Open Eye returns to the Faustian bargain that started it all

Can the meaning of a classic tale such as "Faust" change? At Open Eye Figure Theatre in Minneapolis, the performers are finding that it can.

Twenty years ago the company was launched after its production of "Prelude to Faust." It re-imagined the tale of the man who sells his soul to the Devil, and told that tale through puppetry. Now the Minneapolis company is about to open the show for a final run.

Open Eye's theater is a warm, welcoming space, but its proportions can throw a visitor off-kilter. There are normal-size chairs for the audience, but the stage is built for much smaller performers.

The original knee-high puppets appear on a stage founder Michael Sommers built two decades ago for a show commissioned by the Walker Art Center. Sommers said he made it all in a space above Roberts Shoes in south Minneapolis.

"It's like, how did I do this?" he marveled. "How did I manage to accomplish all this?"

Sommers said the original impetus for producing "Prelude to Faust" now was to clear out space in the company's storage area. But he says it's become an opportunity to revisit a formative work.

"And also just thinking about in 20 years how we have changed as individuals, how we have grown, or grown as artists, or thinkers, or makers, and just thinking about what does this mean to reinvestigate," he said. "Not remount. Reinvestigate."

Key to that reinvestigation is the one human character in "Prelude to Faust." Called Everyman, he climbs from the fiery pit of hell into the world and tries to understand it. Now as then, actor and puppeteer Julian McFaul plays the role. He says he's struck by the show's beauty.

"I mean, here's this giant toy theater with crazy trapdoors," he said. "You don't know how deep it goes back. The actual Devil lives inside of it, and is exposing himself here and there. And this dude crawls out of it, and gets kind of messed with by all the crazy demons."

McFaul said he feels his approach to the character has changed as he has aged. In the past, his Everyman might have looked for ways of avoiding a pact with the Devil. But now, he said, he understands reality and just jumps in. He says the show is about many things

"Loss, tragedy, survival, love," he said. "How does one achieve the things you want in this world? What are the things you have to do? What are the skills you have to develop? And then, what deals do you make with the devil to get what you want?"

On his rereading of the script, Sommers said, he saw it as a love story for the first time, albeit through the way the Devil is distracted from his ugly ways by the beauty of angels.

"And it's a beautiful, I think, meditation on this idea of choice," he said. "And do we or don't we?"

Sommers said with new puppeteers working the characters, he's seeing even the puppets in new ways. Open Eye co-founder Susan Haas said "Prelude to Faust" was Sommer's first full-length piece, and it defined his work.

"This has a historical significance, and an artistic significance, and an audience that hasn't seen it," she said. "And so I felt there was great value to looking at it one more time."

They expect lots of fan discussion about what it all means. Sommers remembers one couple who saw the first production.

"And one of the men really loved the show and the other one really hated it. And they argued about it and argued about it. And I saw them years later, and they said, 'You know we still really get into it about that darn Faust show.' And I went, 'That's fantastic!'" he said with a laugh.

Sommers said "Prelude to Faust" is almost completely hand-generated, as he put it, from the puppets and the sets to the live acoustic music. That may be the proof that this is a story about love.