SEEP Vo.32 No.1 Spring 2012-Winter 2013

volume 32, no.
1
Spring 2012 / Winter 2013
SEEP (ISSN # 104 7 -0019) is a publication of the Institute for Contemporary
East European Drama and Theatre under the auspices of the Martin E.
Segal Theatre Center. The Institute is at The City University of New York
Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309. All
subscription requests and submissions should be addressed to Slavic and East
European Performance: Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The City University of
New York Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309.
EDITOR
Daniel Gerouldt
GUEST EDITOR
Margaret Araneo-Reddy
SENIOR EDITORIAL ADVISOR MANAGING EDITOR
Christopher Silsby Stephanie Vella
EDITORIAL CONSULTANT ASSISTANT EDITORS
Shari Perkins Jared R. Pike and Dan Poston
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Shiraz Biggie
ADVISORY BOARD
Edwin Wilson, Chair
Marvin Carlson Allen J. Kuharski Martha W Coigney Stuart Liebman Leo Hecht
Laurence Senelick Dasha Krijanskaia
SEEP has a liberal reprinting policy. Publications that desire to reproduce
materials that have appeared in SEEP may do so with the following provisions:
a.) permission to reprint the article must be requested from SEEP tn wntmg
before the fact; b.) credit to SEEP must be given in the reprint; c.) two copies
of the publication in which the reprinted material has appeared must be furnished to SEEP
immediately upon publication.
MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Frank Hentschker
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Rebecca Sheehan
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS
Lauren DiGiulio
Slavic and East European Performance is supported by a generous grant from the Lucille Lor tel
Chair in Theatre of the Ph.D. Program in Theatre
at The City University of New York.
Copyright 2013
Dedication
From the Editor
Events
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REMEMBERING DANIEL GEROULD
"Daniel Gerould (1928-2012)"
Frank Hentschker
"On Teaching"
Daniel Gerould
"Excerpts from the Introduction to Quick Change"
Daniel Gerould
IN MEMORIAM
"Dragan Klaic (1950-2011 )"
Katarina Pejovic
"Vaclav Havel (1936-2011)"
Edward Einhorn
"Liviu Ciulei (1923-2011 )"
Moshe Yassur
ARTICLES
"Crossing the Divide between Russian and American Drama"
John Freedman
6
7
11
15
18
20
25
27
31
35
"Radu Afrim:
A Queer Look at Life"
Cristina Modreanu
45
"Eastern European Playwrights: 53
Women Write the New"
Marcy Arlin and Gwynn MacDonald
"Zachary Karabashliev and the Contemporary Bulgarian Theatre: 64
An Introduction"
Virginia Hinova-DiDonato
PAGES FROM THE PAST
Witkacy's Artwork at Zakopane's Oksza Villa"
Adrian L.R. Smith
"Simon Lissim's Early Years in Paris"
Bella Neyman
REVIEWS
"Andras Visky's I Killed il1J' Mother
La MaMa in association with Chicago's Theatre Y
February 10- March 4, 2012"
Beate Hein Bennett
"Delayed Gratification:
12 Chairs at the Belarus National Musical Theatre"
Aleksei Grinenko
"Word for Word Verbatim and the 'Gypsy Superman"'
Anita Rakoczy
71
83
93
99
107
Slavic and East European Performance VoL 32, No.1
"Breaking Down the Bard:
Heiner Miiller's Macbeth After Shakespeare,
Directed by Ivica Buljan, at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre"
Shari Perkins and Sissi Liu
"Confronting the Dark Places of History and Memory:
Our Class, a Play by Tadeusz Slobodzianek
at the Wilma Theatre, Philadelphia"
Beate Hein Bennett
Contributors
117
125
132
DEDICATION
On behalf of the many contributors to SEEP over the years, the students who
served in various editorial positions throughout their Ph.D. training, the friends
and colleagues who supported the life of this journal through their hard work
and expertise, the dedicated administration and staff at the Segal Center, and,
of course, SEEP's devoted readers, we thank you, Daniel, for everything you
have given us. We hope we can honor you in all the work we still have yet to do.
6
All Journals are available from ProQuest Information and Learning as
abstracts online via ProQuest information service and the
International Index to the Performing Arts.
All Journals are indexed in the MLA International Bibliography and are
members of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.
Slavic and East European Performance VoL 32, No. 1
FROM THE EDITOR
Regular readers of SEEP have, no doubt, come to both expect and
cherish the insightful and always efficient introduction that Daniel Gerould
penned for each issue of this journal. Like a warm and welcoming host at
a gathering of new friends, he introduced us to the authors and the unique
perspectives on Eastern European performance they offered. His words helped
frame our reading experience, giving context to events, artists, and projects that
may have seemed disconnected and distant to us.
At the time of Daniel's passing in February 2012, the preparation
for the Spring 2012 issue of SEEP was underway. He was in the process of
collecting articles and reviews for inclusion, working with contributors to hone
their essays, training his mentees in the art of editing. In so many ways SEEP
came to a screeching halt with the unexpected loss of Daniel, and it took those
he left behind several months to reorganize and determine how to move ahead.
As a team, we eventually began to pick up the pieces and work together to
publish this issue.
Any issue published without Daniel at the helm is necessarily
incomplete: the absence of his voice from this opening only highlights this
fact. With the task of writing the From the Editor now falling to me-his
former student and Managing Editor of the journal from 2005 to 2009-I
want to both acknowledge Daniel's silence and honor his desire to produce a
rich and thoughtful publication that gives its readers important insights into
the current state of Eastern European performance. So it is with humble steps
that I will walk you through the contents of the Spring/Winter 2012 issue of
SEEP.
Volume 32, no. 1 opens with a tribute to Daniel. This includes an In
Memoriam written by Daniel's colleague and dear friend Frank Hentschker,
who as Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center worked
closely with Daniel for many years to not only publish SEEP (along with
two other journals and a variety of books), but to program and moderate the
numerous events hosted by the Segal Center each year. The In Memoriam is
followed by two selections from Daniel's rich body of work. The first is a
statement on teaching written in the 1980s, which truly captures the thoughtful
and creative way Daniel pursued his role as educator and mentor. The second
is an abridged version of Daniel's introduction to Quick Change, a collection
7
of twenty-eight essays and four play translations he wrote across his career.
Published in 2010, Quick Change would sadly be Daniel's last book.
Daniel was a scholar, teacher, and artist who deeply respected his
colleagues and found it important to honor those who have contributed to the
field he so loved. We are, therefore, including three In Memoriams to recognize
the life and work of three influential men of the theatre who recently passed.
