seep vol.11. no.3 winter 1991

8/12/2019 SEEP Vol.11. No.3 Winter 1991

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Volume eleven, no 3

winter 1991

sovietnd

e st europe n

perform ncedr m

the trefilm 7

S P QSSN 1047-0018 Is a publication of the Institute for Con

temporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre under the auspicesof the Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts CASTA), GraduateCenter, ity University of New York. The Institute Office Is Room1206A, City University Graduate Center, 33 West 42nd Street, NewYork, NY 10036 . All subscription requests and submissions should

e addressed to the Editors of SEEP: Daniel Gerould and Alma LawCASTA, Theatre Program, City University Graduate Center, 33 West42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.


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EDITORSDaniel Gerould

Alma law

ASSITANT EDITOREdward Dee

ASSOCIATE EDITORPatrick Hennedy

ADVISORY BOARDEdw in WHson ChairmanMarvin CarlsonLeo HechtMartha W . Colgney

CASTA Publications are supported by generous grants from theLucille Lortel Chair in Theatre and the Sidney E. Cohn Chair InTheatre Studies In the Ph.D. Program In Theatre at the City Universityof New York.

Copyright 1991 CASTA

S P has a very liberal reprinting policy. Journals and newsletterswhich desire to reproduce articles reviews and other materialswhich have appeared In S P may do so as long as the followingprovisions are met:

a. Permission to reprint must be requested from S P In writingbefore the fact

b. Credit to S P must e given In the reprint.

c . Two copies of the publication In which the reprinted material hasappeared must e furnished to the Editor of S P immediately uponpublication.

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'Funny and Sad Stories'GITIS of MoscowHunter College, New YorkJ K Curry ......................................................... ............... .. .... 47

REVIEWS FROMTHE SECOND NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THEARTS

Tattoo Theatre by Yugoslavia's Open StagejObalaChristine A . Pinkowlcz ............................ ................ ........... ... ....... ....... . 48

The State Theatre of Lithuania'sUncle VanyaJoel

Berkowitz .............................................................................. ..... 54

Tadeusz Kantor's Today is My irthdayby Cricot 2 at La Mama E.T .C.Edward Dee ......................................................................................... 58

Contributors ................................................................................... 63

Playscripts in Translation Series ......... .............. . .......... ..................... 65

Subscription Policy . .... ..... ... ................ ..... ............. ............. ............... 67

EDITORIAL POLICY

Manuscripts In the following categories are solicited: articles of no morethan 2,500 words, performance and film reviews, and bibliographies. Please bear Inmind that all of submissions must concern themselves either with contemporary

materials on Soviet and East European theatre drama and film or with newapproaches to older materials In recently published works, or new performances ofolder plays . In other words, w welcome submissions reviewing innovative performances of Gogol but w cannot use original articles discussing Gogol as a playwright.

Although we welcome translations of art icles and reviews from foreignpublications, we do require copyrigh t release statements.

We will also gladly publish announcements of special events and anythingelse which may be of Interest to our discipline. All submissions are refereed.

All submissions must be typed double -spaced and carefully proofread .The Chicago Manual of Style should e followed . Transliterations should follow theUbrary of Congress system. Submissions will be evaluated, and authors will benotified after approximately four weeks.

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FROM THE EDITOR

Is It really less than two years since the Berlin Wall camedown and Communist cont rol over Eastern Europe began unravelIng? And now the August coup, a th ree-day tragifarce that brought asudden end to Communist rule In the Soviet Union . History seems tobe on fast forward these days and who will ever forget being able towatch it all happen on TV I'm sure I was only one of many who wascheering as the statue of Iron Felix , the hated symbol of Commun istrepress ion, came down from the square In front o f K.G .B headquarters. But perhaps my favorite, and so typically Russian scene, Isthat of hundreds of women descending on the Moscow White Houseon Tuesday evening all armed with shopping bags stuffed with food

to feed everyone on both sides of the barricades. Never mind thatthere was a bltterty cold ra in falling, and that an assault on the WhiteHouse was Imminent. These people had to be fed.

This summer I spent -a month In Moscow , returning homejust four weeks before the coup began . At that time, I heard not aword about coups, or did anyone ask as they had a yea r ago, Doyou think there 'll be a civ il war? People seemed to be In a state oflimbo, little Interested in what was going on, waiting for something tohappen , but not one seemed certain jus t what. 'We don t know , youtell us , was the answer when I would ask, 'What's ahead? Asidefrom the perenn ial topic of food shortages (cheese was the principalone In June), the main concern on everyone 's m ind seemed to be :how to wrangle a trip abroad and how to earn some extra money ,preferably hard currency .

But that things had changed since my last trip a year agowas clear the minute I s tepped out on the street and saw a ll thebookstalls arrayed on every corner and jammed togethe r In everymetro stat ion. A ll I cou ld think as I saw the vast selection of booksand pamphlets available was that whateve r the econom ic gurus we re

saying, at the street level the free market system is already in operation . The choice was endless , everything from Lee lacocca to DrSpock; the Bible to a vast array of sex manuals; even a pamphlet onLenin's Jewish Ancestors. No matter that there is a shortage of

paper, these Independent publishe rs all seem to have found a wayaround i t Most of the sellers were students hired by some dist ributor , and already there we re the beginnings o f compet ition withpr ices be ing cut to meet a neighboring stall's markdown .

And with all the changes sweeping th rough Eastern Europeand the remnants of the Sov iet empire, what an encourag ing sign it isthat thea tre , like the Duracel l Rabbit keeps on going, and go ing , andgo ing . Even as I wr ite these comments, the twenty -fifth BITEF Festival is open ing In Belgrade , Yugoslavia . With civil wa r now tearing


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that country apart, It won't be the gala celebration that was originallyplanned. but stNI there was never any question of canceling it.

Several of the articles In this Issue also reflect this determination that, the show must go on and that, In fact It Is doing just that.It can only hearten all of us to see the continuing vlabUityof theatre Inthe countries of Eastern Europe, In the newly-independent BalticStates and what stUI remains of the Soviet Union . As the 1991-1992theatre season unfolds we look forward to bringing to our readers arich abundance of fresh reports testifying to that vitality.

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Alma H. Law Co-EditorSeptember 19 1991

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V NTS

FESTIVALS

This fall BITEF (the Belgrade International Theatre Festival)celebrated Its 25th anniversary. The program, entitled Theat re Summit 91, ran from September 19 to 30. Due to the rapk:Jiy expandingconflict between Serbia and Croatia, the number of forlegn companies participat ing was down sharply . There were no Amer icantheatre groups attending.

This year's festival opened with Moscow director Roman Viktiuk s highly theatricalized interpretation of David Hwang's M. But-terfly. Other productions Included the Taganka Theatre productionof oris Godunov directed by Yuri Lyubimov, Wlm Vandekeybus'sAlways the Same Lies by the Ultima Vez company from Belgium , andfrom Lyon , France, La Cite Cornu, which was written and directed byWladlslaw Znorko and presented by the Cosmos KolejjTheatre deCurioslte. The festival closed with a showing of the German film, TheEmpress Lament, directed by Pina Baush.

The YU Theatre Marathon, a two day presentation of significant Yugoslav theatre productions from the past season, also ranat BITEF that weekend .

NOTES OF PAST PRODUCTIONS

In July, the Royal Court Theatre In London presented theMaly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg production of Brothers andSisters, the six-hour epic adapted by director Lev Dodin from a trilogy of novels by Fyodor Abramov. (See review SEEP Vol. 9 Nos. 2and 3 Fall1989, pp 55-57.)

FILMThere were depressingly few Soviet and East European films

at this year 's New York Film Festival. The lone Soviet film was director Viatcheslav Krichtofovitch's 1990 chamber piece about three generations of women sharing a tiny apartment. Entitled Adam s Rib, Itstars lnna Tchourikova . The only other East European films werefrom Poland, and both were made in collaboration with a westerncountry . The opening night of the Festival was a presentation of TheDouble Life of Veronique , a Polish-French co -production directed byKrzysztof KleSlowski and star ring Irene Jacobs, w inner of the 1991Best Act ress P rize at the Cannes Film Festival . The Double Life ofVeronique has also had a successfu l commercial run in New York .

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The other collaboration, between Germany and Poland, wasInventory about the battle between a mother and the older woman her son brings home. The 1989 film stars Krystyna Janda and MajaKomorowska and was d irected by Krzysztof Zanussi.

Besides The Double Life o Veronique two other East European films have had limited commercial runs in New York recently:Where by the Hungarian direc tor Gabor Szabo ; and the ellipticalSwan Lake: he Zone a Ukrainian-Canadian-Swedish fUm about aprisoner In a labor camp who escapes three days before hisscheduled release and lives in a large hammer and sickle . It starsVlktor Solovyov and Lyudmila Yeflmenko , and was directed by Yurllllyenko The film was written by Mr . lllyenko and SergeiParadzhanov, based on Mr . Paradzhanov's stories .

