HERR TEUFEL FAUST - AFTER JOHANN WOLFGANG BY GOETHE FAUST I

Dominique Horwitz is finally back on RT. After the solo evening as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf and his furious portrait of artist Mark Rothko in RED, he revives THE German tragedy in an award-winning dramatic tour de force.

The legendary life story of Dr. Johann Faust. In every century in which the subject matter was interpreted in literary, acting, musical and cinematic ways, it retained its unbreakable relevance.
The constant drive of the modern world, the acceleration, the pressure to constantly improve oneself, more mindfulness, more climate protection, the church in a deep crisis. The figure of Faust would be just as unhappy in the 21st century as he was in his own time — a critique of the “non-development” of society?

To scholar Heinrich Faust, “the cursed here and now” appears worthless. Driven by an insatiable desire, he wants to expand the limits of teaching and science, indeed of his own ego and the world, to overcome imagination and reality, to suspend time, and intoxicate mind and body.
He makes a bet with the devil (“I will say for now: Stay! You're so beautiful! Then you may shackle me, then I would like to perish! “). Driven by a thirst for knowledge, pleasure and insatiable desire, he plunges into a diabolical witch ride, a journey into human abysses. Faster, farther, bigger, more. At the end of the journey to the “small world” (Faust 1), Faust's minor lover Gretchen and her child are dead, and the world formula has not been found.

The Driven Fist also travels restlessly in the Big World. In the end, he wants nothing less than domesticate humanity, gain land and conquer the sea. This is about the whole: power and ownership, tradition and vision, technology and nature, destruction and renewal. About revolution, industrialization and colonization, the subjugation of people and the landscape. “That's when my mind dares to skim itself. I want to fight here, I want to defeat this. ”
We travel to the endless expanses of Goethe's universe. From nature to culture, from Greek mythology (the beautiful Helen appears to us) to the Middle Ages to the creation of a human in a test tube (homunculus). This journey goes back to the Anthropocene, a new geological age in which humanity has the dominant geo-physical influence on the Earth system and therefore humans are responsible for the future of the planet, which brings us to our time.

The world is an unfathomable cosmic spectacle in which the moment passes and something new is created again. Faust's redemption is based on the nature of this creation, freeing his soul. “Die and grow.” And as in the prologue in heaven, the sun can now rise again.

He really did exist!
His life is regarded as a historical model of fist material. In all testimonies about Faust that were written down during his lifetime, the historical Faust appears with the first name Georg or Jörg. Johann Faust is only written more than two decades after his death, because he himself probably omitted the frequently used first name Johann.

In research, there are two theories about the year and place of birth of historical Faust.
The one after which he was born around 1480 in Knittlingen with the name Johann Georg Faust and after research from the USA under Frank Baron, which gives 1466 as the year of birth in Helmstadt near Heidelberg.

Information about his marital status or descendants is not available.
Throughout his life, he was known as an itinerant doctor, miracle healer, alchemist, magician and fortune teller. He is also said to have profound knowledge of astrology and philosophy. He died around 1540/41 in or near Staufen im Breisgau, according to the story of an explosion during chemical experiments. The mysterious circumstances surrounding his death fuelled the rumor that Faust had been brought by the devil himself.

Dr. Faustus in the early modern period and later studies of the subject matter
The popularity of this substance is undeniable and understandable at the same time. The historical Faust was born in the 15th century at a time of great and significant upheavals: established scholarship fought against the great popularity of fortune telling, astrology and alchemy, Gutenberg spurred the media revolution with the invention of printing, the Reformation divided the Christian Church, epidemics decimated the European population and humanism was in its heyday.

The figure of the literary Faust is also difficult to clearly categorize.
He is highly intelligent and questions the structure of the world. His striving and failure does not show a clear hero figure, but a conflict of character and drive.
In the “Historia von D [Oktor] Johann Fausten” published in 1587 by the book printer Johann Spies, the historical Faust is barely recognizable among the fabulous ingredients added to him. In German-speaking countries, this work was further supplemented by further stories by Rudolf Widmann in 1599. Several swans followed in 1674 by Johann Nikolaus Pfitzer. The first dramatic adaptation of this “Historia” was made between 1588 and 1593 by the eminent English playwright Christopher Marlowe, who premiered his own adaptation after translating the German-language “Historia” as a drama entitled “Tragicall History of the Life and Death Doctor Faustus.” Reception on German stages began in the 17th century on traveling stages and in puppet shows.

It is hardly possible to record the multitude of Faust edits made in recent centuries.
However, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who documents his work on Faust with the publication of a scene in the famous 17th literature letter in 1759, remains a fragment. The arrangement by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is indisputably considered the most famous. The first part was completed in 1806 and the second part in 1831 after six years of continuous work.
Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Theodor Storm and Hermann Hesse also spent a long time working on their own Faust arrangements. Thomas Mann's “Doctor Faustus” was published in 1947 and is considered the author's most controversial work. Even today, decades after its initial publication, Mann's reworking of the old Faust material still poses a challenge — both for readers and for literary research.
Many composers have also taken on the subject matter, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner, Hanns Eisler and Alfred Schnittke. Not to forget the adaptations by musicians such as Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, Charles Gounod, Ferruccio Busoni, to name just a few.

The film reception is no less successful and genre-shaping.
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau produced the famous silent film FAUST — A GERMAN FOLK STORY in 1926, followed later by the film version FAUST (1960) by Peter Gorski (film adaptation of the legendary production by Gustaf Gründgens at the Hamburger Schauspielhaus) and FAUST (2011) by Aleksandr Sokurov.

Theresie Josefin Federolf

Engaging, playfully outstanding parforceritt
Tosten Fischer pretty much accepted Dominique Horwitz during the rehearsal. But the appearance of knowing no fatigue develops a continuous 100% stage presence. (...) Such refinements can be observed constantly. And you don't dare to mentally digress even for a moment because you don't want to miss out on anything.
BAD KISSINGEN Thomas Ahnert, Saale Zeitung, 12.4.2025

Dominique Horwitz shines with “Herr Teufel Faust”
For 90 minutes, Horwitz plays a parforceritt through the highs and abysses of Faust — with full physical commitment, linguistically present at all times and precisely. (...) Long-lasting applause. Bravo calls.
SCHWEINFURT Karl-Heinz Körblein, Schweinfurter Tagblatt, 12.4.2025