Derived from the German legend of a dissatisfied man who makes a deal with the devil, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust I and II is deemed to be “unstageable”—meant only to be read, not performed. With its fantastical elements, multiplicity of meaning, symbolic approach, and metatheatrical nature, Goethe’s magnum opus is impossible to encapsulate with a single means of perception.

To capture the magnitude of such a work, the designer attempts to explore a reality that goes beyond the material realm—creating a world steeped in the sort of hyperrealism introduced by the Surrealists and Symbolists of the 20th century, and fusing today’s theater practices and technologies with historical theater devices that go as far back as antiquity. The result of such an undertaking is a Gesamtkunstwerk or “Total Theatre” appropriate to the scope of Faust that reflects the human condition presented in the work itself—constant striving in the face of human fallibility.

The unit set is a surrealist landscape, specifically depicting Mountain Gorges, a fitting metaphor for the human condition represented by Faust that he struggles with throughout the entirety of the drama. The stage is constructed in the same manner as a triptych, with two outer panels that are revealed to the audience at the beginning of the play during the Prelude and the Prologue. The audience themselves are meant to enter the triptych after those scenes, allowing them to become part of the action and be fully immersed in the story, engulfed by the world of the drama. When the audience members enter the stage, they do so through an opening at the center of the stage meant to simulate the state of being born into Earth. Upon entering, the audience is surrounded by three main sections consisting of multiple panels growing larger in size as they approach the center of the stage, which are divided according to the three facets of mankind: mind, body, and soul. The various settings of the drama will be presented onto the panels through video projections accompanied by set pieces, and, depending on the themes of the scene, they may take place within or merely in front of these panels. The middle section, where the audience sits, is representative of humanity and the human condition. Faust is surrounded by these towering panels, but he only ever stays in the middle of them, never inside, just as the audience do. 

Matriona Dildoll is a drag queen concept created for SCENO20’s drag show, Drag-Uh! Based on the idea of a Matryoshka’s removable layers, this drag queen showcases one of the most amusing aspects of drag shows--onstage transformations. As Matriona reveals each of her layers, a new character is revealed. The show takes the audience through the process of self-discovery and sexual awakening while incorporating the traditional phases of a Matryoshka--beginning with the mother, then the daughter, another daughter, a son, and an infant--representative of the forward-backward trajectory of realizing one’s sexuality and gender expression before finally reaching the innermost layer of every person: the human being. Beginning with the traditional mother figure and ending with the infant devoid of defining characteristics tying them to one sex or the other, emphasizing the fact that all human beings are the same at their core--no matter how they choose to present themselves.