Why a bookshop?
The setting of the bookshop is clearly deliberate. One of the reasons is that Faustus is persuaded to part with his soul in exchange for knowledge – of magic, astronomy and the workings of Heaven and Hell. Having set aside those traditional texts on theology, medicine and law as beneath his notice, it is to a satanic text he turns, to conjure up the means to communicate with the devil himself; earthly learning was not enough for Faustus.
By overreaching the limits God had, in his wisdom, set on man’s knowledge, Marlowe has Faustus commit a very human crime, and one which in other circumstances led to advances across many disciplines. The chorus at the end groups him along with other ‘forward wits’ who allowed his ‘deepness’ to ‘entice’ him ‘To practise more than heavenly power permits.’
This is especially the case, of course, in centres of academic learning and excellence like Oxford. Electing to stage the production in the basement of the university’s best-established bookshop with the audience literally surrounded, almost hemmed in, in the dark by shelves of books feels like an ironic reference to what some believe to be the ‘dangers’ of too much information. Limits are still placed (justifiably) on the ethics of research (or at least methods), particularly in the sciences.
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