Katarina Pejovic remembers the esteemed scholar Dragan Klaic: a leading
theatre critic, cultural policy-maker, and intellectual. Ed Einhorn honors the
Czech playwright and statesman Vaclav Havel: an extraordinary individual who
successfully integrated his theatrical and political ambitions to become a true
cultural icon of the late twentieth century. Finally, Moshe Yassur memorializes
Romanian theatre and flirn director Liviu Ciulei: an internationally revered
artist and teacher perhaps best known in the States for his tenure as leader of
the Guthrie Theatre in the 1980s.
We have included four articles in this issue, essays that demonstrate the
journal's scope and its celebration of international exchange. John Freedman,
a long-time contributor and friend of SEEP, reports on the latest project
emerging out of the collaboration between Towson University and Philip
Arnoult's Center for International Theatre Development (CITD). Cristina
Modreanu introduces us to the theatre aesthetics of the Romanian director
Radu Afrim. Marcy Arlin and Gwynn MacDonald discuss the Immigrants'
Theatre Project's 2012 reading series, which focused on the work of eight
Eastern European women playwrights. We conclude this section with Virginia
Hinova-DiDonato's overview of an evening of readings and moderated
discussion on the work of Bulgarian playwright Zachary Karabashliev, which
was held at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in November 2011.
While SEEP has always been focused on contemporary performance,
Daniel often liked to include material that considered the history of Eastern
European theatre in a new light. Calling such pieces Pages from the Past, their
content helped to contextualize current projects and trends by taking fresh
looks at historical figures and events. In this issue, we have two essays that ask
us to glance back to the interwar period. Adrian Smith gives us insight into
the visual arts of Witkacy by taking us through the collection of his pastel
portraits, photographs, and drawings held at the Tatra Museum's Oksza Villa
in Zakopane, Poland. Bella Neyman examines the Russian-born designer
Simon Lissim's life as an expatriate in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s and
8 Slavic and East European Performance Vol. 32, No. 1
his connection to the avant-garde theatre scene thriving in the city during this
time.
We conclude this issue with a collection of reviews. Beate Hein
Bennett, a frequent and treasured contributor to SEEP, provides two essays
that serve to bookend the section: a review of Andras Visky's I Killed il{y Mother
presented at La MaMa in New York and a discussion of Our Class by Tadeusz
Slobodzianek performed at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia. First-time
contributor Aleksei Grinenko considers the two-act ballet 12 Chairs that played
at the Belarus National Musical Theatre in Minsk; Shari Perkins and Sissi Liu
collaborate on a review of Ivica Buljan's production of Heiner MUller's Macbeth
After Shakespeare at La MaMa; and Anita Rakoczy discusses the successful
docudrama Word for Word, Verbatim by the Hungarian ensemble PanoDrama,
which had two separate runs in Budapest in 2011 .
As many of our subscribers may know, this will be the last issue of
SEEP in its current form. Co-founded in 1981 by Daniel and his colleague Alma
Law, SEEP has served an important function in the arena of theatre studies.
It has helped to maintain a significant global dialogue about contemporary
performance and its place in a rapidly changing political landscape. Before
his passing, Daniel was in conversation with Allen Kuharski of Swarthmore
College regarding the future of the journal. Allen served on SEEP's Advisory
Board for many years and has a keen understanding of the journal's style and
objectives. Allen has teamed up with Marvin Carlson, an esteemed colleague
of Daniel's at the Graduate Center and Editor of Western European Stages (WES)
to create a new peer-reviewed journal that combines WES and SEEP. Titled
European Stages, it will launch in the coming year and will be published by the
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.
This final issue of SEEP would not have been possible without the
commitment of many individuals who deeply loved and respected Daniel
Gerould as a scholar, teacher, artist, and friend. While we are not able to
name everyone, I'd like to extend a special word of gratitude to the following:
Christopher Silsby, who stepped in as Senior Editorial Advisor to help us
work through the volume of material and assist in the completion of layout;
Stephanie Vella who continued her work as Managing Editor even past the
term of her fellowship; Shari Perkins who added her keen eye to the review
of many articles included here as well as contributing her own piece to the
issue; Jared Pike who took on the challenge of Editorial Assistant despite very
9
little preparation; Beate Hein Bennett who served as a much-needed source of
support, always willing to lend a hand; the faculty and students of the Graduate
Center Ph.D. Program in Theatre who, sharing in our grief, provided a home
base for us to work; and, of course, to Frank Hentschker and the staff of the
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center for their continued administrative, creative,
and emotional support to help us meet our deadlines and publish this issue.
My deep thanks also goes to Jadwiga Gerould, Daniel's true partner, whose
profound understanding of his scholarly values and love for the work they
both shared guided us in our efforts to meet Daniel's high standards.
A final gesture of gratitude must go to you, the loyal readers of
SEEP, who over the last three decades supported this journal and believed in
its importance. With Daniel as your consummate guide, one who truly loved
the landscape he traversed, you traveled together through the shadowy years of
communism, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the unique period of discovery
that followed, into a new century. You form a true international community.
May its spirit continue to thrive, generating an abundance of new work and
colorful conversation that will ensure Daniel's vibrant spirit stays with us always.
Margaret Araneo-Reddy
10 Slavic and East European Peiformance VoL 32, No. 1
STAGE PRODUCTIONS
New York City:
EVENTS
The Czech Center New York presented The Wooden Circus, a marionette
theatre show by the Prague-based touring company Karromato, on January 8,
2012.
The Polish Cultural Institute presented Monica Hunken's solo
performance The Wild Finish from January 25 through February 11, 2012 at
ABC No Rio. Directed by Melissa Chambers, this travelogue told the story of
a vodka-soaked bicycle journey across Poland.
The State Ballet Theatre of Russia performed Prokofiev's Romeo and
juliet at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on February 3, 2012.
La MaMa hosted the New York premiere of Andras Visky's I Killed
lvfy Mother, a production directed by Karin Coonrod. The production ran from
February 10 through March 4, 2012. (See review in this issue.) In conjunction,
the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York hosted a conversation between
Visky, Coonrod, Robert Woodruff, and Andrei Serban on March 15,2012.
Vicror Shenderovich and Vyacheslav Kaganovich starred in the
premiere of Ayedont Understand!, a melodrama-comedy by Shenderovich.
Directed by Sergey Kokovkin, this tale of a chance meeting between two
immigrants to the United States ran on March 24 and 25,2012 at the Shorefront
YM-YWHA in Brooklyn.
TR Warszawa's production of Festen, adapted for the stage by Thomas
Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov and directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, played at St.
Ann's Warehouse, April20 to 29,2012.
The Romanian Cultural Institute presented an evening of two new
plays:youshinC:JOUarebeautifulby Vera Ion and Famify Offline by Mihaela Michailov
on May 24, 2012. The playwrights were present for talk-backs after readings
of the two plays.
