FAUSTUS IN AFRICA!

This is a free adaptation of Goethe's Faustus parts I and II and set in Africa, with additional material written by South African poet Lesego Rampolokeng, and Handspring's second collaboration with William Kentridge. The legend of Faust is based on a fifteenth century German astrologer who quickly spent the fortune which his uncle left him on riotous living. The cornerstone of the legend - and its subsequent adaptations since the sixteenth century - is Faust's pact with the devil and his subsequent descent into hell.   The production opened in Weimer and Berlin and has been performed at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, in France (Paris and Avignon), Italy (Rome), Israel (Jerusalem), Denmark (Copenhagen), Spain (Seville) and the United States (Washington's Kennedy Centre, Chicago and at the Massachusetts International Theatre Festival).

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WILLIAM KENTRIDGE When I was twelve years old, in a Time Life book on the mind, I came across a chart of great geniuses of all time ranked according to putative IQ. Heading the list, like the top money winner on this year's PGA, was Goethe, a name quite unknown to me amongst the Einsteins (position 6th I think) and Mozarts (3rd).   A few months later I was given, among the atlases, dictionaries and fountain pens that constituted typical presents for a Bar Mitzvah, a two volume translation of parts one and two of Goethe's Faust. For approximately the next twenty-five years the books stood unopened on my bookshelf.   The production of Faustus in Africa has a number of starting points. One of which was the silent rebuke of the Goethe on the bookshelf. During the period of stalking or avoiding the text I tried to find other versions, other less daunting tellings of the story and considered at different times everything from Marlowe, to George Sand, to Gertrude Stein, to Lunacharsky's pre-revolutionary Faust, to Bulgakov's marvelous version, The Master and Margerita. (The Hyena in our production gives a nod and cocked leg to Bulgakov's cat).   But in the end there was no avoiding the power and strangeness of the two volumes. The play we finally ended up with uses sections of Part One, fragments of Part Two and new material written by South African poet Lesego Rampolokeng (finding affinities between the rhythms of rap and knittelvers). All this with the aim of finding a place where the play ceases to be a daunting other - the weight of Europe leaning on the Southern tip of Africa - and becomes our own work.   A second point of entry was the fields of colonial imagery in the libraries and archives around Johannesburg. Weeks were spent looking through old magazines, maps, advertisements, images from colonial wars.   The lexicon of images gave us the starting point to develop the characters, the settings, the interactions of the scenes of the play. (Faust was based on a daguerreotype of a Belgian explorer - Helen on a 1920s cigarette advertisement). This world of images became the bedrock in which to test the idealism of Goethe's Faust against the rather more earthy materialism of colonial Africa. To see if a riposte could be given to Hegel's high handed dictum (written at the same time that Goethe was writing his Faust) that "after the pyramids, World Spirit leaves Africa, never to return".   A third point was the puppet work; wanting to develop and extend what we had done in Woyzeck on the Highveld, wanting to play further with the ambiguities of a performance made up by the combination of puppet and actor. We also wanted to take the idea of rough carving of the puppets even further; Mephisto's brass band is carved with a chain saw and router. Engineering techniques Adrian Kohler wanted to develop determined some characters and scenes

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LESEGO RAMPOLOKENG (WRITER OF ADDITIONAL MATERIAL)  Writer, literary activist and performance poet Lesego Rampolokeng's work has been published internationally and translated into several languages. His play, Fanon's Children was performed at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town in 2002.   Rampolokeng's introduction to the work of poet Ingoapele Madingoane during the height of the Black Consciousness era, spurred him on to write.    "Anything that came to mind, I put it down," he recalled.   In 1989 he began sending his work to the Congress of SA Writers (COSAW) and Staffrider magazine where they caught the attention of Andries Oliphant, who was then the editor. COSAW published Rampolokeng's first volume of poetry in 1990 - Horns For Hondo - which won an Africa Network Kwanza Award.   Through COSAW, Rampolokeng also hooked up with poet and singer Vusi Mahlasela, with whom he formed a performing partnership. A 1993 documentary of their work -entitled Lesego And Vusi: Friends And Opposites - was screened on SABC television.

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Additional text: Lesego Rampolokeng  Director: William Kentridge Design: Adrian Kohler, William Kentridge Animation: William Kentridge Assistant animator: Hiltrud von Seydlitz Lighting design: Mannie Manim Sound design: Wilbert Schubel Music: James Phillips, Warrick Sony Puppet master: Adrian Kohler Costumes: Hazel Maree, Hiltrud von Seydliz Faustus: Dawid Minnaar Mephisto: Leslie Fong Gretchen: Busi Zokufa God: Busi Zokufa Johnston: Louis Seboko Helen of Troy: Antoinette Kellermann Witch: Antoinette Kellermann Hyena: Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler Set construction: Just Sets Puppet maker: Adrian Kohler Assistant puppet maker: Tau Qwelane Photographer: Ruphin Coudyzer Production coordinator: Basil Jones Company stage manager: Bruce Koch Sound technician: Dean Pitman Company tour manager: Wesley France Production: Art Bureau (Munich), Kunstfest (Weimar), the Standard Bank National Arts Festival, the Foundation for the Creative Arts, Sharp Electronics and Mannie Manim Productions.

In brief | Director's note Author's note | Photo gallery | BACK TO FAUSTUS

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In brief | Director's note Author's note | Credits | BACK TO FAUSTUS

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