24 October 2011

At the Thalia Theatre's Faust

On the October 1st we saw the second night of the Thalia theatre’s uncut production of Goethe’s Faust. More on this theatre experience later, but we’ll begin with the end, with Faust, now saved, being pulled up to heaven. The text of these final lines of the play belongs to a “Chorus Mysticus”; in most productions these verses will be recited, but at the Thalia they were sang with the whole cast on stage, to a catchy tune, musical style. This is my English translation of what Thalia’s Chorus Mysticus sang:

All which will die on us
Is only allegory;
The inadmissible
is our contemporary;
The indescribable
now has been done;
The forever-womanly
draws us ever on.