violence

                Prelude to Faust  is one of the greatest puppet shows I have ever seen, and retelling the tragic tale of Faust  cannot be done without a the use of violence. Now it has been a few years since I saw this, so a few of the examples are going to be fuzzy at best, so bare with me. The show is a retelling of Faust and his dealings with the devils that he has conjured up. The seven deadly sins come to pay him a visit including Wrath and Lust, two of the subjects that we are dealing with in class right now. The main actor is a live person stuffed on a puppet set and is often forced through little nooks and crannies to communicate with the puppets who often poke and jab at him. Most of the violence is fairly slapstick with beating over the head or jabbing of the eyes, not to mention some biting and humping. Although there are some comical bits the puppets do serve as an excellent medium to display these ugly, horrible little devils plaguing Faust. As mentioned before in class puppets generally symbolize an idea, and within this play I can honestly say I would never want to conjure up these little pests. They can poke, jab and taunt all they want but as the play progresses it becomes less and less funny and more serious and scary when we realize these little demons are really just there to help drag him to hell. Humans may have been able to do this, but the puppets movements, looks and the ability to poke and pester far out shines what a real actor would be able to do.