Le Miracle de Théophile

     Le Miracle de Théophile is an early iteration of the Faust story of a priest who sells his soul to the devil. Unlike the Faust of Marlowe, Théophile is repentant and begs the queen Mary to save him, which she does. Like Marlowe's Faust however, Rutebeuf has an interesting treatment of the passage of time. Whereas it is rather clear in Marlowe's piece, Rutebeuf moves from scene to scene with little to no discussion of the passage of time. Hypothetically, this could introduce some interesting interpretations on the part of the play's director. The only clear passage of time is the 7 years before Théophile's repentant monologue. One imagines that this change could be explained through clothing changes or locales, but I think the most likely option a production might take is the use of mimes and music. We know that music as an accompaniment to poetry and storytelling was common, so the idea that these 7 years might be represented through a musical pantomime strikes me as a clear solution to the problem of temporality. Unfortunately, like most other medieval plays, the stage directions are sparse and give little indication as to what an original production might have looked like.