Alfred Brooks

»Two souls dwell, oh! in my breast« – with these words Goethe’s Faust describes not only a personal drama, but an experience of modern subjectivity: the ego manifests itself as a texture of contradictory forces.  Goethe’s drama presents modern man as driven by a principle of continuous escalation – caught between self-control, consumerism and destruction. Ulrich Rasche presents these events as an interiorised chamber play. Its characters embody the forces of a conflicted consciousness; Mephisto becomes a dark shadow of the protagonist himself.