An Incomplete List of Things I Wish I Could’ve Seen that Happen “Offscreen” During Doctor Faustus
During Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, the chorus comes on several times to inform the audience of what they’ve missed, or Faustus will mention something that happened offstage. This is super common, as the play takes place over the course of 24 years (but the play itself takes about 2 hours). Here’s a list of some of the things I wish could’ve been onstage instead (were it not for the reality of budgeting or the script that Marlowe wrote).
Faustus and Mephistopheles ride around on a chariot pulled by dragons.
Chorus: “Learned Faustus, to know the secrets of astronomy graven in the book of Jove's high firmament, did mount himself to scale Olympus' top, being seated in a chariot burning bright, drawn by the strength of yoky dragons' necks.”
The postcard takes a few Creative Liberties with this concept (I couldn’t fit the chariot)
Faustus visits Hell, despite not originally believing it exists.
Faustus: “O, might I see hell, and return again, how happy were I then!”
Lucifer: “Thou shalt; I will send for thee at midnight.”
And this dude still doesn’t repent? I wonder what version of Hell Lucifer showed him…
Faustus conjures a lot of famous poets and singers, including Homer and (implied) Orpheus:
Faustus: “Have not I made blind Homer sing to me of Alexander's love and Oenon's death? And hath not he, that built the walls of Thebes with ravishing sound of his melodious harp, made music with my Mephistopheles?”
Made music with my Mephistopheles… I want to see THAT duo performing
The conference on “fair ladies”
First Scholar: “Master Doctor Faustus, since our conference about fair ladies, which was the beautifulest in all the world, we have determined with ourselves that Helen of Greece was the admirablest lady that ever lived.”
This is a lot of fancy words covering up, essentially, locker room talk. Did I really want to be there? Probably not. But I am fascinated, in a very unsettled way.
Honorable mention: the entire opening prologue
This prologue describes Faustus being born, growing up, going to school, getting his doctorate. While we don’t necessarily need to see all of that, I think it would’ve been fun to see what this guy was like as a child, his friendships with the scholars and Valdez & Cornelius, and who he was before he decided to get really into the whole magic demon thing.
Those are just a few of the things that don’t happen onstage during Doctor Faustus, but I do think whoever does a movie adaptation next should really include the dragon bit. Or if you’re a theatre company with a really big budget. I will come see it.
*Yes, I could have said “Things that happen offstage,” but that might have been confusing, as the last blog post was about things going wrong offstage IRL. I’m doing my best, okay?