Bad Boy Nietzsche based on poems, letters written by philosopher
By: Audrey Spencer
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: News
The SFA School of Theatre will present "Bad Boy Nietzsche" in the downstage theatre at 7:30 p.m. Friday and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday
The play was written by Richard Foreman and is based on poems and letters written by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, in his deteriorating mental state before the turn of the 20th century. The writings "reveal a lonely man spurned by unrequited love for a beautiful woman," David Hathway, El Campo senior and the play's director, said.
The action follows a stream of consciousness style, Hathway said. "It's Foreman's ideas of what's going on in Nietzsche's head after he slipped."
The popular theory of the breakdown of the real Nietzsche is that he was in Italy when he saw a horse being beaten from across a piazza and ran to shield it, though no one is sure of the actual events preceding his mental collapse.
"There's a lot of horse imagery," Hathway said. "It takes place on a line between brilliance and insanity. (Nietzsche's) mind isn't compatible with the real world."
The play opens with Nietzsche "upside down, in paradise, on the edge of consciousness as we know it," Hathway explained. Through the run of the show, the action moves from one part of the stage to the other. Nietzsche meets three other characters, a little girl, a dangerous man and a beautiful woman, who are "raging opposites" in the head of the playwright, according to Hathway.
"Fundamentally it's a critique on society," he explained. Bad Boy Nietzsche raises the ideas that religion and society don't exist; that they only have a meaning because people give them one. "In this play, it's not a play until it's affecting people."
The production is strongly recommended for mature audiences only, for use of strong language and simulation of things not appropriate for children.
"Come if you enjoy art, come if you want to be intellectually or visually stimulated," Hathway said. "We're not trying to get preachy or change the world. It's not about walking out of the theatre with a message. It's a mental clarification process. No attempts to make conversations, relationships, or conflicts."
Tickets to the downstage are $3 each and may be purchased in the ticket office in the theatre building, online at www.finearts.sfasu.edu or by calling 468-6407.
The play was written by Richard Foreman and is based on poems and letters written by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, in his deteriorating mental state before the turn of the 20th century. The writings "reveal a lonely man spurned by unrequited love for a beautiful woman," David Hathway, El Campo senior and the play's director, said.
The action follows a stream of consciousness style, Hathway said. "It's Foreman's ideas of what's going on in Nietzsche's head after he slipped."
The popular theory of the breakdown of the real Nietzsche is that he was in Italy when he saw a horse being beaten from across a piazza and ran to shield it, though no one is sure of the actual events preceding his mental collapse.
"There's a lot of horse imagery," Hathway said. "It takes place on a line between brilliance and insanity. (Nietzsche's) mind isn't compatible with the real world."
The play opens with Nietzsche "upside down, in paradise, on the edge of consciousness as we know it," Hathway explained. Through the run of the show, the action moves from one part of the stage to the other. Nietzsche meets three other characters, a little girl, a dangerous man and a beautiful woman, who are "raging opposites" in the head of the playwright, according to Hathway.
"Fundamentally it's a critique on society," he explained. Bad Boy Nietzsche raises the ideas that religion and society don't exist; that they only have a meaning because people give them one. "In this play, it's not a play until it's affecting people."
The production is strongly recommended for mature audiences only, for use of strong language and simulation of things not appropriate for children.
"Come if you enjoy art, come if you want to be intellectually or visually stimulated," Hathway said. "We're not trying to get preachy or change the world. It's not about walking out of the theatre with a message. It's a mental clarification process. No attempts to make conversations, relationships, or conflicts."
Tickets to the downstage are $3 each and may be purchased in the ticket office in the theatre building, online at www.finearts.sfasu.edu or by calling 468-6407.
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