On the evening of May 9th, Haydar Zorlu, a renowned German artist, staged Goethe’s classic poetic drama Faust in a unique form of one-man-show in the theater of Xipu campus (the third floor of the First Canteen). As the prelude of the Art Festival to commemorate the University’s Anniversary, the show was sponsored by the university and hosted by the School of Foreign Languages. Dr. He Jun, a teacher from the Department of German and Juliane Heimann, a foreign teacher, also enjoyed the show.
In the unique one-man-show, Haydar Zorlu played the roles of Monster Mephistopheles, Faust and maiden Margarita in a novel way and presented the narration as well, leading the audience into an entirely new world. The spectators were submerged in complete darkness during the performance except for the spotlights focusing on the front and each side of the stage. The props included a chair placed at the center of the stage, a dark curtain hung behind and two glasses. In the red spotlight, Mephistopheles was grisly and hysterical; in the blue spotlight, he was turned into Faust, lonely and depressed, murmuring to himself. Sometimes he was crazy and sometimes peaceful while the audience remained solemn. It is worth mentioning that six students majoring in German participated in the show and narrated several chapters. Their performance was praised by Mr. Zorlu
On the afternoon of May 13th, Mr. Zorlu, accompanied by Dr. He Jun and Juliane Heimann, gave a drama lesson to students of the Department of German in classroom 1503B. From the warming-up, demonstration, to the self-introduction and talent show, Mr. Zorlu guided the students into the activities and they really enjoyed the class. Time flied and three hours’ class ended up without being noticed, and the students longed for more. They said that they had not only learned German in a relaxed and cheerful way, but also acquired the basic concepts of performance art.
Mr. Zorlu’s China tour is set under the background of the “Sino-German Language and Culture Year”, and he would bring his show to many cities including Chengdu, Xiamen, Guangzhou, and Kunming, etc.
About the artist: Haydar Zorlu, a Turkish German born in Mikail came to Cologn in Germany when he was 12 year old. He made his debut in the short movie “A Turkish Wedding” directed by Pavel Schnabel and was awarded with “The Best Short Movie Prize” at Barcelona in 1989.
In 2011, he organized the only united Germany and Turkey theatrical troupe at Istanbul. He has performed “the One-man-show Faust” at many cities in Germany and Turkey.
