Mitchell Auditorium echoed with laughter and snippets of songs by such artists as Led Zeppelin, Beck, Elvis Presley, Pink, Bloodhound Gang and many more last Monday night as Bridge Markland presented her one-woman show, “Faust in the Box.”
“Faust” is a classic German play named after main character Faust, who in his unsuccessful attempt to achieve complete scholarly knowledge of the universe sells his soul and is led astray by the Devil. Markland is a German performer, actress and dancer who ended her fourth U.S. tour with Monday night’s performance.
Markland’s one-woman performance reinterprets “Faust” to include puppets and pop music to help the audience better understand and relate to the play. The Devil becomes represented by popular multicultural band Rammstein and various other heavy metal songs.
Faust’s first sight of his love interest Gretchen as she walks down a street cues up “Pretty Woman” by Elvis Presley. Gretchen’s feelings for Faust are interpreted via the Kylie Minogue hit, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and later, Pink’s “Stupid Girls.”
Several other songs are layered into the classic’s script to help the audience grasp the emotions and actions of the characters.
“A lot of the songs were a part of my life,” Markland said. “And I finally put them somewhere.” Characters alternate between being represented as puppets or a stage performance by Markland, who lip syncs the entire performance.
“I really enjoyed drag shows (growing up) and seeing all those men dressed up and performing,” Markland said. “That’s where the lip syncing comes from.”
Markland’s history with the concept of performing with a box and puppets also dates back. In 1995 during a long distance relationship with a man who worked with boxes, she posed for an art class and decided to artistically put different parts of her body into a box and the rest “just evolved from there” Markland said.
“I liked the box, it’s got a good shape,” Markland said. “It looks good on stage. It’s abstract.”
Markland has performed “Faust in the Box” since 2006 but still has no favorite character.
“I wanted to do Mephistopheles (the Devil) for many years so when no one asked me, I decided to do it myself,” Markland said. “But I love all the other roles too. We all have innocent girls and Faust boys in ourselves and the Devil. One day you feel like Faust, the next you feel like the Devil. Some days it’s all there. This is quite an amazing piece (to perform).”
Sophomore mathematics major Therese Sahm found out about the performance through her Spanish professor who offered extra credit for attending.
“I have no idea what it’s going to be like,” Sahm said.
Freshman computer science major Jason Van Winkle got the opportunity to get to know Markland before her performance.
“I’m taking beginners German, and Professor Berg invited the whole class for coffee with her,” Van Winkle said. “The way she described it (her performance) was that it’s really funny and includes old music as well as young, so it brings everyone together. It sounded pretty awesome.”
Audible “this is awesome” whispers were heard several times throughout the performance.