Johannes Dokchtor Faust (2000)
Production
Johannes Dokchtor Faust: A Petrifying Puppet Comedye (2000)
Johannes Dokchtor Faust: A Petrifying Puppet Comedye is presented by The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre alongside GOH Productions. This production is an enlarged version of Vít Hořejš' original staging (1991-1994), which incorporated age-old technical tricks, fire and thunder, hellish gargoyles, underwater creatures, and the first definitive American translation of the classic Czech text by the author known today only as "A.B." It features 20 antique marionettes and combines masterful animation, new vaudevillian puppetry, fireworks, and lively "penny-dreadful" dialogues.
Traditional Czech folk satire also requires lots of mocking of their neighbors, the Germans. Hořejš felt that German puns would be lost on contemporary New York audiences. So in many places, he converted German puns to yiddishisms which, while also obscure, would at least retain the flavor of the language and be accessible to some of the audience. Yiddish also helped reinforce the comic effect of the piece, since it is a lingua franca for comedy to Americans.
press release
Traditional Czech folk satire also requires lots of mocking of their neighbors, the Germans. Hořejš felt that German puns would be lost on contemporary New York audiences. So in many places, he converted German puns to yiddishisms which, while also obscure, would at least retain the flavor of the language and be accessible to some of the audience. Yiddish also helped reinforce the comic effect of the piece, since it is a lingua franca for comedy to Americans.
press release
March 23 – April 9, 2000
English, Yiddish
PROD.2000.0008
Vít Hořejš (director), Blanka Krivankova (contributor), James Bowen (performer), Deborah Beshaw (performer), Theresa Linnihan (performer), Molly Parker (performer), Vít Hořejš (performer), GOH Productions (contributor), The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre (contributor), Aaron Treat (composer), Aaron Treat (music), Federico Restrepo (lighting designer), Adam Jackson (tech), George Pospishil (set design), Bruce Umbarger (costumes), Beatrix Pieš (contributor), Tine Kindermann (contributor), Julius Kozlowski (contributor), Jiří Voves (contributor), Stephanie Frank (contributor), Zuzana Šabatová (contributor), Susan Campanero (contributor)
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