The Zagreb Youth Theatre returned to La MaMa from December 6
to 9, 2012 to perform Letter to Heiner Mii//er by Goran Fercecat.
11
The Hungarian puppetry ensemble Vaskakas, with support from the
Hungarian Cultural Institute, presented two productions, The Shoemaker's Dream
and Metamorphosis, at the Abrons Arts Center, January 7 to 10.
The Bohemian National Hall along with the Czech Center New York
hosted the Czech Theatre and Dance Showcase, which included two pieces
by Lenka Vagnerova and Company, Mah Hunt and The Riders, and the Drak
Theatre's production of Goldilocks on January 12, 2013.
Eight plays from Central and Eastern Europe were included in the
2012 Festival of Women Theatre Artists in New York, organized by the League
of Professional Theatre Women in conjunction with the Immigrants' Theatre
Project. (See article in this issue.)
French-Romanian actress Simona Maicanescu appeared in a new
French production of Wallace Shawn's The Fever, directed by Swedish
playwright/director Lars Noren, at La MaMa January 24 to February 3, 2013.
The Czech Center New York presents Out of the Circle, an exhibition
of Czech and American performance art as well as photographs and videos
from January 28 to March 12, 2013. The work of Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman,
Vladimir Havrilla, and Jiii Kovanda will be included.
Vit Horejs, the Czechoslovak storyteller, author, and puppeteer, will
present Katcha and the Devil and Other Czech Tales JJJith Strings at La MaMa, April
27,2013.
STAGE PRODUCTIONS
Regional:
The opera King Roger by Karol Szymanowski was presented at the
Santa Fe Opera from July 21 to August 14,2012.
FILM
New York City:
In celebration of Milos Forman's eightieth birthday, the Czech Center
New York in February 2012 presented a series of screenings of Forman's films
12 Slavic and East European Performance VoL 3 2, No. 1
along with an exhibition of movie posters from his oeuvre. Forman-directed
films screened included Amadeus (1 984), Loves o/ a Blonde (1965), and The People
vs. Larry F/ynt (1996). A documentary directed by Martin Sulik, Golden Sixties-
Portrait o/ Milof Forman, was also screened.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center presented a retrospective of
Hungarian maestro Bela Tarr's body of work from February 3 through 8, 2012
followed by the US premiere of Tarr's The Turin Horse. Films screened as part of
the retrospective included: The Almanac o/ Fall (1984), Damnation (1988), Fami/y
Nest (1979), Macbeth (1982), Satantango (1994), The Man from London (2007), The
Outsider (1981), The Prefab People (1982), and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000).
The Brooklyn Central Library screened Andrei Zagdansky's
documentary A& Father Evgeni, on February 23, 2013.
The Museum of Modern Art and the Romanian Cultural Institute
co-presented the first complete Lucian Pintilie retrospective in the United
States from March 1 to 12, 2012. Pintilie was at the opening to introduce the
first fllm, Reenactment,on March 1. Two of Pintilie's long-term collaborators
on both film and stage, Victor Rebengiuc and Mariana Mihut, held a public
conversation with Romanian audiences in NYC at the Romanian Cultural
Institute on March 2 as part of the retrospective.
The Polish Cultural Institute presented Hysterical Excess: Discovering
Andrzej Zutawski, the first complete retrospective of the radical auteur's
expressive ftlms. From March 7 to 20, 2012, screenings at BAMcinematek
included Possession (1981), That Most Important Thing: Love (1975), and the debut
of a newly struck 35mm print of The Third Part o/ the Night (1971 ).
The Museum of the Moving Image screened Andrzej Wajda's ft.lm
Ashes and Diamonds on October 13 and 14, 2012.
The Ukrainian Museum presented the documentary The Guardian if
the Past, directed by Ma!gorzata Potocka, February 17, 2013.
13
OTHER EVENTS
New York City:
The Czech Center New York held a celebration of Charter 77,
the landmark human rights declaration co-authored by Vaclav Havel in
Czechoslovakia in 1977. The free event, held on January 6, 2012, featured
music, a public reading of the charter, and a short excerpt of a Havel play, as
well as a new found text based on the events.
The 92"d Street Y presented a multi-disciplinary series exploring the
cultural significance of Terezin, the Nazi concentration camp and ghetto
established in 1941 in occupied Bohemia. The series was titled Will to Create,
Will to Live and included four concerts by the Nash Ensemble of London,
primarily performing music played and written in Terezin. Other events
included lectures, film screenings, dance presentations, readings, and an exhibit
of art and artifacts. The event was held from January 9 to February 16, 2012.
Joe's Pub hosted a concert by Alexander Zhurbin, Russia's preeminent
composer of musical theatre, film sound tracks, and popular song, on January
15, 2012.
The Romanian Cultural Institute and The Museum of the Moving
Image presented Restless, an exhibition of video installations, short films, and
other works by Mircea Cantor. Cantor's first solo museum exhibition in New
York City ran from March 3 to May 6, 2012 and included three video works:
Tracking Happiness (2009), Vertical Attempt (2009), and I Decided Not to Save the
World (2011), as well as a wall drawing, photographic cliptych, and program of
selected short films.
SPECIAL NOTICE
The May 2013 issue of PAI A journal of Performance and Art, Volume
35, number 2, will include the script of Daniel Gerould's 1965 play Candaules,
Commissioner. The play was performed as a staged reading during a tribute to
Daniel Gerould in Elebash Hall at the Graduate Center of the City University
of New York on September 6, 2012.
14 Slavic and East European Peiformance Vol. 32, No. 1
IN MEMORIAM
Daniel Gerould
(1928- 2012)
With the passing of Daniel Gerould, the Eastern European theatre
loses one of its greatest friends. For the last half century, through his writings,
lectures, and critiques, Daniel did much to advance our appreciation and
knowledge of the Slavic theatre.
Through SEEP, Daniel provided a forum for a multitude of voices
and genres within the theatre. The journal was a labor of love and something
that encapsulated his intellectual passions. Daniel was always interested in the
history of ideas and how changing intellectual trends affected the arts. Whether
it was a reworked version of a classic or a piece from the avant-garde, Daniel
was intrigued by what the theatre could be, finding particular appeal in those
works he felt were curious or unjustly forgotten.
Daniel's interests were eclectic and reflective of his background. Having
lived and studied in Boston, Chicago, Arkansas, and San Francisco, as well
as Warsaw, Moscow, and Paris, Daniel brought a global perspective to his
studies. While Eastern European and Slavic theatre became his focus, his
scholarship was always informed by a broad comparative analysis. In the late
1950s, while at San Francisco State University, he helped found the Department
of World and Comparative Literature. Over forty years later, he continued
to apply this comparative approach, publishing a book on theatrical theory,
Theatre/Theory/Theatre, that contained primary source material ranging from
the classical period to the present, from the United States to Japan.
