We sat down for an exclusive conversation with Caden Scott, director and performer in The Faustus Project from Half Trick Productions. Performing at the Underbelly during Fringe this year.
- Can you tell us a bit about what The Faustus Project entails?
We perform Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, the 400-year old story of the man who sells his soul for power. Our Faustus is played by a different guest actor every night who has not rehearsed with the rest of us. The entire show is designed to make the experience as challenging for them as possible: nasty games, surprises, improv, pranks, menace, and mania.
We basically wanted to design an actor’s worst nightmare to simulate what a descent into hell might feel like.
- Where did the idea come from to put a different guest actor in the lead every night?
Originally it came out of a genuine desire to stage under-performed plays, and a lot of my early days as a director were spent staging work by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, but venues and programmers were a little resistant to stage these plays without a hook or a gimmick to make it relevant for a modern audience. Faustus came to me in a brainwave: if you’re the Globe or the RSC, you can perform Doctor Faustus with big puppets and flamethrowers and a cast of dozens, but if you’re trying to stage it at a small scale for Fringe, what’s the best way to keep it feeling dangerous and transgressive and like you’re literally inviting the devil onto your stage, as it must have done for the original audiences? Make the Faustus actor go through what Faustus the character goes through: Hell.
- What’s been the wildest moment in a show so far?
I’ll always remember when one actor warned us that he’d broken his foot a week earlier and had just had his cast taken off. We said okay, fair play, we’ll ease off on the rougher physical stuff. Once the show starts, this guy starts physically fighting and wrestling us, for real, every chance he gets! It took all four of us to bodily drag him out of the room to finish the show.
- How do you prepare for a show that changes every night?
Lots of really funny spreadsheets that help us keep things in check. Big long risk assessments and conversations with the wonderful tech team at Underbelly. For all the chaos, we’re a surprisingly organised bunch. But the main thing that holds us together is the ensemble cast, who can handle literally anything even our craziest guests throw at them, and will risk life and limb to dive and catch the most insane curveballs. Thank you Moira, thank you Alex, and thank you Courtney.
- How do audiences usually react and how do they get involved?
They’re very very vocal, and we love that. Lots of laughs. Lots of gasps. A few groans or gasps of horror. Sometimes people can’t help but shout out. No one’s tried to storm the stage to stop us yet, but I’m sure it will happen. The main thing we find is that our audiences want to come again, a second, or a third time, to see how the next poor fool handles our challenge.
- Be honest—what would you sell your soul for at the Fringe?
I’ve been living in Edinburgh for 2 years mainly to do the Fringe… I’m worried that I already have sold it. Maybe I’d sell it for an afternoon of flyering where absolutely everyone you approach takes a flyer and thanks you for it. That would be nice.