Double - Doctor Faustus - Blog 17 - 08/07/16

Today, we split off into two off into two groups, Ollie and I went through our lines for Act Two and the others continued finishing the sins scene. We felt this would be more beneficial to the group as although we're involved in the sins scene, we're not essential and only react to the movement of the others. Also, Ollie and I aren't as confident with Act Two as we are with Act One so taking time to look at this will boost our confidence in the production.

We then went on to devise the scene where Faustus wakes up from his "coma," our own rendition to the play (as in explained in an earlier blog post). We felt this scene needed to be abstract to subliminally tell the audience that the transition from coma to "reality" may or may not have been successful. Below is the movement:

• Ollie collapses on the table from the last scene. Blackout. James and Rob remove the centre red block and move another smaller one into the middle. The lights come up and Ollie is lying on a hospital bed.
• Faustus lies there for a moment whilst weird noises arise. When the music turns happy, we start walking in as Doctors in lab coats.
• James lift's Ollie up and fluffs a pillow. Whilst Ollie is sat up, I move his head which leads to him spinning his head without me touching it as I've walked off; at this point, James stops him and lowers him down.
• Lorna walks towards Ollie with a syringe, she places it in her mouth, hand stands over him, pricks him with it, then lands and walks off.
• Charlie stands over Ollie, Ollie lifts his leg up, Charlie leans his body on Ollie's foot and Ollie bends his leg slowly bringing Charlie closer then straightens and Charlie continues walking.
• Rob mimics pulling Ollie up with rope and then pulls him across so that he's sitting up on the edge of his bed. James and I then sit either side of him, lift his legs up, whilst Ollie is then leaning back and laying across the other block, and pretend to knock his knees with medical instruments. We then get up.
• Rob tests Ollie's pulse three time and each time Ollie pulses his body. On the third, more violent, pulse, we all exit besides Ollie. I however go to his desk as I later reveal myself as Mephistopheles.

When running through the following scenes, Ollie and I came up with an idea. When Faustus hands over the contract, Mephistopheles will hand him a pocket-watch which, supposedly, counts down from 24 years, representing how Faustus' time is running out. However, when I reveal myself as Mephistopheles after being a Doctor, I say "look at the clock." I've changed this line to "look at your pocket-watch." Faustus then looks for it in his pockets but can't seem to find it. I then pull it out saying the next line ("you have but twelve hours left"). He then snatches the watch off of me and continues on. I feel although this adds nothing to the plot, the addition of the pocket-watch gives the play a symbolical token and also allows Ollie to interact something personally as his character.