The five-act play The Tragedy of Faust, adapted from Goethe’s Faust, is quite different from the original text. The five stages of Faust’s life will be presented in reverse order, i.e., from the end to the beginning. The story will start from Faust’s failure to conquer the nature, to the shattering of his political pursuit; from his disillusionment with the pursuit of the beauty of classicism, to his fiasco in the search for romance in the real world, and finally to his despair of knowledge.
Insatiable desire drives him to experience the ups and downs of life with the help of Mephistopheles, the devil, leaving him only the pain of failure. To sell one’s soul for the satisfaction of desire is not only the tragedy of Faust, but that of the whole humanity along the history. If the self-proclaimed brilliant civilization of mankind is built on desire, then its progress and development will be meaningless and full of spiritual sufferings.
Under the encouragement of Gretchen, Faust finally recognized the situation, and fought with the devil and then intended to poison him. Successful or not, Faust’s life course of constantly self-examination and exploration of the meaning and value of ‘human’ existence brings out the good in humanity, which poses the question: What should it really like to be ‘human’?
Prof. Liu Libin was born in Harbin China in 1953.He was the General Secretary of Education Development Foundation of the Central Academy of Drama(the CAD) China, doctoral supervisor and the member of Theatre Olympics International Committee. He graduated from the Acting Department of the CAD in 1977, then worked as a teacher specializing in acting courses, including theatre performing, acting and directing creative practice and theoretical research.
Till now, he has directed over 30 theatre works, including Thunderstorm (written by Cao Yu), Beijing People, Three Sisters, The Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Servant of Two Masters, Turandot, The Tragedy of Faust, Come Down from The Tree, Wenna, original musicals Tarruffe, Chinese Opera Women Teacher of A Village School, monodrama Past Times of Countryside, Life Between Heaven and Earth. Among these plays, the monodrama Past Times of Countryside was staged in the 6th Theatre Olympics hosted in Beijing China, the monodrama Life Between Heaven and Earth was performed in the 7th Theatre Olympics hosted in Wroclaw Poland, the 8th Theatre Olympics hosted in Delhi India, and the 9th Theatre Olympics hosted in SCOT Japan.
His published papers included Talks on Performing Concepts, Psychological Exploration on Actor’s Acting and Creation, Creation on Characters, Talks on Humans’ Nature, Thoughts on the Empty Space, Salute to Classic Works, Imagination for Creation, Feeling of Creation, What I Thought when Did Rehearsals on The Twelfth Night.
He has been worked as Chief of the Administrative Affairs Office of the CAD, the Vice President, Dean of the Acting Department, the Convener of the 7th Review Panel of Drama, Film and TV of the National Administrative Office for Academic Degrees, General Secretary of the Chinese Society of Dramatic Arts and Deputy General Secretary of the Asian Theatre Education Center.