With Daniel's passing not only the community of Slavic theatre but
the academic and scholarly world he so loved are left saddened. He was the
rare scholar that was an excellent researcher, writer, teacher, colleague, and
mentor. Not only well versed in his own specialty of theatre, Daniel also
displayed an obvious command of literature, poetry, music, and history. He
loved teaching, every semester bringing to the classroom his familiar bow
tie and impish smile, which made him a student favorite. Outside of the
classroom, no one was more generous with his time. The door to his office
was always open, and the passion he had for the material was readily shared
with his students. With Daniel's death, we lose a classic gentleman-scholar; a
well-rounded, talented, and lcind person; a true Renaissance man.
15
Daniel Gerould
16
Slavic and East European Performance Vol. 32, No. 1
Until the very end of his life, Daniel was consumed by his work. Just
an hour before he fell asleep on what would be his last night- February 12,
2012-he was made so happy by a recent discovery. Earlier that evening, his
wife Jadwiga found a box with some of Daniel's old lecture notes in it. When
Daniel realized how perfectly they would fit into his upcoming class, he was
propelled into what Jadwiga described as "just a wonderful mood."
So while we lament the loss of this impressive and dignified man, we
can take solace in the fact that he lived a life in which he touched and inspired
those around him. Each morning he could not wait to begin his studies, and
every night it was difficult to get him to put down his books and call it a day.
We can also celebrate someone who so generously shared his passions with
others and passed away happy in his thoughts. Further, it is pleasing to all who
knew him and followed his career to know that in the last year of his life,
he derived great pleasure from the publishing of Quick Change, an impressive
compendium of his wide-ranging scholarship, containing his plays, essays,
critiques, and translations: a true life's work. We are blessed by the fact that into
his eighties we were still able to watch Daniel at the top of his game: sharp,
lucid, trenchant, and concise.
A friend and a great advancer of the European and Slavic theatre, a
true enthusiast of the arts, and a teacher who genuinely loved his profession
and his students, Daniel Gerould will be sorely missed. But as we mark his
passing from the stage, we can celebrate the fact that he leaves the theatre
world a much better place.
Frank Hentschker
17
ON TEACHING
Daniel Gerould
It is only natural that our thoughts always turn to the mystery of the
creative life. All those who are dedicated to the theatre and the theatrical as
expressions of what is most vital in human culture engage in a perpetual quest
for the secret of creativity. We are filled with admiration and delight whenever
we can bear witness to a truly creative life in the theatre. Therein lies the special
pleasure, the unbounded joy that the ability to create inevitably calls forth.
All creativity is an overcoming of routine, an assault on boredom
and the status quo of dullness, a refusal to lapse into narrow-mindedness and
the docile wearing of blinkers. It is an enlargement of possibilities, a constant
trying out of the new, an exploration of what is brightest, liveliest, and most
perceptive. Creative life in the theatre-whatever the sphere of its activity-
has an added element, which is inherent in its very nature, and that element is
play. It is play that animates even its most serious moments and that keeps from
being trivial even its least serious ones. Theatre is what is played, and play and
its guiding spirit, playfulness, are the source of spontaneity, freshness, and the
unexpected-those qualities that we most prize.
We who are teachers study creativity in theatre; we attempt-perhaps
presumptuously-to unlock its secrets. We therefore talk about playing, players,
playhouses, and playwrights. But as we are talking to our audience, we ourselves
are playing. Teachers are actors, teaching is a form of theatre, and teaching
theatre is thus theatre about theatre. With the seminar room as our stage and
auditorium, we are always putting on an experimental drama-never twice
the same, we hope-constantly improvised, retaining the power to surprise,
sometimes even to shock. In this theatre of direct audience involvement
and intervention, our students are co-creators. The drama is scripted and
performed by an ensemble, even while the format may appear to be the theatre
of one actor. We rehearse, exercising our voices, stretching our minds-but
we only block out a few moves, plan a gesture or two, work out an opening
tag. Essentially the performance itself is commedia. Although we sometimes
masquerade as learned doctors and pretend that our discipline is a science, this
is simply part of the show.
Creativity in the theatre is not only the subject of our scholarship;
it must be its method as well. Should not we, who are teachers of this art,
consider ourselves doubly fortunate in having a profession-education-that
is theatrical and a chosen field of study that is theatre itself? Our work is play.
It is thus an extension of the collective life of the theatre and its creators.
And we gratefully recognize the bonds that tie our endeavors to those of the
professional stage.
19
EXCERPTS FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO QUICK CHANGE
Daniel Gerould
Theatre and drama find their natural place in the history of the
arts. Theatre history, intellectual history, and history of the arts should, I am
convinced, go hand in hand. Tadeusz Kantor, the subject of two of my essays,
declared his goal to be "placing theatre within the realm of the totality of art."
Could anything be simpler, and at the same time as all-embracing?
My first contacts with theatre came about through magic, at which
I dabbled as a child. I watched sleight-of-hand artists demonstrate tricks
to one another at magicians' conventions, and I went to performances of
master illusionists, like the Great Thurston, who staged spectacular acts with
large casts, fancy props and costumes, and elaborate stunts dependent on
complicated technology. At home I created a life-size dummy with a carved
coconut head, who wore a hat, coat, shirt, tie, and trousers and had a concealed
tube running from the basement up his leg to his mouth that enabled me to
carry on conversations and make jokes with my parents' guests at dinner parties.
I also regularly attended the circus, rodeos, and stunt car shows, since
my father, a newspaperman, was the regular recipient of free tickets. At all of
the spectacles, the self-extolled daring and skill of the performers were sources
of wonder and delight, and I relished all the hyperbole, hoopla, and razzmatazz.
I attended the stage shows accompanying the films at large movie houses and
featuring big bands, such as Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, and Cab Calloway (the
latter-constantly changing flamboyantly colored zoot suits- was himself a
quick-change artist). I went to jazz concerts to hear James P. Johnson and Wild
Bill Davison at Sunday matinees where teenagers were tolerated, although still
the exception, not the rule.
By the late 1930s and early '40s I started attending the legitimate stage
with my mother. At that time many Broadway-bound productions tried out
ftrst in Boston, and I remember Ethel Barrymore in The Corn Is Green by Emlyn
Williams and Arsenic and Old Lace with Boris Karloff. I felt myself a seasoned
spectator, was at home among audiences, and was always ready to applaud
bravura displays of \'irtuoso acting. The seed had been planted, although it
wasn't until the 1954-55 season in Paris (where I was an exchange student)
that I again became an intensive spectator, followed by a similar stint in 1967 in
Moscow (where I was on a faculty research grant).
