We have all made Faustian deals. Done things for immediate gain without thinking of the long term consequences. Digital infrastructure, a ubiquitous feature of daily life, is designed to make us scroll, click, consume, and REACT instead of squint, study, contemplate and RESPOND. In the past month alone, how many times have you clicked “Accept” next to the terms of agreement you haven’t read, and, if you’re being honest, don’t really understand?  Generative AI, training itself on misinformation, is rewriting history one seemingly insignificant fact at a time. Earlier this month (November 2023), Actress Julia Louis Dreyfus’ asked Chat GPT to help write her acceptance speech for the Wall Street Journal’s Innovator Awards only to learn the Chatbot had confused her with Julia Roberts (actress, yes. Same person? No.), identified her as the granddaughter of Jaws’ actor Richard Dreyfuss (no relation) and replaced the word innovator with investor (innocent mistake or ominous virtue signal?). The invention of the internet and the subsequent advent of smartphones represent as seismic a technological and cultural shift in human history as the wheel, agriculture, or the printing press. Their impacts are not only social but biological. They are changing the function and structure of our brains. Is this evidence of our wisdom or our folly? In approaching this production, we have intentionally blurred the lines between individual and collective, human and spirit, Doctor and devil.  We are all Faustus, clinging to the small Mephistophilis in our pockets. What drives us to make choices we know aren’t good for us? What do we lose in doing so? Why do we refuse to give up comfort to save ourselves? Are we worth saving?

Thank you to Anna Yaworski and the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival.

Special thanks also to Professor Zachary Yuzwa, Persephone Theatre, Jody Longworth, and Graham Kent.