RC class remembers Goethe with production of 'Urfaust'

Wrapping up a series of events commemorating German writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 250th anniversary this year, a new translation of Goethe's play, "Urfaust," will be presented this weekend in the Residential College auditorium.

Written around 1775, Goethe's "Urfaust" is the earliest version of his well-known "Faust," the romanticized story of the professor selling his eternal soul to the devil in return for limitless joy and knowledge.

"It was Goethe's first attempt to write dramatically," said RC Drama Prof. Martin Walsh, director of the production.

This weekend's production will be a staged reading, with lights, costumes and scripts, rather than a full-fledged production. As part of a midterm project for the RC Drama course on Brecht, Walsh said it is as much of an educational event as theatrical entertainment.

"There is the possibility of an audience discussion after the reading, which is a very Brechtian thing to do," Walsh said, adding that he has taken "a superficial Brechtian spin" in directing the play, including using captions, but that the play itself is "really Goethe."

"We are just taking an attitude to Faust that is not reverential," he said.

Prof. Dan Farrelly said the Brechtian implications in Urfaust lie in its disjointed fragments, more so than in the ideas of the play itself.

"Urfaust is really a series of episodes. Each scene stands alone, but they are also connected," Farrelly said, mentioning the Brechtian idea of knots on a string and how each scene creates its own peak and knot to contribute to the whole play as still a constant, single string.

"Urfaust is rarely done, while Faust is performed frequently," Farrelly said, noting how this makes the early work significant for new areas of interpretation in theatre.

This weekend will provide an opportunity for people to encounter a rare classic work being reinterpreted and to see a work-in-progress production of a play that has just recently been translated.

Farrelly came in from the National University of Ireland at Dublin at the beginning of the week to participate in workshops with the actors of "Urfaust" before seeing his work go up this weekend.

"It is part of a long cooperation between the Residential College and the Goethe Institute of Ann Arbor," said Institute Director Uwe Rieken, who organized this weekend's event.

"We just want people to know that this is just a normal thing we do here," said Walsh of the Goethe anniversary production of "Urfaust," noting the University's attitude toward theater as that of educational enterprise.

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