For the most part I have chosen to write about the underrated,
the ignored, and the forgotten rather than the overexposed and universally
celebrated. I have never been much concerned with whether an artist was a
major or minor figure, a canonical or non-canonical artist, since these valuations
are constantly shifting and highly unreliable. Witkacy is a case in point, having
gone from controversial outsider to classic of the avant-garde in three decades.
My essays are open to writers of all provenance. Shakespeare and Moliere as
well as Shaw and Ibsen, also put in frequent appearances.
The functions of comedy and the qualities of different kinds of
laughter have been at the forefront of my inquiries, which investigate how
laughter can combat what is backward, and how it can dispel fear and even
thrive in oppressive regimes. The relation of art to ideology, seen from the
viewpoint of the artist, is a question that recurs in my essays, which are often
situated against the background of life in Eastern Europe during the cold war.
My initial encounter with Eastern European drama came about thanks
to Tom Lantos, then the director of overseas programs at San Francisco State
College, who arranged for me to go to Poland for five weeks in the summer of
1965 as part of a faculty travel program underwritten by the State Department
and paid for in counterpart funds. Tom was a Hungarian Jew who along with
his young wife to be had been saved by Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest in 1944;
he subsequently became an influential US congressman from 1981 until his
death in 2008.
At that point modern Polish theatre was terra incognita in the
United States and in most of the rest of the world. This was five years before
Grotowski's theatre first appeared in New York and fourteen before Kantor
brought The Dead Class to La MaMa. That I discovered Witkacy and got to
meet many of the principal figures in the Poli sh theatre was a matter of good
fortune. Witkacy was for me a found object that I came across by chance.
On my first full day in Poland, a meeting for me had been arranged
with a bureaucrat in the thearre section at the Ministry of Culture in Warsaw,
not far from the hotel where I was staying. I walked to the ministry and entered
the office. Beneath a small picture of Lenin on the wall behind his desk, the
21
22
DANIEL GEROULD
QUICK CHANGE
.28 THEATRE ESSAYS N D ~ PlAYS IN TRANSlATION
Cover of Danid Gerould's Quick Change (201 0),
Witkacy's Double Self-Portraits as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
official, Jerzy Sokolowski (later one of the editors of the journal Teatr), and
I conversed in Russian because at that time I did not know Polish. After a
few perfunctory remarks about the organization of the Polish theatre and its
repertory, the official grew animated as he told me about a remarkable Polish
playwright active during the 1920s and 30s who was in the process of being
rediscovered, and he explained to me that the productions of his plays, many
being staged for the first time, were the most exciting events taking place in the
Polish theatre.
At that point he pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk and
drew out two compact gray volumes of plays (eight-by-five, more than five
hundred pages each), which he proudly displayed. That was how I first became
acquainted with Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz.
Later, I learned that this was the precious edition of all of Witkiewicz's
plays that had recently been published (1962) in a drastically limited edition
after several years of hard bargaining between the authorities and the editor,
who had turned down the option offered by the censor, of a larger printing
with some discrete cuts (of remarks that could be offensive to the Soviets),
choosing instead an edition of only three thousand copies with no omissions.
Eagerly awaited, this edition was sold out even before the day of its release;
copies in bookstores were kept beneath the counter for those in the know who
had the right contacts.
Within a few days after my first encounter with Witkiewicz, I met
Konstanty Puzyna, the editor of that two volume edition, who suggested the
idea of translating the playwright into English. That's how it all started. Now,
some forty years later, I have translated nineteen of the twenty-one plays in
those two compact volumes.
Living in the USSR in 1967 on a faculty exchange at Moscow State
University and then spending two years in Poland as a Fulbright lecturer at
Warsaw University from 1968 to 1970 enabled me to observe firsthand how
theatre functions in totalitarian regimes. As I became acquainted with writers
and theatre artists in both Russia and Poland, I learned how their careers were
shaped by ideology and saw the roles that they were forced to play.
23
Finally, a few words about the craft of translation, to which I have
devoted much time and thought. The translator is a medium at a seance,
possessed by and speaking for the author. In my translations of Witkacy, I have
tried to find a voice for a highly idiosyncratic playwright who was in search of
a new autonomous stage language. Translation can also be a political weapon.
A controversial and subversive author whose plays in performance were often
subject to censorship in communist Poland, Witkacy gained posthumous
prestige and security at home by being recognized abroad. Translation and
subsequent foreign production and publication in the West helped assure the
playwright's ultimate triumph over those who tried to suppress him.
What has been the domain of these essays? Nothing vast, and yet, I
hope, something substantive and coherent-the roughly one hundred years of
modern European performance stretching from the founding of the Moscow
Art Theatre to the death of Grotowski (with a few excursions back in time to
antecedents and ancestors). This epoch saw the flowering of modern theatre-
and its eventual end. My essays have touched on a few of the theatrical events
and issues- both big and small--occurring within that panorama, and they
have raised questions about the power of the theatrical arts which transcend
the particular incidents that occasioned my inquiries.
This epoch is now over and complete-almost all its major
practitioners are either dead or inactive. These essays are in praise of the art,
and in remembrance of the artists, of that past time.
24 Slavic and East European PeifomJance Vol 32, No. 1
IN MEMORIAM
Dragan Klaic
(1950-2011)
In his extraordinarily rich, versatile, and dynamic career, Dragan I<Jaic
held different posts and was active in various fields as a highly esteemed expert:
from contemporary performing arts, European cultural policy and cultural
development, to interculturalism and international cultural cooperation. He
authored numerous books and several hundred texts and essays, as well as
initiated and led many significant international research projects, conferences,
and symposia.
Born in 1950 in Sarajevo, I<Jaic obtained his B.A. in Dramaturgy from
the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (former Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Belgrade
(1971) and his Ph.D. in Theatre History and Dramatic Criticism from Yale
University (1977).
Between 1978 and 1991, he taught courses in world drama and
theatre at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. I<Jaic was a lecturer,
who will be fondly remembered by generations of students for his erudition,
pedagogic enthusiasm, and lecturing innovativeness. I<Jaic was also one of
the most important theatre critics in the former Yugoslavia during the 1980s,
a long-time moderator of roundtable discussions at the renowned Belgrade
International Theatre Festival (BITEF), and a dramaturg who worked with
some of the most esteemed theatre artists, including among others Ljubisa
Ristic and his company KPGT. Together with the Slovenian theatre director
and playwright Dusan Jovanovic and graphic designer Matjaz Vipotnik, he co-
founded the European theatre quarterly Euromaske, which ceased publication
at the outbreak of the war in 1991, the same year I<Jaic left Yugoslavia.