CONFERENCES, LECTURES AND EXHIBITIONS

The New York International Festival of the Arts and the Ph. D.Program in Theatre at the Graduate Center of the City University ofNew York presented a sympos ium in June entitled, An InternationalTheatre Symposium: Creative Directors of the Classics. Among theparticipants were JoAnne Akalaitis , Adrian Hall, Mark Lamos, andEimuntas Nekrosius o f the State Theatre of Lithuania.

Amsterdam Summer University offered classes this summerin Jest as a Way of Thinking, by Czechoslovak actor-directorplaywright Bolek Polivka ; and Gennady Bogdanov of GITIS in Moscow taught a Workshop on Biomechanics, a Movement Methodology by V . E. Meyerhold .

The 16th Congress of t he Union lnternatlonale de IaMar ionette is currently scheduled to be held in Cankarjev Dom,

Ljublijana, Yugoslavia, from June 14 to 19, 1992. The sessions willbe combined with a fest ival of productions from around the world .For more information contact Ed i Maja ron, General Secretary ,Cankarjev Dom, Cultural and Congress Center, 6100 LJubljaja,Kidricev Park 1, Yugoslavia. Tel : 061 210 956 . Fax : 061 217 431 .

Moscow's Association of Stage Directors, organized underthe auspices of the U .S .S .R. Theat re Workers' Un ion, Is planning aser ies of events devoted to Issues involved In mastering the creativetechniques of Meyerhold and his contemporaries . For more Information contact Marina Druzh lnina, Executive Secretary , Association ofStage D irectors , 12 Tverskaya Street, Building 7, Apt.217, Moscow103009, USSR. Tel : 209-5406.

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N WS

he New York Times reported in an article on video piracy in

the Third Wor1d (August 18 1991, A1) that because the unauthorizedcopying of fWms onto videocassettes has become so widespread inthe Soviet Union, the major American film studios agreed to suspendlicensing of all fUms there. The problem applies not only to fYms , butalso to computer software and is causing major strains in the economic relations between First and Third Wor1d countries . The UnitedStates is pressing for extension of the General Agreement on Tariffsand Trade GATI), which at present has no rules forbidding thepiracy of intellectual property.

Herbert P. J Marshall, filmmaker, theatrical director,educator, and expert on Soviet arts and letters died over the summerat Cowfold, West Sussex, England at the age of 85. Mr . Marshall ,who directed such films as Thunder Rock (1942) starring MichaelRedgrave, studied film making in Moscow in the 1930s with SergeiEisenstein . He spent the last twenty years as director of the Centerfor Soviet and East European Studies in the Performing Arts at theUniversity of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, where he had retired asdistinguished professor of Soviet Literature and Theatre Arts in 1979.

Professor Marshall translated scores of Russian poems,plays, and short stories, and wrote more than a dozen books andscreenplays . His books on Russian topics include: Pictorial Historyo the Russian Theatre Battleship Potemkin Mayakovsky Yev-tushenko Poems and Crippled Autobiographies. Professor Marshallwas also the translator of Sergei Eisenstein s autobiography, ImmoralMemories.

He is survived by his wife , Polish-born actress and sculptorFredda Brilliant.

prepared by Edward Dee

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FORG IV US NTON P VLOVICH

Apparently in order to drum up more business for the Moscow Art Theater (Chekhov Branch) on Art Theatre Passage just offGorky St reet, a huge portrait of Chekhov a long with a listing ofMXAT's productions of Chekhov plays was mounted on the wallacross the street from the theatre . A. Danilkin, In an item in EveningMoscow Vechernala Moskva on June 3 1991 writes:

The foun ing fathers (i.e. Nemlrovlch Danchenko andKonstantin Stanlslavsky) boldly mai ntained that the thea tre beginswith the coat-check room . We've gone even further. Judging by theenergetic Ideas of the c reators of that advertisement, In our day thetheatre begins with .. the cooperative toilet.

The author goes on to explain that the left entrance underthe sign leads to the men's toilet and the right entrance to thewomen's. Judg ing by its popularity, th is 'literary-dramatic' toilet successfully competes with its famous neighbor across the way : In contrast to MXAT it is accessible from morning on. The author thenturns loose his Imagination, proposing everything from sellingprograms In the toilets to performing excerpts from performancesdown there . And why not hang appropriate literary portraits aboveall the public toilets? Then people could say for example , Let's gosee Pushkin, or let's visit Gogol. And why not p rint verses by young

poets on the toilet paper?

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THE TRE IN PR GUEND THE SEVENTH PR GUE QU DRENNI L

rnold ronson

The seventh Prague Quadrennial of Stage Design was heldthis year at Prague's Palace of Culture from June 10-30. This event,first held in 1967, is the most extensive and prestigious exhibition andcompetition of theatrical design and architecture in the world, as wellas a unique international gathering of designers . This year thirty-sixnations entered exhibits in at least one of the four categories. I wasprivileged to participate as President of the International Jury whichawards the Golden Triga to the best national exhibit, and gold andsilver medals and honorary diplomas to individuals and exhibits In s t

design, costume design, theatre architecture, and In the thematicsection which this year was, Inevitably, Design for Mozart . There salso a non-competitive display of student work (though had It been inthe competition, there Is little doubt that several student designswould have done better than many of the less-than-inspiring professional works).

I was last In Prague for the 1987 Quadrennial and the outward change Is stunning. Though the airport still seems like It wouldbe more appropriate In a small-town (and the machine-gun-totingguards still patrol one breezes through passport control andcustoms as if they did not exist. Arriving In the city Itself, the transformation is remarkable. What was once a palpably oppressed cityIs now filled with energy . There are people on the streets--many ofthem tourists--there is far more color visible In shop windows, onbillboards, and on people themselves. The first fruits of freedomare evident: pornography can e purchased on the street and atmetro stations; cab drivers who once offered to change money atthree to four times the official rate now simply overcharge. But mostimportantly , everyone we met talked about the change and the hope

for the future.The PQ Is an official event of OISTAT, the International

Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects, and Technicians(whose American center is the United States Institute for TheatreTechnology), but It Is presented by the Theatre Institute In Prague(Divadlenr ustav Praha) under the auspices of the Ministry of Cultureof Czechoslovakia. This has had a range of political implications Inthe past and some interesting repercussions in the aftermath of theVelvet Revolution . Since Its Inception the PQ was run by Dr. Eva

Soukopova of the Theatre Institute who deftly played official politicsove r the years in order to sustain official support for the event. Public and published statements by her praised the government and various socialist policies; the Soviet Union was proclaimed a model of


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CoEntrance to the Czechoslovak exhibit.

The years between the beginning and end of Soviet occupation are ticked off on the wall , through the entrance, brightlight from the outside pours ln .


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The building now houses commercial showrooms for Internationalcorporations and contains two video arcade galleries. The PO exhibIts were forced to spread out over three floors and the student displays were housed In the underground parking garage (JaroslavMalina's students at OAMU, the Theatre Academy, offered an Ironic

exhibit by creating a sculpture of sorts out of the body of an old car).The amount of sp ce allotted to each country was slightly less thanin previous years as well. On the other hand, most countries had toscale back their exhibits anyway for their own economic reasons;only Japan seemed to have an ostensibly lavish exhibit. Most oth rstook money-saving measures--notably there were morephotographs and fewer real objects than ever before .

The exhibition brought forward no startling Individual works,nor were any overall trends particularly evident. Mlrjam Grote

Ganseyof

the Nether1andswon

thegold

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setdesign for

aseries of arresting and Imaginative set models, though no one workof hers, taken on Its own merits, was particularly outstandingcertainly nothing new. There was no gold medal awarded In costumedesign and the silver medalist, Vera Marzot of Italy, was representedsimply by renderings. The British exhibit presented one or two workseach from seven designers including such veterans as Ralph Koltai,Timothy O 'Brien, Pamela Howard, and Richard Hudson. Joe Vanek'sset for the Broadway-bound ancing t Lughnasa was also on display. Individually, these were the most striking set models of the POand they were starkly, though stunningly, presented In the context oftrash. Commenting on the fact that the artifacts of the designer's

process are ultimately discarded, these models were displayed atopold tires and trash cans or draped with heavy plastic tarps. Theexhibit won the Triga, Britain's second.

A pervading theme of sorts did emerge In the exhibitsthemselves--a surprising sense of Isolation, darkness, and enclosure.Perhaps as many as a third of the national or thematic exhibits consisted of enclosed environments--low-ceilinged rooms, mazes. or

1950s-like art Installations. There seemed to be two ostensibleimpulses for this trend: a desire to create a more immediate andfrankly theatrical experience for the spectator-to recreate the senseof theatre In the context of an otherwise lifeless display of artifacts;and undoubtedly some desire to imitate the award -winning Americanexhibit of PO 87 that consisted of a four-room pastiche of designers'studios . But, by Intention or accident, this year's environments, witha few notable exceptions, tended to create a sense of oppression,isolation, and overriding pessimism. This was most notable, perhapsnot surprisingly, In the Polish exhibit which was somewhat like a darkcave. As you walked up a wooden ramp you passed set models onone side placed In grottoes that lighted up a portion at a time andthen receded Into darkness so that you could never grasp the full

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16 Soviet and East European Performance Vol . 11, No . 3


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extent of the design at a single glance. Costumed mannequins andprops were arranged in a kind of fragmentary scene along the otherside of the ramp. To exit the space one had to cross a plexlglasscoverecl grave in which were Kantor like emballages. Poland has ahistory of dark, death-fixated environments at these exhibitions and

they clearly reflect certain social, cultural, and political preoccupations. But how does one explain the similarly dark maze of Finland,or the stiflingly hot black void of the British exhibit?

