New local play promises lots of laughs, pop culture influence in story of 'Faust'

Once again, the comedic skills of playwright Eric Pfeffinger and the talent of director Scot Greenwell are put together as "Life in the Faust Lane" comes to the Bloomington Playwrights Project theatre next week. The play opens June 14th and will run until June 30th. \n"Life in the Faust Lane" takes on the original story of Dr. Faust, a play written by Shakespearean contemporaries, but is turned around so as to be a comedy rather than a tragedy. In the original story, Dr. Faust is a highly accomplished man who feels like life has nothing left for him, so he sells his soul to the devil to find the answers of the cosmetic, universal questions. In the end, since he has sold his soul, the devil wins, making the story a tragedy.\nIn this version, the devil makes a mistake. Dr. Faust is mistaken for his assistant, Wagner. Wagner's desire in life changes from wants and needs of the answers of the big all-knowledgeable questions to the desire for sex.\n"In today's world of technology, everything is easy, therefore, people should think about these things," Marketing Director of the BPP, Candace Decker, said. "What would we ask for? What would our dreams and desires be?"\nThe story of Faust becomes a comedy when the wrong players get involved with the devil and comical consequences ensue. \n"There is a short distance between a tragedy and a farce," Pfeffinger said. "A play can be greatly altered if one character did something different, or if someone took a different turn, then the play is totally turned around."\nPfeffinger has written many plays, mostly comedies, for the BPP, his first being "Where Men are Empty Overcoats." Pfeffinger's plays are similar to other farces, such as "Rumors" and "Play ON!" by Neil Simon. \nFor the past three years, Pfeffinger's Christmas story, "Scrooge Variations" has been performed during the Christmas season. His other plays include "Traumaturgy," which was performed by the BPP and at Northern Kentucky University, and "Of How Maurice Ravel Fell Sick," and How He Died," which was performed in Toledo, Ohio. \n"I went to BPP last season before the program was printed and told them I was thinking of writing a new show, 'Life in the Faust Lane,'" Pfeffinger said. "The BPP told me that they wanted to produce the show before it was even written, so over the course of this past year, I have been working with the actors and director to revise it and completely finish it." \nThe artistic director of the BPP decides which shows will be performed at the BPP before the previous season has finished. "Life in the Faust Lane" is a wrap up of last year's season. Last year's art director decided on showing Pfeffinger's play. Since there is a new director this year, Richard Perez, the shows for next season have already been picked. \nThe BPP takes only new works to foster both beginner and experienced playwrites.\n"We chose 'Life in the Faust Lane' at the beginning of last year's season because of the subject matter of the play," Perez said. "It takes place in a college town, and the audience can relate to the themes in the play. Eric is up to date on current events, and can find ways to poke fun at pop culture events, forming them into plays."\nPfeffinger said pop culture had a large influence on his latest production.\n"I wanted to transplant the play into a modern day story with a more ridiculous setting," Pfeffinger said. "A play will be a low comedy if people are asked the question, if they could have anything they want, what would they have. \n"It will more likely be animal desires, such as sex, than answers to humanity and wisdom." \nThe actors rehearse usually for about one month at the BPP. A month and a half before the show opens, the play is cast and they are given about three to six weeks to rehearse.\n"Comedy is very hard to do because as you go through the play, you have to try and figure out what works with the actors and what does not," Pfeffinger said.\nAs the director of the play, Greenwood, who has directed some of Pfeffinger's one-act plays before, such as "Bird Germs," agrees with Pfeffienger. \n"As a director, it is important to form a friendship connection with the actors, yet see sides of the character which is beyond what is written in the script." \nDecker believes "Life in the Faust Lane" will be a very profitable play for BPP, and one that the audience enjoys.\n"Eric's shows always do best because he has a clever writing style, and his shows mirror what is going on in society, making his characters exaggerating and letting the audience see how silly we are," Decker said.\nYet there is also a lesson for the audience.\n"The show is very fast and very funny. There is a reason for every moment of the show," Greenwood said. "I want people to walk away with the material they have just seen and be able to discuss and talk about the choices the actors made in the show."\n"But of course, the overall goal is for the audience to walk away laughing"