Between 1992 and 2001, I<Jaic was the Director of the Netherlands
Theatre Institute. During his mandate, the Institute underwent radical
transformations and became a modern and dynamic cultural institution, open
to international projects and collaboration. From 1998 to 2003, he taught
at Amsterdam University. In the past ten years, he was a regular lecturer at
universities in Leiden, Budapest, Istanbul, Belgrade, and Bologna. Fluent in nine
languages, he developed and taught in numerous workshops and summer schools
worldwide.
25
Klaic was the President of the European Network of Information
Centres for the Performing Arts (ENICPA) and the European Forum for Arts
and Heritage (EFAH), a Permanent Fellow of the Felix Meritis Foundation, as
well as a member of various boards and networks, including the Open Society
Institute (OSI), International European Theatre Meetings (IETM), European
Cultural Foundation (ECF), and Erasmus. He was a tireless instigator of
initiatives and projects aimed at promoting intercultural competence, the
preservation of material and immaterial cultural heritage, and the development
of cultural policy on a local and European level.
Another essential part of !<laiC's work was his research activities.
In Istanbul in 2005, he performed extensive research on alternative cultural
infrastructure in the context of the European Union, researched cultural
policies and management in Budapest and Barcelona, and collaborated on two
occasions with the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, exploring the institution's
cultural dimensions. As a Board Member of the ECF, he authored a significant
study "Europe as Cultural Project" (2005). In 2004, he launched and headed
the on-going European Festival Research Project (EFRP) and was one of the
main consultants in the preparation process for the candidateship of the Polish
city of Lublin for the 2016 European Cultural Capital.
In addition to works published in former Yugoslavia, Klaic was the
author of books published in Great Britain, the United States, the Netherlands,
and Norway, including Terrorism and Modern Drama (with John Orr, 1990); The
Plot of The Future: Utopia and Dystopia in Modern Drama (1991); Shifting Gears/
Changer de vitesse (with Rudy Engelander, 1998); as well as his personal memoirs
on his life in exile.
!<laiC's reviews and columns have been published in numerous periodicals
in several languages, as well as in over sixty collections by various editors.
His latest published work is Mobility of Imagination: A Companion Guide
to International Cultural Cooperation (2007). !<laiC's newest book Resetting the Stage:
Public Theatre Between the Market and Democrary is due to be published in 2012 by
Intellect Books, Bristol, UK.
Dragan Klaic died in Amsterdam on August 25, 2011 after a long illness.
Katarina Pejovic
26 Slavic and East European Peiformance Vol 32, No. 1
IN MEMORIAM
Vaclav Havel
(1936-2011)
Vaclav Havel first came to world attention as a playwright. Events
and the power of his ideas launched him into the role of dissident, political
prisoner, revolutionary, and finally, the president of Czechoslovakia (and later
of the Czech Republic). Yet through all the shifts in the political winds that
placed him in the center of history, Havel felt that his essential calling was still
the same: he was a man of the theatre, a writer of absurdist drama.
Havel was born in Prague in 1936 to a wealthy family, yet his privileges
were quickly stripped away by the communist regime that took power after
World War Il. His family's property was confiscated, and he was forced to
attend trade school. After a stint in the army, Havel began his theatre career as
a stagehand at the ABC Theatre in Prague. From there, he moved to Theatre
on the Balustrade, where he saw his work onstage for the fust time: first a few
comic sketches, and then his first full-length productions, The Garden Party and
The Memorandum.
These early plays established his international reputation as a
playwright. He briefly thrived during Prague Spring in 1968, a program of
reform whose slogan was "socialism with a human face." During that time,
he traveled to New York for the premiere of The Memorandum at the Public
Theater. It was to be his last chance to leave Czechoslovakia for more than
twenty years. In Prague, Russian tanks were rolling in and with them came a
far more repressive regime. Havel found his work banned and himself isolated.
He also came into legal conflict with the "anti-parasite" laws which stated that
one could be jailed for not working. Havel eventually chose to take a job at a
brewery, which he preferred as an alternative to his new isolation.
During this time, Havel's plays were performed in friends' living
rooms instead of on stages, but their influence was undiminished. They were
distributed via the underground publishing movement, samizdat. A recording
of Havel and his friend Pavel Landovsky reading Havel's play Audience--a semi-
autobiographical account of his time in the brewery-became so popular that
people could be heard in cafes quoting it. Essays followed, including his seminal
"Power of the Powerless," which articulated his credo that "living in truth"
27
would contribute to the fall of Czechoslovakia's "post-fascist" government.
His political profile grew when he co-authored Charter 77, a human
rights document inspired by the Helsinki accords. This soon led to his arrest
and imprisonment. He remained in prison for four and a half years, with his
only respite being the opportunity to write weekly, tightly proscribed letters to
his flrst wife, Olga. Those letters, with coded references to obscure philosophy
that Havel included to slip his ideas past the censors, were gathered and
published in a book called Letters to Olga.
After his release, Havel continued to be monitored by the police, at
times in almost comical ways. During one vacation across Czechoslovakia, the
secret police car that was trailing him got stuck in a ditch, and Havel stopped
to help. After they were rescued, the police followed him to his friends' house,
arrested him, and took him to the local jail for rwo days before releasing him.
In the meantime, Havel's writing continued. He produced a string
of works on the state of CzechosloYak society, including LArgo Desolato and
Temptation. His work became a key part of a strong dissident theatre movement.
By the end of the 1980s, communism in Czechoslovakia was
collapsing. On November 17, 1989, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, what
would be known as Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution began. Havel quickly
became its de facto leader. The revolutionaries established their headquarters in
the Magic Lantern Theatre. Within rwo months the old regime was overthrown
and Havel found himself suddenly, and by his own account reluctantly, in the
role of president. In Wenceslas Square, he famously declared "Truth and love
must defeat lies and hatred," and indeed, it seemed at last to be so.
Havel served both as Czechoslovakia's last president and, when in
1993 Slovakia chose to secede, as the Czech Republic's flrst. While in office, he
refused to be connected to any political party or movement. Inevitably, he had
his detractors as well his supporters. His style as president was unconventional.
He surrounded himself with artists even having a costume designer create new
military uniforms and asking Frank Zappa to be a political consultant.
After his wife Olga died, Havel grew ill with lung cancer. Part of his
lung was removed, and he was nursed back to health by the actress Dagmar
Vdkrnova, whom he later married. This too was the cause for some public
dissatisfaction, as his flrst wife was well loved.
Throughout his presidential career, he continued to advocate "living
in truth," that is, flnding a way to combine the moral and the political. He
helped dissolve the Warsaw Pact, and he was a champion of human rights
worldwide.
His work on human rights continued after his presidency, but he also
returned to his artistic work. During the 2006 Havel Festival in New York,
he revisited his complete works, and soon after he wrote his first new play in
twenty years, Leaving, about a man forced to leave political office. A ftlm of
Leaving followed, which he directed. In what turned out to be his final work,
he took an old dialogue, The Pig, and in collaboration with Vladimir Moravek,
combined it with Bedrich Smetana's Bartered Bride to create a full production
for the 2010 Theatre World Brno festival.