The German exhibit may have been the cleverest blending ofart and politics. Until this year, of course , East and West Germanyexhibited separately. WhUe there were always some stylistic andcontent similarities, West Germany tended to be more conceptualand more Iconoclastic, and It has won more awards over the yearsThis, the first unified exhibit, consisted of four rooms connectedwhere the four corners met by a revolving door with the glass missIng. One could treat the door as a real door, or one could simplyIgnore It and step through the frame from one room to another .Each room contained at least two conceptions for a single play-onefrom an East German and one from a West German production. Oneroom, for instance, contained designs for two 1990 productions InBerlin of Schiller's The Robbers: one by Bert Neumann at theVolksbuhne and another by Caroline Neven du Mont at theDeutsches Theater. Another room contained a conceptual wall obarbed wire and shattered glass by [East] German designer JochenFinke for Kleist's Penthise/ea . Diagonally opposite this was a roomwith two versions of Germania Death in Ber lin by Heiner Mullerwhom the lavish German catalogue describes as Brecht's successor . One model was for a 1988 production at the Nationaltheater inMannheim by Hans-Joachim Schlieker, a designer from theVolksbuhne who moved to the West in 1984; the other was by Kar1Kneidl, a West German designer who created this production at theBer1iner ensemble in 1989. As the catalogue explained, the new unitycreated some new barriers which are not of a solid nature any more,

but of a more 'liquid '--or, one could also say--liquidating nature .Here in Prague those new barriers are not perceptible. Here, inthe exhibition rooms of the first unified German Quadrennial contribution, German unity really takes place . There is equality :German unity as one flat [apartment] whose Inhabitants have toshare rooms in a tense -friendly coe xiste nce. The essay goes on toexplain that German classical drama and the Ideas and practices ofBrecht held the theatre of both countries together even when politicalbarriers intervened.

The opening week of the Quadrennial also provided anopportunity to sample the Prague theatre scene. Perhaps the mosttalked about event In Prague was the return last year of OtomarKrej after an absence of some fifteen years . The return began with

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a territorial battle with his former artist ic collaborator, Josef Svoboda,over the rights to the fair1y intimate Za Branou II Theatre which hadbeen the home of Latema Magika for years . Krej Insisted upon thereturn of his old theatre . He prevailed and Laterna Maglka wasrelegated to the cavernous congress hall of the Palace of Culture .K r e j ~ areopened his theatre with a production of The CherryOrchard . While audiences Initially flocked to see the return of thisgreat director, Interest quickly flagged . The p roduct ion, though captivating and moving , was Ineluctably rooted In a pre-revolutionaryCzechoslovakia. It was a very respectable modem production : thesett ing was a form of abstract realism and the transforma tions fromInterior to exterior were fluid and clever . The costumes were moreGerman than Russian , and of a slightly later period. The characterIzations were based on psychological realism; Marie Tornasova 'sRanevskaya was strong , yet not memorable. Interest ingly, the mostfamous sound effect In Chekhov, the dying harpstring, was miss ingfrom this version. All in all, It was a very solid production that almosteveryone in the theatre wor1d described as boring. Za Branou, forwhich tickets were once scarce, was running at about 60% capacity .It was clear that in this post-revolutionary wor1d the theatre had tomake a special connection to Its audience In order to sell andK r e j ~ sCherry Orchard simply did not speak to the children of theVelvet Revolution. The National Opera , once a scalper's dream, nowwas half-empty on a Friday night for a deadly, old-fashioned production of Smetana's Tajemstvf. Bus loads of tourists allowed LaternaMagika to make a respectable showing in the several-thousand seatcongress hall, but their new production, Odysseus was embarrassingly silly, no longer the technical and artistically Innovative force Itonce m ight have been. Another Laterna Magika piece played in anew spiral theatre at F u ~ r kPark. The audience sat along spiralramps around the interior of a cylindrical theatre about four storyshigh . A film was projected on the circular floor and a performer Interacted with it--sort of . The ten-minute show was repeated every half

hour throughout the day . Not only was the concept uninteresting,but the film quality was poor .One of the continuing successes of the Prague theatre

scene, a Sean O'Casey piece at the Cinoherni klub starring filmmakerJirf Menzl, closed without warning due to internal disputes. Menzlhas been commuting to Prague from his home In Canada to performin this production which runs in repertory with about a dozen othershows . The production Is some twenty years old but still enormouslypopular due In large part to Manzi ' s presence . The disputeapparently arose In response to the new producer's decision toremove the director's daughter from the cast. Menzl showed up forhis performance the week we were there without having been toldthat the show was canceled .

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.. .

Conceptual installation t the German PO exhibit for Penthesileadesigned by Jochen Finke for the Staatsschauapiel Dresden

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Opera Furore has been presenting an "opera" entitled ndyWarhol in a cafe theatre above Malostranska Square for over a year .The piece , an Ironic and strangely dispassionate (I.e., Warhol-llke)look at Western consumerism, decadence, and mythology, sets Warhol quotes to a recitative presentation with a jazz saxophoneaccompaniment. An appropriately tacky kitchen set--all red plasticprovides the environment for act one In which Warhol sits In a swingabove a man and a woman who watch television and use and discard banal household objects . In act two, Mickey (Minnie?) Mouseattempts to seduce the saxophone player as Warhol sings at the sideof the stage. The piece Is funny and ultimately quite poignant.

Probably the most successful company In Prague Is thetwenty-five year old Studio Ypsilon headed by Jan Schmid whosenew production, Mozart In Prague Is the hottest ticket In town. This

company operates In a flexible 200-seat basement theatre and isconstantly sold out. The loyal audience consists primarily of studentsand people in their twenties, and the group purposely keeps the tickets at a mere ten crowns (about 30) for this audience . Mozart InPrague is a fantasy nightmare of the last year of Mozart's life leadingup to the premiere of Don Giovanni . The a.ctors each play severalinstruments and sing as the play glides In and out of historicallybased scenes from Prague society and scenes from the operas .Fragments of The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni float through theproduction occasionally transforming into bits of pop and folkmusic. The performance ends with a fifteen -minu te parody of DonGiovanni which is hilariously funny while being a wonderfully lovingtribute to Mozart . Without a knowledge of the language, much of theprodigious verbal humor, of course , Is lost. But the musical humorpredominates , and the acting manages to transcend language barriers.

As a demonstration of the effects of change perhapsnothing is more illustrative than the fact that Stud io Ypsilon canceledits performance on June 25 Why? There was a Paul Simon concert

in PragueThe problem facing almost all the theatres is the changeover

to a market economy in the next year . With the exception of theNational Theatre, virtually all the theatres will lose their subsidies . Aten-crown ticket will be a thing of the past which, of course, mayhave a profound effect on the makeup of the audience. And productions will no longer be able to survive with half-full houses. Right nowPrague, in its theatres, discos, streetlife, and even the souvenir hawkers and bad artists on the Charles Bridge, resembles Greenwich VU-

Iage of the late sixties and early seventies . Very soon, in its culturallife at least, it may resemble New York of the nineties.

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INTERVIEW WITH ISTV N E RSI

lmre Goldstein

In January 1990 at the Invitation of the Washington-based FreedomHouse, the Hungarian writer s t v ~ n orsl spent three days InNicaragua as one of the two Hungarian observers of Nicaragua spreparations tor free elections . On his way back to Hungary, Eorslstayed for three days with Allen Ginsberg in New York Following areexcerpts from an Interview conducted In Ginsberg s apartment onJanuary29.

IG: How would you describe the current cultural situation InHungary in the light of recent political developments?

IE: The latest novelty Is the decentralization of cultural activities . The State, and the well-defined groups directly under Itsinfluence, no longer monopolize the country's cultural life. This Isenormously significant. For one thing, censorship has beenabolished. Hungary has never enjoyed, certainly not in this century,such freedom of artistic expression . New people, new voices, newideologies, and some old ones, are being heard. This is also a periodof transition for those of us coming from the underground. samizdatmovement. Moral rectitude no longer suffices; while we were read by

an ever Increasing audience because we daredto

speak up duringdiff icult times, today, when anyone may write about anything,aesthetics and professional ability must prevail: books, plays, articles, etc ., must stand on their own feet. It s not enough for theirauthors to be brave .

