April 20 - June 18, 2006
Faust
Reviewed April 28
Running time 1:30 - no intermission
Movement and mood meld in a rock-infused production
Includes brief nudity 

Paata Tsikurishvili brings his unique approach to creating a stage adaptation of Goethe's epic of the classic bargain with the devil. In form and style it is very much like much of his work in the past, which is to say that it is highly visual, involves sharp effects, dramatic and highly athletic dance, a deep strain of eroticism and striking stage pictures. But this production has a distinctly mod feel to it. This time out, he doesn't play the lead male role. Indeed, he's not performing at all in this production. His wife and frequent collaborator, Irina Tsikurishvili, has choreographed and appears as Faust's love, Gretchen, while frequent company member Greg Marzullo is Faust, and Dan Istrate, who was in both Tsikurishvili's The Dybbukk and Dracula ,is the devil figure Mephisopheles. This will be the first work of Synetic under a five year program as a constituent company of the Kennedy Center. Performances are at the Rosslyn Spectrum  through May 21 and then the show complete its run in the Kennedy Center's Family Theater, June 1 - 18.

Storyline: A modern retelling of the legend has a nerd striking the fateful deal with the devil for knowledge in exchange for his soul.  Here that knowledge frees him from his nerdish persona, allowing a liaison with Gretchen whom he views as the perfect women, but the corrupting power of knowledge turns the relationship to tragedy.

This Faust follows the structure of Goethe's epic "closet drama," one never actually written with an eye toward production on stage. It begins with the wager between God and the devil figure, Mephistopheles, and only then proceeds to the contract between Mephistopheles and Faust, and to Faust's involvement with the woman whose tragedy is enmeshed in his. As with all of Tsikurishvili's adaptations, it strips the source material to its essence and then devises a series of striking visual pictures and presents them in a fluid progression accompanied by all-encompassing soundscapes. While here he uses some verbiage, the story is really told visually with athletic dance providing much of the momentum that drives the one-act performance forward.

There is a timelessness to many of the productions of the Tsikurisvhilis that seems somehow missing from this one. It may be the punk-flavored costuming with torn jeans, t-shirts, goth-themed coats and a nipple ring or two. Or, perhaps it is the use of a rock-flavored score, rather than the lush post-romantic classical sound that accompanied most of the shows of the past. This soundscape does the same thing earlier ones accomplished by setting a mood and creating an atmosphere, but it pulls the piece into contemporary times when the story calls out for some remove -- it remains the same old Faustian deal with overtones of alchemy.

Much of Goethe's work was viewed as a treatment of the issues of alchemy which were so cutting-edge of the time, but that time was the 1790s. Here, Tsikurishvili sets the action within a laboratory littered with books, vials and specimen jars. The central image is of a tub, steaming and spewing forth all manner of images. Irina Tsikurishvili's choreography is as physical and rhythmically hypnotic as always. The body control of her dancers is, as it always is in a Synetic production, amazing, and those bodies are attractive in both versions - muscular males, lithe females and flat abs everywhere. As is also typical of a Synetic presentation, eroticism is a feature of most of the dance and movement routines. This time it is with partial nudity. Movement and symbolism rather than stark nakedness is the method of choice, however, for the birth/infanticide scene which is disturbing enough just as it is.

Based on Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Adapted by Nathan Weinberger and Paata Tsikurishvili. Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili. Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili. Original music composed by Aaron Forbes. Featured composers: Konstantin Lordkipany and Bondo Gugely. Design: Georgi Alexi-Meskishvili (set, costumes, properties) Colin K. Bills (lights) Irakli Kavsadze and Paata Tsikurishvili (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Lawson Earl (stage manager). Cast: Philip Fletcher, Meghan Grady, Katherine E. Hill, Dan Istrate, Julia Kunina, Olena Kushch, Anna Lane, Greg Marzullo, Matthew McGloin,  Irina Tsikurishvili, Andrew Zox.