User:Playdramabuff/Faustus (play)

Faustus is a play written by David Mamet.David Alan Mamet is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and film director.

Synopsis
Here is a small summary of the play from the cited sources   :

Large double doors open onto a room hung with tinsel and streamers, a party scene gotten up as a fantasy.FAUSTUS's wife is involved in decoration. (Of the paper in his hand) Here is the long-sought, un-sought, oft-rejected, indeed, denied, yet, insistent, true conclusion. Which like shy love, like unremarked merit was found to've been present all along. Which, like a bridal veil, could not be lifted by force-solely through devotion. His work now complete, he, like his father, is cursed to begin again. To that same extreme one must again tempt, cajole, entreat, and importune the gods. Of one whose depth of contrition, howe'er impersonated, nay, howe'er felt, may never plumb the depth of his duplicity. What is their praise, they are, as dolt schoolchildren bent on their sums, they round their inclusivities, into the most proximate low error. Our Biblia Sacra treats not of him, but of ourself. Excerpted by permission of Vintage, a division of Random House LLC.

Media Articles
Some notable references on the play from news articles are:

The Seattle Times: Arts & Entertainment: Playwright David Mamet crafts head-scratching adaptation of 'Dr. Faustus'-"Faustus'. Faustus.  Faustus," it's hard to believe this is the same guy who wrote so indelibly of small-time American dreamers and schemers in the punchy plays "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "American Buffalo," and the film "House of Games.  Faustus" is something of a puzzlement, more rhetorically and temperamentally attuned to the pitiless, Elizabethan-era "Dr.  Faustus" of Christopher Marlowe than to Goethe's redemptive 19th-century "Faust," or Thomas Mann's reworking of "Faust" into a Nazi-era parable. Over a single, clotted scene, Faustus gets shuttled into his own murky hell. Faustus" closes with a similar sort of fearless inventory. Faustus" as a Mamet clunker - made worse by the author's notorious reputation of being a poor director of his own works?Precisely because the Magic staging is so enervated, and the lead isn't depicted by a classically trained actor equipped to elucidate the verse, I'm not quite willing to dismiss "Dr.  Faustus" yet." -- Seattle Times - Apr 6, 2004

Los Angeles Times: Archives-"Faustus" in London in 2002, while 's "Dr. Faustus" finally had its world premiere at the Magic Theatre here on Saturday. Faustus" is told in an archaic diction, a convoluted syntax that could trip up even William F. FAUSTUS':  as Magus; playwright and director David Mamet; and as Faustus rehearse Mamet's new play at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco." -- Los Angeles Times - Mar 3, 2004

Other links

 * 1) http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/03/entertainment/et-ybarra3
 * 2) http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/%3Fdate%3D20040406%26slug%3Dmamet06
 * 3) http://www.notable-quotes.com/m/mamet_david.html

Category:Plays