Press & Media

faust in the box (english version)

" ...The parallels between the well known text and it’s translation into pop songs of the past four decades are impressive and funny at the same time. Bridge Markland walks on the rather narrow edge between modern debate and persiflage.
When Margaret recognises at the end that she is on AC/DCs "Highway to hell", this borderline finally becomes blurred in a great and new attempt to interpret the classic for many generations. This comprehensive attempt was successful. " Bernd Mand, Mannheimer Morgen,  7 May 08


"... it works so well I became fascinated to see and hear just what was about to happen next.
... It is superbly performed and very very cleverly written and designed...."
4 stars
www.one4review.co.uk / 17 August 2009   


"...With almost demonic facial twitches and contortions, she paints a Joker-like, mad... world, changing between the three characters of Faust, Mephistopheles and Gretchen..."
Angie Brown, BBC Scotland / 25 August 2009
For the full article and interview go to the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8218021.stm

faust in the box (german)


”...Bridge Markland brings out the piece’s many levels. For her, as for Goethe, it’s about love and suffering, God and the devil. A simple parody which did nothing but ridicule could never be as enthralling and entertaining as this performance in a cardboard box.”
Oliver Kranz, Corso,  Deutschlandfunk,  20 March 08


Popstar Faust: Bridge Markland takes the dust of Goethe

”Robbie rocks and Faust ponders: "I just wanna feel". Men in an identity crisis, hungry for the true life. One of them is drawn to sex and drugs, the other one… oh well, somehow the same. But first we need a seducer. Greetings, Mephisto: “pleased to meet you” … or else “Evil is always and everywhere”
The story takes it’s well known course (catchword “Pretty Woman”). But in a completely uncommon fashion. The performance and transformation artist Bridge Markland shook the dust off Goethe’s “Faust” and presents us with “faust in the box” … a heart-refreshing one-woman-show for a pop music generation.
Without sustaining any dramatic loss, Markland has crisply and trenchantly shortened the play by about a half.
The study scene, the witches, the Easter walk and the prologue in heaven; its all there. What is deleted from the literary text has been added with music.
Faust and company battle it out flinging quotations and slogans from Madonna, Robbie Williams, Rolling Stones at each other. Every song line, every refrain sits with pointed accuracy within the original lines of text, which speaks for the universality and modernity of the classic, As in her last celebrated classical interpretation,” schiller in the box” Bridge Markland makes use of a large, simple cardboard box placed at the centre of the stage. The brazen multi talent … climbs into the box with Faust and conjures up one surprise after another: puppet theatre, lipsink show and a never ending repertoire in grimaces. A hell of a lot of fun.”
Kap, Berliner Morgenpost, 4 Nov 06

“faust in the box presents ... Bridge Markland ...who can not only change herself but also literary texts in the most astonishing manner... Goethe’s Faust and Margaret as a frantic Punch and Judy show...accompanied by Rolling Stones...Madonna, Seeed…”
Esther Slevogt, taz,  Berlin, 31 Oct 06