About Marlowe Synopsis Theme Art Text

What are the adaptations that the Portway Players have made?

In the players production, all the actors come out and face the audience, instead of just one. They read the prologue.

It is easy to see that most of Marlowe’s words have been changed, but all of the same points are made as in the original prologue speech. There are, however, a couple of additions.

The actors say:

• We’re actors
• We’re telling you the story of Faustus, an ordinary man
• Imagine we’re professors and love books
• Faustus’ history
• But he becomes greedy, interested in magic
• And here he is

Why are the differences important?

Well, for example, using everyone instead of one person changes the dramatic feel of the prologue.

It is:

• More than a chorus
• More than a theatrical convention
• Confronting the audience.

Having all the actors looking out at the audience is confrontational - how often are audiences stared at by a whole company of disabled actors?

This is the power in our art.

The actors confront the audience with their ideas of who the actors are and what they can do.

This confrontation of the audience’s expectations is developed in the prologue script that the players use:

‘Are we not all ordinary men?’

‘Imagine us as scholars, professors, men and women of learning.’

‘Imagine us reading.’

People who love books by Carol Chilcott

Top ^ | < Previous page