Such great and sudden freedom has its dark side, too. Notunlike extreme right-wing bands in the Soviet Union that lay lowunder Stalin and then surfaced with a bang dur ing the thaw,extremist groups are also making themselves heard in Hungary.Resenting what they call their forty years of non-recognition andforced silence, they are all the more vocal today. Add to this theiruneasiness about having had their tails between their legs, andhaving had to toe the line of compromise, called the consensus,during the Kadar years, and you can see why they are now so eagerto prove how pure and truly Hungarian they are, and how they hadalways been in the opposition. Although, In my view, these extremeright-wing and nationalist bands form a malignant growth on the newcultural body, I am not advocating their removal or banishment. But Ido regret the way they are trying to influence the population. Just a

word to clarify the consensus I've mentioned . During the Kadar erathe large majority of the population (I'm deliberately avoiding themuch-abused appellation, the people ), opted for self -preservationthrough personal improvement, such as saving for a small car or a

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house--often taking twenty years to do it. It was their way of copingwith prevailing politics in which they had no say. The essence of theconsensus was this: In the mid-sixties Kadar said in effect: You'll

get more to eat, and more freedom If you accept my rule. And thepopulation acquiesced because It had already been browbeaten andhumHiated; hundreds of thousands had escaped, tens of thousandswere jaUed and at least a thousand were executed. With no promising future or opportunities on the horizon, Kadar's offer was the onlypossibility. As time went on, this consensus was perceived as a lesser evil . More and more frequently one heard It referred to as not sobad, or not bad at all. In another context the writer Istvan Vasla belled It relatively wonderful. The situation thus reached wasadmittedly the collective shame of the Hungarian Intelligentsia. Veryfew dared to reject the consensus. I was lucky, I was In jail for a

few years (some of my friends were executed), away from the emotional and psychological climate created by the consensus. Nowthat freedom Is here, some Intellectuals are not only parading theirliberal ideas, kept secret under Kadar, but, via a self-administeredcure of compensation and rehabilitation, they are trying to reshapetheir own pasts.

On the positive side , I must repeat my delight at theappearance of wonderful youngsters on the scene, and of someolder ones who simply kept quiet for years. Suddenly we see what awealth of talent there is in Hungary .

IG: Keeping the writer In focus, what about the state of literature, drama, and the theatre?

IE: As long as It was possible , before the inevitable collapseof the poorly-managed economy, Kadar kept his promise of morefreedom and more meat. For the writer, this freedom meant a simpleformula. You may write as you wish, only beware of certain taboos.Those writers who temperamentally, emotionally, and artisticallywere not drawn to topics covered by these taboos could, and In factdid produce significant bodies of work . I am thinking of such writersas Meszoly or Mandy. Some , like Konrad, or the poet Petri andothers. myself included, whose literary Interests constantly bumpedInto these taboos, such as the events of 1956, the presence ofSoviet troops In Hungary, sociological analysis of socialist society ,etc . had to go underground.

Drama suffered the most from a censorship that was mostvigilant in the theatre. This was doubly bad because Hungary traditionally has had enormous problems developing its drama. Historically we started about two hundred years behind the rest of

Europe, and we never had a Shakespeare or a Moliere, no Ibsen orChekhov, not even a Nestroy. Whenever there seemed to be a flickerof a chance of developing a unique Hungarian drama, some newrepressive regime nipped it. Our last major chance, before the cur-

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rent one, occurred right after Wor1d War II, but the rise of the Com-munist party brought along Socialist Realism . Few authors tried tobreak out of the strait-jacket; the number of successes was verysmall. Perhaps Orkeny, who In his Ironic absurdllke style managed tooutwit his censors . To some extent this was true of the first plays of

Istvan Csuri


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you get. With such a policy t s clear that the Operetta Theatre wouldreceive a huge subsidy while other legitimate theatres, not to mention experimen tal ones , would fold. The new subsidy policy hasbeen postponed for now, because of the concerted opposition oftheatre managers, untU something more suitable can be worked out

Here, the new spirit of the market economy could present a danger .Some Western European countries like West Germany have foundways not to let the market economy ruin the arts . It s obvious thatwhen the whole country Is to go over to a market economy we cannot expect cultural activities to be sponsored by the State, or worse,by the Party, any party. It is also difficult to find neutral, Impartialsponsors. I am not for the old system . What I d like to see Is agovernment allocating the funds which then would be managed bythe professionals In the theatre . This may sound utopian, but t Isn t ,

especially since there is a true consensus about who the best directors in the country are; and they could do the job.IG: Just as long-suppressed books are now being published,

are there any plays coming out of drawers and reaching the stage?IE : Not really. In this respect I am just about alone. While

novels and poems can wait in drawers, plays cannot. But lots ofplays are being written; political satire of course Is f lourishing . Someof the younger authors, like Splr6 , Kornlss , and Nadas who duringthe last few years have come out with plays of serious political content will continue to write .

IG: Have censorship and jail prepared you for this new free-dom?

IE: I m glad to have both behind me. I must admit thatcensorship made me a better craftsman; jail Is where I really becamea writer. Until then I was only an intellectual. I call a man fortunate notbecause he s had no unfortunate experiences , but because he canmake good use of those experiences. I think I have developed aguerrilla style that may e best described as a combination of DonQuixote and Schweik, and this style, even a fter the abolition of

censorship, Is still very timely. To be a Don Quixote In Hungarytoday means to be a leftist, just as a little while ago It meant to beagainst the Party . One also needs a touch of Schweik to sell one sgoods : to e entertaining, humorous. somewhat crafty and cunning .

IG: Do you consider yourself first a poet and playwright, andthen a publicist and essayist?

IE: I consider my best poems to be the best things I vecreated, possibly for the same reason a mother may love best herugliest child . Ironically , I am appreciated least as a poet and most as

a publicist. But thatdoesn t

matter . What does matter very much Isthat when your best works In all genres are placed side by side, t Isstill the same face that looks back at the reader. As to critics and

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criticism I keep Lukacs s words in mind : no work has become betterbecause it s been praised, or worse because it s been denigrated.

IG: Since the better part of your three days In New York Isspent with Allen Ginsberg, clarifying fine points for your new translation of HOWL perhaps a word about translation would be In order.

IE: Blowing my hom a bit, I believe that my work as a translator has been vital. Since Hungarian literature has always been Isolated, most of its best cultivators In every age have considered translation to be an Important part of their lives work. It has been mygood fortune that even in the worst of times, including my years injail, I could get jobs translating, even making a living at lt Thus far Ihave translated five of Shakespeare s plays, the important later workso Lukacs, also Ginsberg, Corso, Fertinghett i, hundreds o poems byHeine and Brecht; Pushkln, Mayakovsky, and other Russians. Of thetwo basic types of translators--one who translates only works closeto him artistically and temperamentally, the other, the omnivorousklnd--1 belong to the latter. The title of my volume of translations Is

rying o Clothes:

Uke a buyer on credit,I m trying on everything.This one s too big, that one s too small;What s to e done?

Well, I ll put on,Or lose some weight; please pack them all.

IG: Is there anything you wish for in the months and yearsahead?

IE : Lots. But let me focus briefly on Europe. I feel that theWest needs to understand us at least as much as we need tounderstand, or I should say continue to understand the West. We dohave a great deal to offer , and not everything that has been going onuntil now has been negative . Consider, for example, how our literature has preserved the sense that there is a deep tie, a dialect ical tieif you will, between the fate of the Individual and that of society as awhole. In the right kind of osmosis between Eastern and WesternEurope, both have a lot to gain. The new Europe, as I see it, or wishto see it, will not be created by Eastern Europe joining or rejoiningthe West, but by a merger . Put another way: Western Europe needsto join us no less than we need to join it.

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STVAN E RSI

I was born in 1931 In Budapest and began my studies at theHungarian-English Faculty of the Lorand Eotvos University In 1949where I earned my teacher's diploma In Hungarian Language andUterature In 1953. During my university studies I took part In GeorgLukacs seminars In esthetics. The teacher-student relationshiporiginating In these seminars grew Increasingly more Intense andlasted until Lukacs' death In 1971.

My first poems, showing the neophyte's enthusiasm for theStalinist era, were published In 1951. For these I was awarded theAttila J6zsef Prize In 1952 . In 1953 my tone became more critical.For my participation In the 1956 Revolution I was sentenced (In 1957)to eight years Imprisonment. In August 1960 I was released from jaildue to a special clemency.

Until 1977 I worked as a free-lance writer, living mostly fromtranslations. My books--poems, essays, political pieces, shortstories, and plays--began appearing again In 1968. (Until the end of1956 two volumes of my poetry had been published.) Some of myplays were produced. During these years there were periods inwhich access to publication was partially or completely denied me.

Between 1977 and 1982 I served as dramaturg of theGergely Csiky Theatre at Kaposvar, a post which I had to leave for

political reasons because my activities in the opposition were takingon a more organized form. I participated in the very first protestmovements (in 1977, I was among the 32 Hungarian signatories ofCharter 77), and I became more and more involved In the Hungariansamizdat which, between 1982 and 1987, was the main forum of publishing possibilities for me.

