Orson Welles as Dr. Faustus. (Library of Congress photo)
Orson Welles was just 21 years old when he directed, designed costumes for, and appeared in the title role of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus for the Federal Theater Project.
Opening on January 8, 1937 at the Maxine Elliott Theatre in New York, Faustus was the third of four stage productions Welles would direct under the Works Progress Administration. (Previously, Welles had helmed “Voodoo” Macbeth and Horse Eats Hat for the WPA.)
The Depression-era tickets were priced at 25, 35 and 50 cents.
Christopher Marlowe’s rarely staged Elizabethan play was, artistically, one of the most notable productions in the history of the American theater. Welles’s highly innovative use of costumes, lighting, and a series of trapdoors resulted in a production in which the sense of black magic and damnation was all-pervasive.
Although the set design for Faustus was very simple, the production was given intense visual effect through powerfully dramatic lighting and splendid costume coloring. The cardinal’s vivid costume with its luxurious folds was designed to stand out against an essentially black thrust stage that was punctuated from the sides and above with a complex arrangement of lights. Welles also designed the costume for Faustus’s assistant Wagner.
Faustus is an early instance of racially integrated casting. Jack Carter, whose elegant and austere Mephistopheles contrasted mightily with the explosive Faustus of Welles, had starred as Macbeth in Voodoo” Macbeth.
What follows is the program note that appeared in the original Faustus playbill, regarding Welles costume as Dr. Faustus, and the procedures a master magician needed to perform while attempting to conjure up the dark forces from within the protection of the magic circle:
The proper attire or “pontificalibus” of a magician, is a priestly robe of black bombazine, reaching to the ground, with the two seals of the earth drawn correctly upon virgin parchment. Round his waist is tied a broad consecrated girdle, with the names Ya, Yo, Aie, Aaie, Elibra, Elchim, Sadai, Pah Adonai, tuo robore, Cintus sum. Upon his shoes must be written Tetragrammaton, with crosses round about; and in his hand a Holy Bible, printed or written in pure Hebrew. Thus attired, and standing within the charmed circle, the magician repeats the awful form of exorcism; and presently, the infernal spirits make strange and frightful noises, howlings, tremblings, flashes, and most dreadful shrieks and yells, as the forerunner of their becoming visible. Their first appearance is generally in the form of fierce and terrible lions and tigers vomiting forth fire and roaring hideously about the circle; all which time the exorcist must not suffer any tremour of dismay; for, in that case, they will gain the ascendancy, and the consequences may touch his life. On the contrary, he must summon up a share of resolution, and continue repeating all the forms of constriction and confinement, until they are drawn nearer to the influence of the triangle, when their forms will change to appearances less ferocious and frightful, and become more submissive and tractable. When the forms of conjuration have in this manner been sufficiently repeated the spirits forsake their bestial shapes, and enter the human form, appearing like men of gentle countenance and behaviour. With great care also must the spirit be discharged after the ceremony is finished, and has answered all the demands made upon him. The magician must wait patiently till he has passed through all the terrible forms which announce his coming, and only when the last shriek has died away, and every trace of fire and brimstone has disappeared, may he leave the circle and depart home in safety.
Production notes, costume designs, photographs and more from Faustus can be viewed online at the Library of Congress.
Welles would follow Faustus with a non-WPA production, The Second Hurricane for Aaron Copland on April 21, 1937 at the Henry Street Playhouse. Welles’ final WPA production, the landmark The Cradle Will Rock, opened on June 16, 1937 at the Venice Theatre.
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus credits
January 8 – May 9, 1937
Maxine Elliott’s Theatre, NYC
Directed by Orson Welles
Managing producer:John Houseman
Music: Paul Bowles
Puppets – Bill Baird
Masks – James Cochrane
The Pope – Charles Peyton
Cardinal of Lorrain – J. Headley
Faustus – Orson Welles
Valdes – Bernard Savage
Cornelius – Myron Paulson
Wagner – Arthur Spencer
First Scholar – William Hitch
Second Scholar – Joseph Wooll
Third Scholar – Huntly Weston
Clown – Harry McKee
Robin – Hiram Sherman
Ralph – Wallace Acton
Vinter – George Smithfield
Old Man – George Duthie
First Friar – Edward Hemmer
Mephistophilis – Jack Carter
Spirit in the Shape of Helen of Troy – Paula Laurence
Seven Deadly Sins:
Pride – Elizabeth Malone
Covetousness – Jane Hale
Wrath – Helena Rapport
Envy – Cora Burlar
Gluttony – Della Ford
Sloth – Nina Salama
Lechery – Lee Molnar Baliol – Larry Lauria Belcher – Clarence Yates
Friars – Richie White, Jack Mealy, Warren Goddard, Robert Hopkins, Peter Barbier, Henry Russelle, Henry Howard, Louis Pennywell, Harry Singer, Solomon Goldstein, Walter Palm, Marcel Rousseau, Frank Kelly, Charles Uday
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