last year Jens Ohlin and Hannes Meidal success with its new version written by hamlet at the Galeasen Theater in Stockholm. Now they have updated yet another famous classic myth – one about Faust, who sells the soul of the devil in exchange for knowledge and pleasure.

The mythical myth comes from the 16th century German and inspired a series of interpretations. Among the most famous are Johann Wolfgang von Goethes magnum opus: dragon Faust I (1808) and Faust II (1832), on which he relied Christopher Marlowes has been playing since the end of the 16th century.

Goethes Faust has long been seen as a so-called drama drama, because it was considered a difficult play. Jens Ohlin and Hannes Meidal were "very free and spiritual" to Goethe when they wrote their new song. It was first the myth of the person who included a covenant with the devil that attracted him.

When their game Faust begins to die, but the devil lives, and also the question of responsibility for what genius Faust did and was allowed to do.

"I have long been surrounded by the idea of ​​how easy it is to deal with acts or bad events that have already passed. And when you do, you perceive by definition that you are good and do not see yourself contributing to harm," says Jens Ohlin.

– Everyone who needs both the environment and himself, Hannes Meidal enters.

He mentions that it was an entry for them Thomas Manns Romanian Doctor Faustus which appeared in German in 1947 and was published in a new Swedish translation a few years ago. There, the Faust myth is placed in a German historical context

"Thomas Mann connects Faust directly with his responsibility in the field of educational culture, German and German for the Nazis," says Hannes Meidal, saying it is a relevant perspective, but considered it difficult to transfer the story directly to the theater.

From Mann however, they inspired to make Faust the figure of the musicians and his covenant with the devil, which means that for his soul he becomes 24 years old as a musical genius. They also took up the discussion about what was blind to the posterity that, in Mann, specifically refers to the Holocaust, but which they understand can be applied to all forms of hierarchical systems. For example, job abuses.

The play has many layers and readings easily with associations of contemporary genocide.

In Faust, which premiered yesterday at Dramaten Electricity, the main character is Faust's assistant, Wagner, who is a woman and is played by Thérèse Brunnander. The action is placed in an art house that is strongly characterized by hierarchies, where the lack of limit and the will to be chosen and the need to be approved are powerful driving forces. Wagner will now succeed Faust in his power position.

The song has a lot stock and readings can easily be associated with contemporary genetic cults. "The House" could be the Swedish Academy or Drama, and the horrible thing that happened in the basement, "what is known" can be interpreted symbolically as the secrets of the Meta movement appeared in the light that caused the whisper to cry, do not want to cleanse.

However, this is not a pronounced, specific, contemporary phenomenon, but the authors consider the House to be a symbolic world, closed. It can also be interpreted as a Freudian house, where the basement is deserted.

"It's kind of David Lynch Maze," says Hannes Meidal.

He also had it Strindberg The "Ghost Sonata" from the back, and let the Zeitblom character become a student as the student from Strindberg wants to come into context and be involved in the community around the genius. Jens Ohlin mentions the support of genocide, of all those who contribute to the celebration of gender, which is particularly difficult to access new policies and guidelines, Metoo, and how cultural issues have been taking place for so long.

"You may not be aware of things when traveling, it's an instinct to survive," says Jens Ohlin, and also mentions the role of the media and the public who, by searching for stars, contributes to the realization of genetic genius.

Winged expression about the poodle kernel, as Goethes Faust bursts out when it seems to be Mephisto – the devil himself – is problematic. At Goethe, the covenant with the devil is a clear act, a crucial moment in which a choice is made. But so easily, these playwrights do not believe that evil can always be discerned.

"Rather, bad actions take place gradually, moving is not always easy to see as it happens," says Hannes Meidal.

The devil interprets them not in a strict religious sense, but defines "an inner Mephisto" – the inner devil and "something that must constantly be invented." The need to invent evil, sick people and phenomena, and to call them something that is not us, to distance us from evil and to stand on the side of God.

– The clearest one can point out the evil elsewhere, the less your involvement

"This old truth: without Mefisto without Faust, but bad or good, we can not see ourselves as well without harm elsewhere," says Hannes Meidal.

"You need it as a point of reference, but you must know that it is also a construction in a certain sense. Yes, we have to define ourselves against evil, but as soon as we are sure that we are not involved, that we ourselves we are not bad in us, but that we are under good flags, we become blind to our actions, "says Jens Ohlin.

That's right This Meidal and Ohlin want to point out – all of us were all but I have not seen.

"The clearer you can point out the evil elsewhere, the less your involvement," says Hannes Meidal.

The poodle is called Pudel here, not Mephisto, and the core of the winged poodle is much harder to grasp than Goethe. Like in Ohlins and Meidal's "Hamlet," the focus changes so it becomes unclear where sympathies end.

Here they have a certain artistic risk, because the theater is grateful for a clear division between good and good and the public would like to find a hero that feels somehow. Wagner is the closest and honest with himself, they think of themselves, but she is not a classic hero.

"I think it is so extremely difficult because time is so full of heroes and villains, it is so hard with bad and bad labels. When someone is raised by others forever, for heroes or genius, structures can also become you are more concealed and you are blinded for more. Personal concentration is so terribly unfortunate, it is dangerous when people face bad or good falcons, are in the way of a discussion that could allow for real changes.

Getting to work as I said, it was Germany and Nazi growth in the nineteenth century, but then they wrote up to current and artistic genetics.

"But we apologize for all comparisons with the emergence of Nazism in the political debate today – how can we use the story to understand where we are now, without relativizing it," says Hannes Meidal. Where do we try to orient ourselves in the meantime but make us look or lose something in our path?

November 16, 2018 3:00