From 1983 to 198611ived in West Berlin. The first year I wason a DAAD scholarship. Then after the SchaubOhne Theater produced my play he Interrogation, (written in 1965), followed by additional production of this play as well as some of my other plays Imyself also directed The Interrogation and The Compromise , I wasgiven the opportunity to remain abroad.

In 1986 I returned to Hungary where, in 1988, my volume ofNine Plays appeared Qegally), and my memoir, dealing with my yearsin jail, was published (illegally). In the same year, he Interrogationwas produced at Kaposvar.

With Erzsebet Vezer, a literary critic and historian, I conducted a series of taped interviews with Georg Lukacs during the lastyear of his life. In 1976, I edited the material into a book which firstappeared in German in 1981, followed by publications in Italian,Serbo-Croatian, English, French, and Japanese. The Hungarian edition was published in 1989.



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POUSH THEATRE'S INCOMPLETE TRANSITION:THE R PE OF EUROPE

Kathleen ioffi

During February and March 1991, I participated In anextraordinary theatrical event which took place In the student club,Zak In Gdallsk, Poland. This event was the result of a collaborationbetween Theatre Workshop, a professional theatre company fromEdinburgh. Scotland, and a group of approximately 140 residents othe Gdansk area most o whom were university and high school students without any previous theatrical experience. During the courseof five weeks of workshops, Improvisations, and discussions, thisgroup of young people (plus a few older ones such as myself), work

Ing with directors Peter Clerke and Andl Ross from Theatre Workshop, managed to put together a show which reflected to anextraordinary degree their own concerns as members of Polishsociety. The production which emerged from this process wascalled The Rape o Europe Porwanie Europy), and was based on theGreek myth of Zeus abducting Europe. Not only the final product,but the very process itself, was what was most revealing of how attitudes in Poland are in a period of transition from the sureness whichcharacterized Communism to the uncertainties of capitalism.

During an Initial week-long series of meetings in the fall of1990 between Theatre Workshop members and a group of peo.Piewho had responded to leaflets distributed at the University o Gdanskand elsewhere, It quickly became apparent that certain ideas whichwere proposed for the storyline met with violent rejection by theyoung people . The idea proposed by Bogusr.tw Posmyk, co-directorof the project, which sounded quite Interesting to me was that theplay would be based on the history of the Zak building Itself (the oldLeague of Nations building) and the various turbulent periods in thehistory of Gdar'isk-Danzig to which it had born silent witness. The

young participants deeply disliked this proposal; they contended thatPoland had had enough political theatre and theatre based on Polishhistory. They proposed instead that we work on something moreuniversal, though at the time they seemed to have only vaguenotions of what that should be In the end, the scenario whichemerged during the final Intensive period of workshops in Februaryand March was Indeed more universal , though It certainly had itsanalogues In Polish history.

The play created In these workshops was set In a mytholo

gical country which, however, bore a distinct resemblance to Poland .Before the play starts, as the audience waits to enter the hall,Sisyphus tries to set up a table, chair, briefcase, and candle on thestairs, but of course he can't because the staircase Is uneven, so he

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must keep trying over and over again. In the opening scene, aQueen (Poland) sits sleeping on an enormous throne . She isawakened by the entrance of three groups of people (Austria ,Germany , and Russia) , each of which has a distinctive way of walking and of dressing, its own anthem , and its own banner. Theguests/members of the three groups waltz together as if attending aball, but periodically stop to argue about the shape of the throne. Afight ensues, first between the leaders of the groups, then betweenindividual members. Finally, everyone rushes to the throne and triesto ju mp on it. Meanwhile, the Bull enters and leads the Queen downfrom her perch at the top and out the door . The crowd then tearsopen the throne, symbolically tearing apart Poland as it was tomapart during the partitions at the end of the eighteenth century.When it is opened, however, a Family (the Polish people) is discov

ered contentedly living inside itThe allegory is carried further in the subsequent sceneswhere the Family is led on a long journey from the wreck of theirhome (country) and back to it, in a kind of illustration of the currentlypopular joke : What is socialism? The longe st road from capitalismto capitalism. Diogenes, who had served as the Queen's translatorin the earlier scene, pops out of the throne again, and offers to helpthe Family. At first they don't trust him, but then they agree to let himlead them . They all leave together , following the trail of the Bull and

the Queen . Diogenes leads the Family (and the audience) on a journey through the building which represents a journey through somestrange other countries . First they go the the basement where theyare bullied by some very aggressive waiters and waitresses and theylisten to a manic priest declare, What's good for the church is goodfor the country .

In the next scene, in the attic, an analogy is made betweenthe Communist years in Poland and the oppression of primitivepeople by an elite cult of pr iests. When the Family goes to the attic,they see people in small groups who have made their homes in littlecorners, like street people . These people are dominated by a groupof Stargazers who perform a ritual in which a high priest looksthough a telescope . He recounts the dreams he sees there, andcalls upon the people's dreams (performed by actors wearing blackclothes and white masks) to jump on their backs . This pointlessritual is reminiscent of the way the Communist Party was constantlypromising a better future and oppressing people in the name of ahigher ideology. Here, in a symbolic re-enactment of the Solidaritystrikes of 1980, one of the lesser priestesses accidentally discovers

that the telescope has no lens in it and that the whole ritual has beenbuilt on lies. She calls upon the people to revolt, and they do, throwing off their dreams, and setting fire to the Stargazers's altar. The



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Family, Dlogenes, and the audience flee before they are consumedby flames .

When the FamUy returns to the main hall, they confront thecurrent preoccupations of the Polish nation . There they recognizetheir old home/country (the throne), even though It has been looted,vandalized, and wrecked almost beyond recognition . Near thethrone are some people In colorfU dothes who are standing motionless on platfonns and stools In a large circle. They are the Sellersand they try to sell the contents of their boxes to the FamUy describIng these contents In glowing tenns . They represent the kind of WildWest survival-of-the-fit test capitalism that Poland is experiencingnow. The Sellers play a sort of game with the Family, alternatelytaunting and tempting them with their goods, finally jumping down offtheir perches, chasing the FamUy and surrounding them. Diogenes

sees that the Sellers have only contempt for the Family, but the Family Is tempted by the goods that the Sellers offer . Finally, the Sellerstake the goods out of their boxes, leave them in front of the FamUyand retreat, laughing uproariously at the Family.

Various solutions to the problems posed by capitalism areoffered. First, the Queen appears on a balcony above the Family andsings a song. The Family tries to dimb up to her , to return to theirold life, but they keep falling down. That life is gone, that countrydestroyed. Other groups of people form and play out pantomimerituals of frustration or destruction. These rituals get faster and fasteruntil, finally, everyone collapses in exhaustion. People are franticallytrying to rebuild the economy in today's Poland, but things seem tobe collapsing before their eyes. Then, while everyone Is lying on thefloor, one young person gets up, goes to the wrecked throne, calls toher friends to come play, and they start to build something out of thewreckage In a very childish way. Perhaps the young generation willbe able to create something out of the mess of forty years o Communism.

In the end, optimism overcomes defeat. Everyone gets up

from the floor, and dances a joyful samba. After the samba finishes,there is a loud knocking at the door. Someone opens It and the figure of Sisyphus comes In, dragging his table, chair, briefcase, andcandle. e arranges these things, sits down , and the crowd ofactors exits toward the light which streams In through the doorbehind Sisyphus . Perhaps Poland will have to be rebuilt over andover, like Sisyphus' Impossible task, but the young people will continue to carry on.

The naive fairy tale became compelling in performance

largely due to the skill of the Scottish directors In thinking ofimprovisations and exercises to elicit the creativity of the youngpeople and then in culling the best from those improvisations. Anatmosphere of excitement was created by the energy and

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enthusiasm of the young performers . This atmosphere wasenhanced by the music prov ided by Peter Livingstone of TheatreWorkshop, working with a group of young people; their music greatlyadded to the various moods In each scene. In add ition, the scenerydesigned by Victor Syperek, particularly the throne In the openingscene, made a commanding visual impression. The audience was atevery point encouraged to get Involved in the show: they wereInvited to dance during the waltz at the beginning and the samba atthe end ; they had to move from one part of the building to another;they were bullied by the waiters In the basement and begged from bythe beggars In the attic .

