Q&A with Director Amy Lane

We’re thrilled to be building our first new production in six years—and what better opera to conjure with than Gounod’s Faust?

In the midst of a busy rehearsal schedule, internationally acclaimed director Amy Lane sat down with us to discuss the designs, desires, and devilish inspirations at the heart of this bold new take on a classic of French grand opera.

COC: What excites you most about this opera? What makes the story so ripe for re-adaptation?

Lane: I think, ironically, it’s the human nature of the key relationships that excite me most in this piece. Of course the opera has at its core, strong religious themes—in the first scene alone, Faust calls to God and then to Satan—but at the heartbeat of this story, are the human choices and the collateral of these decisions.

It’s fascinating to look at the ageing process, to feel your body start to question, provoke or even fail you whilst at the same time your mind sharpens and your knowledge grows and I’m deeply intrigued by how human desire evolves throughout these experiences.

This opera, to me, is a dramatic and captivating exploration of truth and the consequences of “the wish”...

COC: You’ve described Faust as a romance, a fairy tale, a comedy, and a tragedy. Is it any one in particular?
 
Lane: I think the great thing about this opera, and most operas in fact, is that it can’t be defined in a single description. As with films or books, it never relies on just one set of emotions, it is a perfect collision of all emotions, with moments of great humour, all-consuming passion, justice, and aching grief. It is a piece with moments of deep darkness and one which ends with a liberating pull towards the light.

Faust is ultimately about one person, whose actions explode, burning and scarring everyone else around him. There are moments of great comedy: Méphistophélès himself has a sparkling wit, Faust is romantic, creative, and a man of science; and Marguerite, in this production, is an artist—she’s deeply creative, and Faust falls in love with her creative spirit, rather than just her surface beauty.

COC: Of the many visual metaphors featured in this production (the chessboard floor, the x-ray backdrop, the spinal staircase, and more), do you have a favourite?
 
Lane: I do have a favourite: the x-ray backdrop of Faust’s torso, because that’s where the design process all started. Allowing us to be trapped within a body that supposedly defines you, helped us create a space that felt almost claustrophobic, but also could evolve as we required it to.

The spinal staircase, I just marvel at every day too.  It really is a deeply beautiful work of Art but also a real feat of design and engineering!

COC: What are the key inspirations for this production?
 
Lane: First of all, the key inspiration to a production is always the score: the music and the lyrics. You can go backwards from there in terms of the history and evolution of a piece, but I was most interested in moving forward in terms of what makes Faust most relevant today. I love the slightly madcap worlds of the Tim Burton films and also Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland—particularly what happens when you jump down that rabbit hole, into a space where everyone thinks they’re behaving in a completely normal manner, but you as an outsider put a big question mark over their behaviours?

Another great inspiration for me was Kubrick’s The Shining—most notably, the maze at the end, and gothic horror—you can’t escape the pull towards a work such as Dracula.

COC: Why should audiences see Faust, and what do you hope they take away after the curtain falls?

Lane: You’re going to see a visual delight and hear and watch world-class artists sharing every ounce of their incredible talents in these roles. What’s lovely, also, is that we have some artists working with us who are debuting these roles for the first time, which always makes for a wonderful  discovery process together.

This opera travels at an incredible pace—it sweeps you up, it whirls you along and then at the end, with the most glorious music, it leaves you with the kindest of warnings:

Be careful what you wish for …