Sunday, June 5, 2016

Mephistopheles of the Vegetal Kind

 For some time I've wanted to do a post devoted to permutations of the Faust legend; this could probably be attributable to political campaign season, when deals with the devil are a dime a dozen. But I was a bit stymied on just how to focus the topic. A simple overview of the various incarnations of Faust was tempting; I could begin on the theatrical/literary front with Marlowe's Dr. Faustus(1592), than move on to Goethe's Faust(1808), then on to Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita(written between 1928 and 1940, published in book form in 1967) ; moving to cinema,  some space could be given to FW Murnau's 1926 silent version, to Stanley Donen's Bedazzeld(1967), to Istvan Szabo's Academy Award winning Mephisto(1981). A nod could even be given to the The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror IV, where Homer sells his soul for a doughnut. But the sheer glut of material was overwhelming, and ticking off an assembly line of adaptations has been done before. Was there any particular variation of this story that encapsulated its unique staying power in our culture? Then I had a revelation: One of the most uncannily revealing adaptations of Faust, one that serves as an unexpected yet wholly fitting companion text to Marlowe and Goethe, is the musical Little Shop of Horrors, specifically the 1986 film directed by Frank Oz.