The show Itself and the process of creating It showed howmuch the theatrical mind-set of the younger generation of Poles hasalready changed since the overthrow of Communism only two yearsago. For example, the scene of the Sellers tempting the Family withtheir shoddy goods, with Its Implicit critique of capitalism, wouldnever have been part of any pre-1989 performance. If It had been,the performers would have been branded as toadies to the regime .When the Scottish directors originally discussed the scene with us,they proposed portraying something like a supermarket Instead o fIndividuals hawking wares. The young people rejected this idea, butthe final version, which was quite similar to the original Idea, wasaccepted by them. Perhaps the youngsters are already perceiving

that capitalism is not the cure-all that everyone for so long assumedIt would be.The rejection of any overt political or even historical theme

is another difference in Polish theatrical preoccupations. On myprevious visit to Poland, before the overthrow, I had the opportunityto see many performances of student groups. These performanceshad been , for the most part, political. They varied greatly In quality,but nearly all revealed a remarkable unity of thinking among Polishpeople, especially among what may be termed the youngintelligentsia. When a colleague and I interviewed the director of theTheatre of the Eighth Day, a group which started as a student theatreand in the late seventies and eight ies became the most imitatedtheatre group In the student theatre movement, he said, In Polandwe are in an enviable position. In our oppressive political situationwe do not have any trouble choosing our values. Fortunately forthe Polish people, the political situation In Poland is no longeroppressive, but unfortunately for the state of Polish art, there is muchmore trouble in choosing values. Polish society, which in the 1980shad seen itself as us against the p o w ~ lCommunist them, since

the crumbling of the Communist enemy a(ld the factlonallzatlon ofSolidarity no longer has any powerful force uniting it.

This loss of unifying force Is reflected In a loss of subjectmatter for Polish theatre . This can be seen n the professional theatre



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as well as in alternative productions such as he Rape o Europe . Ina sense, before the overthrow of Communism, there was only oneproper subject for theatre. Initially, the young people In my group

revolted against this subject, ut in the end , they were unable to thinkof any other . By revolting against politics and trying to create some-

thing more universal, they ended up retreating to precisely the typeof play which they claimed to be most tired of, a kind of play typicalof Polish theatre In the 1960s, but quite common later as well . Cuedto censorship, Polish playwrights such as w o m rMrozek tendedto write works that were, like The Rape o Europe disguisedallegories . Unlike The Rape o Europe these works had to eallegories In order to carry out their real purpose, criticizing thepowers-that-be In a way that would get them past the censor. Nowthat there Is no censor , however, it s Ironic that the young people stUI

seem reluctant to speak directly In the theatre. Perhaps becausethere Is no longer any agreement about who to criticize, they tend tothink that their own history is boring and provincial .

Polish theatre, like Polish society, Is currently In the midst ofsearching for itself. The old ways of doing things wUI no longer suffice , yet it is hard to learn new ways, hard even to imagine them . Theold subject for theatre, which was for so long the Inspiration for manyreally powerful dramatic works, has, almost overnight, lost its power .Since the demise of Communism in 1989 there are many propersubjects for theatre to take up . Yet it is difficult, even for a group asyoung as the creators of The Rape o Europe to abandon the oldsubjects although they feel the impulse to do so. It seemed to mewhile working on The Rape o Europe that I was witnessing thePolish mentality in the very process of change : these young peoplewere already thinking in ways quite different from those youngpeople only a few years ago. But the transition is still incomplete. Itremains to be seen just exactly how Polish theatre and Polish societywill change in the coming years.

NOTE

1Lech Raczak, An Interview with Director Lech Raczak, withKathleen Cioffi and Andrzej Ceynowa, he Drama Review Vol . 30No. 3 {1986), p 90.

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BROADWAY IN TH BARREN LAND

Greg Granlden

Omsk -- the name does not spring lightly to the lips of Sovietliterati. And, at first sight this drab Siberian Industrial center seemsan unlikely place to stage a minor renaissance in Russian theatre.

This city of 1.3 mHIIon lies 2,250 kUometers east of Moscow,far outside the Moscow-St. Petersburg axis where much of Russia'scultural Industry Is heavily concentrated . Until now, Omsk's mainclaim to fame as a cultural landmark was that the young FyodorDostoevsky, the great nineteenth century Russian writer, sufferedfour brutal years of Imprisonment there for political crimes .

Now Omsk is emerging as an important center for Russiantheatre. Every year since 1984 the Omsk Academic Drama Theatrehas been host to a gathering of theatre directors, critics, andplaywrights from all over Siberia, including some from European Rus-sia. They watch plays, hold often heated discussions, and, Inspiredby a similar workshop at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center In Connecticut, they mount semi-finished productions of new works orworks-In-progress.

The week-long event, which is organized independently, isunique In the Soviet Union . It has even begun to attract foreign inter

est: this year the workshop attracted directors and dramaturgesfrom Norway, Sweden, Belgium, France, Italy, and Germany.Some of them left Omsk with commitments for future work

with Siberian theatre: Christophe Feutrler, a Salnt-Etlenne, Francebased director and playwright, has an Invitation to direct a play laterthis year in Chelyabinsk; Paolo Landi of Rome's Teatro Flaiano willreturn at the end of April to direct Eugene lonesco s The aldSoprano at the Omsk Theatre; and Frie Leysen, the artistic director ofthe Antwerp Arts Center deSingel, Is hoping to bring the OmskTheatre's production of Dostoevsky's he nsulted and the njured toBelgium.

Siberia could potentially produce some of the most InterestIng theatre, said Rimrna Krechetova, a Moscow theatre critic attending the workshop. She cited a strong tradition of sponsorship fortheatre in Siberia. Indeed, the program lists the Siberian AutomobileRoad Institute, a petrochemical complex and several local factoriesas sponsors of the Omsk productions.

Krechetova said there was also a growing tendency amongtheatre school graduates from Moscow and St. Petersburg, faced

with unemployment at home, to seek work east of the Urals, bringingfresh skills and, more importantly, the latest ideas to provincial Rus-sia.

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Previously, Siberia would only get touring productions fromthe center, she said. Now, there are a lot of young Siberian writers,and they're very independent-minded. Their only common theme isthat they write about the Siberian life around them .

One of the unofficial stars of this year's workshop is Yuri

Knyazev, a young, self-taught playwright from near Irkutsk, on LakeBaikal. The workshop featured two of his plays : The Influx Naplyv),about an alcoholic factory worker's estrangement from his wife; andDeenamo which looks at the tumultuous personal life of a strongwilled actress .

Knyazev's works offer an ins ight into Soviet life at its grittiest.In The Influx for example, three famUies live together In a fUthy o -munal apartment: an alcoholic worker, whose wife is raped by apoliceman and then becomes sterile after the fetus miscarries; an

engineer who abuses his wife; a bitter, lonely old man writing hismemoirs and his orphaned, drug-addicted niece. His plays are full ofraw language and raw nerves, his characters' composure erodeddaily by poverty, alcohol, and violence. Inevitably, though, a certaindignity emerges in their lives; Knyazev's most unlikely heroes inspirerespect as well as sympathy.

Notably, Knyazev's plays are non-political. In a country witha strong tradition of politicized art and literature, this makes writinglike Knyazev's if not quite controversial, then hopelessly irrelevant inthe eyes of some .

This Is what I thought as I watched It: when did the actiontake place? said one Moscow critic of The Influx. Was It before the50s? Was It after Stalin?

These are the concerns of modern man: what s going tohappen tomorrow in Pushkin Square, the critic said, referring toMoscow's equivalent of the Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park. What'sgoing to happen with the economy, or in the Persian Gulf? Youcan't take a person out of that context . It's artificial.

Another critic strongly objected to this view. When we see a

political play, we often say: why can't we have something withoutpolitics? she said. Then, when we get a non-political play, we say:what about the politics?

I don t care about what happens in contemporary life, added a young director. Firstly, it s boring; and secondly, I don tunderstand it.

The previous day, another work Family Portrait withStranger by Stepan Lobozerov from Perm--had come under evenheavier criticism from workshop participants. A situation comedy s tin a small Siberian village, it touched a raw nerve when one of themain characters, a non-Russian liberal with a heavy Baltic accent,argued politics with a conservative local Communist Party official.


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It was an Estonian accent, Insisted one critic . And whenyou hear this Estonian accent, you realize that his rantlngs aboutdemocracy are not about democracy at all, they're about nationalism .

Though the political divisions ran deep among participants ,there was a consensus that Russian theatre needs something to reanimate It and restore the kind of wor1d stature It enjoyed In the eraof Chekhov and Stanlslavsky. The Omsk workshop Is a step In thatdirection, and so far It has borne some fruit In winning outside recognition for Its participants .

For Instance , one of Knyazev s plays, The ottage(Kottedzh), was staged at the Euge ne O'Neill Center's Playwright'sConference two years ago . And Moscow-based writer VladimirGurkin's play Love and Pigeons (Liubov i go/ubi) went from a read-Ing at the workshop six years ago to the Managa Comedy Film Fest ival in Spain last December .

But despite these modest successes, all Is not well with theorganizers of the event. Tens ions within the Omsk Dramat ic TheatreItself, plus the resignation of one of the workshop ' s principalorganizers, artistic d irec t or Slava Kokorln , may jeopardize futurewo rkshops .



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P GES FROM THE P ST

MEYERHOLD S GR VE IS LOCATED

Last November 27 the newspaper, vening Moscow(Vechernala Moskva) , announced the discovery of the f irst list ofthose executed and secretly buried In mass graves In Moscow dur ingthe 1930s . A week later, on December 6 the newspaper began publish ing these documents . S ince then Evening Moscow has publishedthe names of more than 550 secretly buried victims , each publicationevok ing a flood of responses from people grateful to learn the fate ofrelatives and friends, and from others requesting help In locating aloved one.

