IMPERIAL MOTEL (Faust)(1996)

IMPERIAL MOTEL (Faust) is a cross-media performance which encompasses several versions of “Faust”, including a new version written for the company by John Jesurun, as well as many past versions. Set in a motel room surrounded by cameras, the performance revolves around a latter-day American Faust, “wrestling with his demons” in an anonymous, modern space, and a more nostalgic German Faust, recreating and recording older versions of the parable. Through this “live film,” the two Fausts encountered a variety of characterizations of Gretchen, Wagner, and other stock characters.

IMPERIAL MOTEL (Faust) was a co-production with the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich, Switzerland, where it ran for four weeks at a train station entirely refurbished for the production, and was performed in English and German.