Havel was planning to write yet another play in December 2012
when he passed away at the age of seventy-five. Three days of mourning were
observed in the Czech Republic, and artists and politicians again mixed as both
paid tribute to his lasting legacy.
Edward Einhorn
29
30
Slavic and East European Peiformance Vol. 32, No. 1
IN MEMORIAM
Liviu Ciulei
(1923-2011)
With thoughts and images plenty
have blackened many an empty
Page of life, with bookish truth
From the very dawn of youth.
Mi.hai Eminescu
1
Liviu Ciulei was born into a well-to-do family in Bucharest. His
father, an engineer and builder, wanted him to follow in his footsteps and
sent him to study architecture. Ciulei obeyed his father, but it was the theatre
that attracted him. While he was studying architecture, he also attended The
Royal Conser vatory of Music and Theatre in Bucharest. He completed both
degrees and joined his father's flrm working as an architect, but not for long.
The theatre called him, and it was there that he began a life-long career, first as
an actor, later as a director, eventually becoming the most influential figure in
Romanian theatre and film of his generation.
In an interview with Horia-Roman Patapievici in February 2010
for Romanian Cultural Television, Ciulei told stories about his theatrical
beginnings.
2
At the age of fourteen or fifteen, he used to go into the bathroom,
turn on the water, and recite monologues he chose from plays he had seen.
His mother noticed and sent him to study diction with a famous Romanian
teacher. Later, he registered at the Royal Conservatory clandestinely so that his
family would not know. As he was about to deliver his audition speech for the
entrance examination, however, his father came into the room and requested
permission to attend. When young Liviu saw his father, he at first went blank
but recovered and delivered a monologue from Pirandello's Enrico Wfor which
he received the highest grade. Later at lunch with his family, a tense silence
enve.loped the room. After the second course, his father broke the silence and
announced that if his son was serious and chose the theatre as his way in life,
then he would build him a theatre. And indeed a year later, a new theatre called
the Odeon opened in the heart of Bucharest, premiering George Marcovici's
A Strange Story with Ciulei as director and set designer. The year was 1946. The
theatre building, still in existence, is now called the Notara.
31
Ciulei came into his own during communism, but as the son of
rich bourgeois parents, he did not have an easy time. It was only due to his
unusual talent that he was able to overcome the many obstacles put in his way
by the regime. In the same interview, he told of how his father was arrested
as a Free Mason and died in prison at the age of fifty-six; his mother, too,
was arrested for possession of foreign currency. He also recounted how his
communist examiner failed him in the last exam for his diploma in theatre and
that he was barred from directing for the following eleven years. However,
he was allowed to act and design sets since those were deemed ideologically
less responsible functions. He worked as an actor in films and on stage while
simultaneously developing his drafting talent and beginning a successful career
in scenic design, designing some of the most spectacular and creative sets seen
in Romania at that time.
As Artistic Director of the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest from 1963
to 1972, Ciulei put the theatre on the international map and produced and
directed courageous productions, such as Georg Buchner's Danton's Death
(1967) and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1968). He also opened the doors to
young directors who went on to receive prestigious prizes at international
theatre festivals. As he gained an international reputation as a director, he
continued to design the sets for some of his most famous productions, such as
Shakespeare's Hamlet (1978) and the Helen Hayes Award winning production
of Pirandello's Six Characters In Search of an Author (1988), both seen at Arena
Stage in Washington, D.C.
After leaving Romania in 1980, he became Artistic Director of the
Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis where he directed and designed
Shakespeare's The Tenpest in his first season. The critic Frank Rich wrote in The
New York Times:
Prospera's island-is surrounded by a moat of blood .
Man's noble attempts to create a beautiful and humane
civilization have always, finally, been drowned in the blood
of wars ... Ciulei fills his Tempest with the stuff of dreams-
and then, with equal force, cracks Shakespeare's fantasy open
to show us the bottomless melancholy that lies within.
3
He remained at the Guthrie until1985.
During his long creative life, Ciulei worked in many parts of the world.
He accumulated more than thirty-five awards and honors for outstanding
and groundbreaking work from such countries as Australia, Canada, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, and the United States. He was compared
to the legendary directors Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, and Giorgio Strehler.
He made his mark as an actor in the theatre, interpreting more than thirty parts
in a career that spanned from 1945 to 197 4. In cinematography, Ciulei directed
and acted in award-winning ftlrns, the most notable internationally being The
Forest if the Hanged for which he received the award for Best Direction at
Cannes in 1965.
He dedicated his last years to his work as a theatre educator and
teacher. He taught at Columbia University, Juilliard, and especially at New
York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he directed more than
twenty-seven student productions between 1986 and 2003.
In 1991, after the collapse of communism, Ciulei returned to the
Bulandra Theatre in Romania to direct Shakespeare's Midsummer Nighfs Dream
and Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening. His final productions at the Bulandra,
the theatre he helped to build, were Six Characters in Search if an Author and
Enrico W, both by Pirandello. The year was 2005. He died in a hospital in
Munich, Germany at age eighty-eight.
I have one indelible memory of a personal encounter with Liviu
Ciulei while I was assistant director at the Haifa Municipal Theatre. After
having received a top Romanian state prize in 1963 for his movie Danube Waves,
Ciulei became a kind of cultural ambassador for Romania and attained the rare
privilege of moving more freely in and out of the country. In 1964, the annual
International Theatre Institute [ITI] conference was held at the Haifa Municipal
Theatre in Israel; Liviu Ciulei and Radu Beligan, a well-known actor, came as
the Romanian representatives. Josef Milo, the Artistic Director of the Haifa
Municipal Theatre and host of the conference, introduced me as his assistant
and, because I spoke Romanian, he placed us at a table together so that they
would feel "at home." During the meal, seeing that they kept their noses in
their dishes and did not utter a word, I tried my best to initiate a discussion.
Finally, Ciulei turned to me and said that Mr. Milo had introduced me as a
"Romanian director" but that he had never heard of me although he knew all
the theatre people in Romania. I told Ciulei, that it was no wonder since I had
left Romania in 1950 as a boy of fifteen and that my only theatre experience at
33
that point had been as a child actor at the National Theatre in Iasi. Both started
to laugh and the ice was broken. I remember Ciulei being a very charming and
elegant man.
Moshe Yassur
NOTES
1. Liviu Ciulei, Cu gandiri [i cu imagini (Bucharest, Romania: lgloomedia, 2009).
Liviu Ciulei chose this verse, translated by Adrian George Sahllean, as the epitaph of
the book. Much of the professional biographical information in this article has been
gleaned from this comprehensive volume.