May 17, 1991 In an Interview with Milchakov (since the end oflast year Chairman of the Search Committee to find the secret locations of mass graves) , he reported on new recently-discovered documents. And once more Milchakov received a flood of telephone callsand letters, among them a cal l to Evening Moscow s editorial officesfrom Vsevolod Meyerhold's granddaughter, Maria Alekseevna

Valente . Soon after she met with Milchakov, providing him with theclue that enabled h im to establish where Meyerhold was bur led.Marla Alekseevna had already been able to document that

Meyerhold was tried on February 1 1940 and that he was executedby firing squad the following day. She had also uncovered the factthat Mikhail Koltsov, the famous Soviet journalist and one of thefounders of Evening Moscow, had been executed the same day.Armed with this new piece of information, Milchakov Immediatelycontacted the personnel at the U.S.S.R. K.G.B . archives where ayoung jurist, Oleg Mozokhln, was able to put together these twoexecutions and launch a search. He found the necessary documentsso that now It can be said with certainty that Meyerhold and Koltsovwere both sentenced on February 1 1940, and executed on February 2 . Their bodies were cremated at the crematorium (now calledthe old crematorium ) located on the grounds of Donskol

Monastery . Their ashes , along with the ashes of thousands of othervictims, were dumped In a pit five meters deep behind thecrematorium .

In MUchakov's full -page article in the the June 14 1991 Issueof Evening Moscow reporting on the location of the mass graveother details emerged, Including a letter Meyerhold wrote on November 16 -17 1939 in which he stated that he had slandered the namesof the people he had Implicated under torture In an earlier statement,

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36

OBlll II MorHJI N

3AlOPOHEHME HfBOCTP608AiflfbiX

nPAX08

; 1930 r 1942 r IIUIIO I.

Common Grave No 1 Donskoi Monastery

Soviet nd East European Performance Vol. 11 No. 3


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among them Ehrenburg, Pasternak , Shostakov lch, and Eisenstein .Also uncovered was Meyerhold's final statement addressed to theCha irman of the Military Court , Vasilii Ulrikh, in which he said, It Isstrange that a 66-year-old man did not say what he should have , butwhat t he Investigato r needed to hear, and that he lied only becausehe was beaten with a rubber rod. He decided then to lie and to goInto the fire . He Is not guilty of anything. He has never betrayed hiscountry ; his daughter [Tanya] Is a Commun ist whom he himselfbrought up. He th inks that the judge will understand him and sensethat he Is no t guilty.

Judging from other Informat ion In th is documen t Mo lsenkounearthed, Meyerhold was In the hospital before he was tried, probably as a result of the beat ings . He a lso establ ished that, as was theprac t ice, all those sentenced on February 1 , Includ ing Meye rhold and

Koltsov, were placed In a s ingle ce ll and spent their last nighttogether. What a p icture that evokes of these vict ims, physicallybroken and mentally demora lized , sharing their final hours . Many ofthem , like Meyerhold and Koltsov, knew each othe r What wordspassed between them? And the following day when they wereremoved one by one , could those remaining hear the gunshots?Who would be next? Did some break down when their turn came?

ow many among them went to their death convinced that theirarrest and execution was all a horrible mistake?

There's another Inte resting highlight In the June 14 article InEvening oscow which sheds some light on Stalin's character . AsMilchakov writes, When you see how [Mikhail Koltsov) spent thefinal days before his arrest you keenly feel the state of alarm andapprehension In which Muscovites lived dur ing those terrible years .It's well -known how much Stalin valued Mikha il Koltsov, a journal istwho had spent several years In Spain during the [Spanish Civil] WarAfter he returned to Moscow, Stalin received him and listened attentive ly to his conclusions and assessments about the war . Severaldays before h is arrest he was elected a corresponding member ofthe U .S.S R Academy of Sciences and the entire country was readIng his latest book , Spanish Diary .

Two weeks before his arrest, when Stalin was attend ing theBolshoi Theatre , he Invited Koltsov to his loge; he praised him for hisSpanish Diary and again joked that it was more widely read than theShort Course of the History of the Communist Party . Stalin proposedthat he give a report at the Party conference of writers about the significance of the Short Course. Koltsov fulfilled Stalin's request. Lateevening he returned from the House of Writers to the editoria l offices

of Evening oscow and there he was arrested .Milchakov concludes , What other proof Is needed of Stalin'sattitude toward people . He alone could pra ise a person, draw him

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close, even award him with a medal, nd then several d ys laterIssue th order for his arrest .

All this suggests that Pasternak, afte r all, was right In advis -Ing Meyerhold not to try to meet and t lk to Stalin. It clear1y wouldhave done no good .

A L

I am Indebted to Marla Valente and John Freedman for theirhelp In preparing this account .

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CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: ,A REVIEW OF THE EMIGR NTS BY St.AWOMIR MROZEK

AT THE JEAN COCTEAU REPERTORYNEW YORK

Scott E. WaHers

While walking down Bowery Street on my way to the subwayfollowing a performance of Slawomir Mrozek's play The migrants atthe Jean Cocteau Repertory, I passed a rundown building whoselarge, dirty windows opened onto the street. I glanced In as Ipassed. Several high -watt bulbs flooded a large room with shadowless light. The furnishings were sparse: stained white walls and aworn-out linoleum floor, long folding tables pushed together to form

rows, metal chairs scattered around the tables. And here and there adisheveled man sat head In hands, staring. At the center of the backwall was an old-fashioned hotel clerk's cage, and above the cage, acrudely-lettered cardboard sign slanted downwards . The sign read,Transient Lodging.

The sight was unexpected . One moment I was walkingalong mulling over Mrozek's play, the next I was peering through awindow at an American version of the lower depths. And as sometimes happens when one is surprised n mid-thought, the two Imagesmerged in my mind and I suddenly saw Mrozek s two charactersseated at one of the dirty tables of the flophouse, head in hands, staring into the painful br ightness. They seemed at home there. No, notat home . Rather, the room seemed to reflect their own isolation andemptiness. They were alone, Isolated. They were emigrants.

Mrozek's characters--nameless, identified only as a worker(Grant Neale) and an intellectual (Joseph Menino)--live not in atransient hotel, but in a windowless basement apartment. But theatmosphere is the same . The set, as designed by the play's director,Jonathan Bank, is spare. A bare bulb hangs from overhead illumi

nating two steel beds and a chrome-legged kitchen table, the latterflanked by two red vinyl -backed chairs . A coat stand wobbles in thebackground. The set is surrounded by darkness as if to furtheremphasize the isolation of the characters. But while the sceneryreflects the edge of the abyss, the production itself lacks a sense ofempty desperation, of longing, of edginess which I had glimpsed Inthe flophouse lobby, and which also comes packed in the luggage ofthe emigrant.

Written by Mroiek In 1974, six years after being stripped of

his Polish citizenship , The migrants has the ring of lived truth . Itwould be easy to Imagine Mrozek himself as the model for theintellectual. Yet, strangely , there is also something very literary aboutthe play . One is reminded of other dramas about alienated duos

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trapped In Isolated rooms or landscapes: Beckett's Endgame andWaiting For Godot; Pinter's he Dumbwaiter and The Caretaker

Like those plays, Mrozek's Is the story of the dispossessed .But in this case , the characters have been dispossessed by a politicalstate, not by the state of the universe . The characters are isolatedbecause they have abandoned their homeland, but each for differentreasons : the Worker, In order to make money to take back to hisImpoverished family; the Intellectual, in order to escape a placewhere he could not express himself freely .

And therein lies the conflict of the play . For the Worker. thisnew country represents an opportunity to get ahead; he has noth ingagainst his homeland, has left it only to pursue his fortune andintends to return to his wife and children there . His dreams are ofhouses and riches. The Intellectual, on the other hand, is a political

exile who has left to avoid persecution and oppression . Yet in one ofthe most poignant moments of the play, he explains that, while hecould no longer live In a place where he could not express himself,once freed from it he has found that he no longer has anything toexpress . He has lost his subject, and with it his reason for living.

And so he clings to the Worker, who provides the Intellectualwith a reminder of what it was he left behind, and for whom he's fight-Ing. In this, Mrozek's play is as much about the political relationshipbetween the Intelligentsia and the worker as it is about the experi -ence of exile . What are you doing here with me? the Workerdemands of the Intellectual at one point. And the intellectualresponds that he is atoning for the sins of his father, for ali wealthyaristocrats . But the Worker's question leaves others unspoken. Isthe Intellectual irrelevant? Can he really speak for the Worker? Doeshe really want the Worker to be free? Or is he simply using theWorker for himself? This last question is dramatized when theIntellectual discovers that the Worker is planning to return to hishomeland, the Intellectual threatens to denounce him as a traitor tothe authorities and thus prevent his return forever. The Worker must

stay with him, he desperately explains, so that he can use him as amodel for his new masterpiece, which he has not even begun . TheWorker is still not to be free .

ll of this takes place on New Year's Eve, as If to emphasizethe liminal nature of the characters lives: between two years ,between two social classes, between two philosophies, between twocountries. As the evening wears on, and more celebratory alcohol isconsumed, layers of truths are stripped away until the charactersstand naked before each other in ail their lies and hopelessness.

