Faust Revisited

From 1971

Sebastian: When we were students, twelve of us, living in an old rambling house. There was a large room which served well for parties. And one of the residents rewrote a play, Faust. Based on his last hour before the devil came to take him. I just found the script..

Vivienne: Dramatic.

Give me more time!

Sebastian: It was. Declamatory, as befits a conversation between a man who has an hour to live and the devil. “I need more time. I pray you, beseech you, plead with you, grant Faustus more time.” That was fifty years ago. 

Vivienne: I wonder where he is now.

Sebastian: I did meet him a few times over the years. But the drama he was writing about invaded his personality. His mellow nature became unpredictable, angry and his humor turned even darker. It’s as if he knew the devil was shadowing him and time was running out..

Vivienne: Dramatists beware. 

_______

Voice-over

It was a brave declamatory script. Elizabethan in voice. The performance featured guttering candles and dry ice smoking on the floor. The writer-director was gifted but he walked away from literature by moving to Australia to dig for opals in the outback. He found some and followed a path challenging all as he stamped his way through a brave and somewhat uncompromising life.