The final image is haunting . After emotionally flaying eachother until midnight arrives, the Worker finally decides that it wouldbe best If he moved to another apartment. The Intellectual agrees,but requests a memento: the stuffed animal that the Worker has kept

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on his bed. He snatches the toy, and despite the Worker's pleadingsand threats, rips open the toy's stomach . Money pours out. Thenthe Intellectual reveals the final lie: not that the Worker has beenhoarding money , but that the Worker's pathological miser iness is hisonly reason for being. You have the soul of a slave, the Intellectual

shouts . A slave to his riches, a slave to his parsimoniousness, aslave to his greed . Without this pursuit of money, he would have noidentity, no reason to live. He will always e an emigrant; he wUInever return home.

Shattered by the truth of the Intellectual's words, the Worker,in a final desperate bid for freedom, tears up his savings into littlecrumpled pieces and collapses sobbing onto the floor . For amoment he is free, but only for a moment. Do you think we can tapeit back together? the Worker asks for1ornly. But they both know it

can'tbe

and the lightsgo

down on the two characters sitting amidstthe rubble of their dreams.Mrozek's play is a dense one, operating on many levels:

intellectual, emotional, and political. Unfortunately, the Jean CocteauRepertory s production only scratches the surface . DirectorJonathan Bank stresses the personal aspects of the play so stronglythat the other elements are for the most part lost. The result turns theplay into an off-beat domestic comedy, with little political bite The

dd Couple p layed by emigres--and certainly not the cutting satireMrozek clear y Intends.

This is only exacerbated by the performances. JosephMenino plays the Intellectual like a garrulous windbag , all hot air andempty rhetoric. His speeches , delivered in the tones of an AM discjockey, lead one to wonder whether he is a political exile from acountry where glibness is considered an anti -government act. GrantNeale 's Worker is more interesting, but his twitchy nervousness andseeming lack of intelligence turns the Worker into a Stan Laurel figure, and thus limits his emotional range at the end of the play.

Ultimately, the problem may be cultural. American theatre

practitioners often seem unable to relate to a political argument, particuiar1y one based on the conflicts of another system . Instead, theyinsist on seeing all conflict as psychological, and end up playingMrozek s trenchant satire as if it were an episode of PerfectStrangers. The result, while good-natured and energetic, makeshash out of Mrozek's social commentary and ultimately fails to servethe play. Like the characters i t portrays, this production fallsbetween two worlds, caught in a limbo from which it cannot , or willnot, escape .

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SE GULL AT TH ARENA STAGE

Marina J B Peter

This past summer (May 17-June 23 1991) the Arena Stageof Washington D .C. under the direction of Douglas C Wager presented an Innovative approach to Chekhov's Seagull. Special soundeffects (by Susan R White) and lighting (by Arden Fingerhut) set offthe monologs of Dorn, Trigorin, Treplev, nd Nina, heighteningawareness of these moments, and creating a resonance betweenthem. This shifted the perspective on everything else, subtly changing the focus nd underscoring the themes of the play. The

udience w s thereby Invited to observe the events unfoldingonstage dispassionately, yet with irony. The personal stories of the

individuals on Sarin's estate, their affairs, ambitions, and interactions,while dr m tic and Interesting, were no longer the main focus,although they comprise the body of the play. The lofty Ideals andaspirations of those who care about true art (Treplev, Nina) were juxtaposed to those who opt for ego gratification and success by becoming popular artists and writers (Arkadina, Trigorin). The few fleetIng moments of artistic, spiritual, and poetic insight were set in reliefagainst the mundane world of banal, materialistic, self-serving,spiritually empty concerns, what the Russians call poshlost . This isthe first Seagull this reviewer has seen that so strongly brings out theauthor's point of view.

The overwhelming, yet subtle impact of the play was thus notcaused by spectacular stage effects, or striking set designs (whichwere consciously avoided) , or the style of the presentation, or evenby the actors' depiction of Chekhov's fascinatingly complex characters, but by the atypical use of standard stage devices : not newforms, but old forms used in new ways. The play's not the thing, butthe meta-play, as the opposition and interaction of ideas and worldviews limned on stage and generated within the minds of the receptive audience.

The evening began with three ritualistic knocks of a woodenclapper, the same sound that was used to introduce the play-withina-play in Act 1 Electronically generated sounds were used as asonic curtain (between acts and at the beginning and end of theplay) as well as In muted, almost subliminal tones introducing thehighlighted monologues. These sounds resembled a cross betweensurrealistic music (as might be conceived by David Bowie) and thechanting of Tibetan monks; one heard percussive sounds (wooden

clapper, cymbals, bells) combined with mantra-like chants of deepmale volces.2 Strange, prominent, totally unexpected, these soundscertainly heightened attention, If not, Initially, understanding.

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Soliloquies were slightly amplified by voice mike, giving asubtle auditory underscoring to these moments . At the same time,the actor was bathed in a spotlight, while the rest of the stage was Inshadow. These two devices served to effectively focus audienceattention and Intensify the monologs.

These surrealistic and abstract sounds and the changedlighting were Intentionally In jarring contrast with the style of the restof the production. Realistic effects were used In the main body of theplay . There were the traditional sounds we have come to expect InChekhov : the Imitations of bird calls made by Masha and Medvedenko, the animal sounds (of crickets and cries of seagulls and adog barking), the music (singing wafting across the lake, planomusic), and the sound of a gun. Visually, there were many reali sticdetails, especially In the first and fourth acts. In the scene where

Nina declaimed Treplev's play, real candles were placed on the smallstage . The entire audi ence, as well as the actress, swatted atImaginary mosquitoes. As Treplev appeared, walking on box-likeblocks strapped to his feet and carrying two tall poles with redlanterns swinging from the top, the smell of sulphur pervaded thetheatre . All this was effective and amusing . Real food was used InAct Il l. At one point, Sorin hunched over an actual steaming teakettle, covering his head with a large towel, to create an oldfashioned steam vaporizer .4 His post-stroke symptoms in the finalact were very specific and realistic.

There were some puzzling minor incons ist encies in the useof the spare set pieces designed by Ming Cho Lee . Why was agigantic bare branch suspended over the dining room In Act Ill, whenit would have been more logical in the first two acts, which do takeplace outdoors? Exits and entrances through imagin ary gates ordoors were Inconsistently used; this was especially egregious whenthe platform stage was raked at an angle between Acts Ill and IV andactors appeared to clamber b ck onto the platform at seeminglyarbitrary locations.

In sum, the Arena Theatre production of Chekhov's eagullwas provocative and driven by a novel concept. While there is somequestion of whether the intended ideas were effectively transm itted tothe audience ,5 this was indeed a significant production.

NOT S

1The same three strokes of a wooden clapper used In a ritualway to designate the beginning of a spectacle is a common practiceIn Southeast Asia where performances a re similarly g iven on a raised

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wooden platform with no curta ins, and with the audience seated onali our sides . Interestingly enough , the sound engineer was notaware of this usage , although the electronic sound used in othermoments o the play was indeed based on Asian monks' chants .

2Susan White said that the idea o using a central Asianprimitive sound was first suggested by Zelda Fichandler, who wasoriginally scheduled to stage the production.

3While a real shotgun was used for the shooting o theseagull, creating a loud blast, what sounded like someone hitting apacking crate accompanied Treplev's suicide, the effect of whichmisfired. It would have been more effective to be consistent and

use a muffled re l shot.

4Well-motivated, since the doctor states that he suffers notonly from a bad heart, but also from asthma.

5Eavesdropping in the lobby at intermission , I noticed thatpeople were discussing everything else QYJ the central concept ofthe production . If they commented at li on the sounds used, it waswith puzzlement. Only one o the press reviews (Bob Mandella , ityPaper even mentioned the unusual use of light and sound, but it didnot explain its function within the production .



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FUNNY AND SAD STORIES , GITIS OF MOSCOWHUNTER COLLEGE, NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER 11-15, 1991

J.K.Curry

Under the title Funny and Sad Stories the Phoenix Ensemble and GITIS (the State Institute of Theatre Arts) o f Moscow presented three short one-act plays at the Little Theatre of New YorkCity's Hunter College from September 11-15, 1991. The lively production featured the work of actors Victor Pavlutchenkov, IvanPilipenko, Vladislav Sich, and Yuri Tcherkasov, all recent graduatesof the four-year dramatic actor training program of GITIS.

Performed without intermission, the three plays wereadapted from works of Russian literature. The first, based on Chek

hov s The Barbe r, f ollows the moods of the young barber , firsteagerly attempting to please his future father-In-law, then descendingInto melancholy despa ir when he realizes that his Intended brideplans to marry someone else. Twelve Chairs was adapted from a1920s novel by llf and Petrov . It features a down-and-out formernoble

seep vol.11. no.3 winter 1991

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