2. Liviu Ciulei, interview by Haria-Roman Patapievici, Argument, Romanian
Cultural Television, February 18, 2010. YouTube video, posted by "magiclamp122,"
February 18, 2010, http:/ /www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlgNLSyvllU.
3. Frank Rich, "Theater: Ciulei Stages 'Tempest' at Guthrie," New York Times,
July 4, 1981, 12.
CROSSING THE DIVIDE BETWEEN
RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN DRAMA
John Freedman
I have long thought it strange that Russian theatre, with all its desire
and ability to soak up outside influences, has virtually no practical understanding
of American drama after the 1960s. Ask someone in Moscow what they know
about American drama and they'll say enthusiastically, "I love O'Neill! I love
Williams! I love Albee!" Somebody else might toss in, "Arthur Miller!" Then
the conversation falls flat.
I can turn this around. Ask most anyone in the American theatre what
they know about Russian drama, and in their excitement they'll cough blood, if
you'll pardon the dicey expression, over Anton Chekhov. Somebody else might
say something about Gorky. And then the conversation falls flat.
I'm exaggerating to make a point. But the point is legitimate. Theatre
practitioners in Russia and the United States are woefully ignorant of each
other. I find it fascinating because each culture has been so heavily influenced
by the other-consider Chekhov's impact on American drama and Eugene
O'Neill's on Russian.
Between 2007 and 2010, I was part of a team that brought
contemporary Russian drama to the United States. The project was called
"New Russian Drama: Voices in a Shifting Age" and was conducted by the
Department of Theatre Arts of Towson University and Philip Arnoult's Center
for International Theatre Development. Robyn Quick and Stephen Nunns,
who were instrumental in the seeding and running of the project, have written
about it in these pages.
1
As such, there is little reason for me to say more about
that now, although a bit of the philosophy behind the project bears repeating.
When Philip Arnoult and I began discussing the possibility of
showcasing contemporary Russian drama in the United States, we were moved
by a few key notions. First, the focus must be on the practical concerns of
theatre, not on scholarly interests. We wanted to see Russian plays produced
on American stages. Second, the texts must be in American English, because
British English does not "translate" well to American stages. Third, we
must avoid the usual path of academic translations that may (or may not) be
sufficient for classroom study but which often cannot be spoken by live actors
on a stage. We set ourselves the goal of bringing the living Russian word to life
on American stages. No more, no less.
35
Cut to the Holiday Inn near the Belorusskaya train station in Moscow
in April of 2010. I sat in a conference room with Philip Arnoult and Yury Urnov,
a Russian director who was another of the moving forces in the Towson-CITD
project. All plans were in place for a big project-ending national conference
that CITD would host at Towson the second week in May.
2
Aside from some
final tinkering, our three-year project was at an end. These are moments when
the only obvious topic of conversation is, "What next?"
I had always seen the Towson-CITD project as a beginning, not an
end. I wanted it to start a dialogue, not be an isolated point in time. So Philip,
Yury, and I talked about dialogues, cycles, exchanges, and reciprocal acts. What
would encourage American theatres to continue exploring Russian drama? Well,
that's easy. You get them involved. We had taken Russian drama to American
theatre; now let's get American theatres to take American drama to Russia.
Within minutes, Philip was ticking off play development organizations CITD
had worked with over the decades. Moments later, we had a list that included
New York Theatre Workshop (NYfW), the Sundance Theatre Institute
Program, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and the Humana Festival of
New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. To give the project an
umbrella tide, I think I tossed out the rather obvious phrase "New American
Plays for Russia" and we were in business.
Of course, "business" implies money, and here serendipity played its
customary role. Out of the blue, I received a call from Michael]. Hurley at
the US embassy in Moscow. As the embassy's Minister Counselor for Public
Affairs, he was charged with executing a major new venture that had come
about as a result of the "reset button" pushed in 2009 by US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
3
He wondered
if I had any ideas for cultural programs that could be conducted within
the American Seasons in Russia program under the aegis of the US-Russia
Bilateral Presidential Commission, or the Obama-Medvedev Commission. I
oudined our idea for New American Plays for Russia, and in a matter of days
we, indeed, were in business.
The idea was to come up with a digestible number of plays that
represented American drama over the last decade. We immediately rejected
a potentially media-friendly program presenting modern masters like Sam
Shepard, David Mamet, David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, and the like. Yes,
they are virtually absent on Russian stages, but there was a matter of competition
37
that I felt was crucial to address. Many countries have conducted important,
useful projects promoting their national traditions in Russia. France, Germany,
England, Poland, and Finland are just a few of those who have worked hard
and successfully to place their contemporary playwrights on Russian stages. I
could not imagine coming to the Russian public with a cache of plays from the
1980s and 1990s, no matter how great they were, when the rest of the world
was focusing on the present day.
Thus, we decided we would enlist specialists from our American
partner organizations to suggest what writers and plays might best represent
American drama today. Jim Nicola of NYTw, Christopher Hibma of Sundance,
Preston Whiteway of the O'Neill, and Amy Wegener of the Humana Festival
visited Moscow in early October 2010. We took them to important Moscow
productions, including the Valery Fokin/ Alexander Bakshi adaptation of The
Overcoat at the Sovremennik Theatre and Dmitry Krymov's The Cow at the
School of Dramatic Art; introduced them to important contemporary writers
and directors, such as Maksym Kurochkin, Yevgeny Kazachkov, Rodion
Beletsky, and Georg Genoux; and arranged for them to meet and speak with
the Moscow public in the loose format of a press conference/lecture. On the
final day of the group's week-long sojourn, Philip and I huddled with everyone
in a hotel lobby and put the question to them: "You have seen shows; you have
talked to people. Based on that experience, what American plays do you think
would have the best chance of being understood here today?"
This last phrase was key. Never did we set ourselves the goal of finding
the "best" new American plays. Our program, as Philip said repeatedly, was not
a competition. It was a process by which we hoped to ferret out a number of
American plays that would reflect American cultural diversity but that could
also have resonance in Russian culture. As we had done in the New Russian
Drama program at Towson, we would seek practical results. We wanted Russian
theatres to stage the plays we would translate.
At least one hundred plays were discussed that day in October, from
which a long list of twenty-five was chosen for consideration. These texts were
shared among six Russian readers (I was a seventh), who commanded English
well enough to read the originals. In December, the readers' recommendations
made it clear to me that we had seven texts-more than expected-that could
be included in the final translation stage.
38
Slavic and East European Performance Vol 32, No. 1
This caused us to make a quick change in plans. Originally, we intended
to commission line-by-line translations of eight plays, which were to be evaluated
by a second group of Russian experts. From those eight, a final four would be
chosen to be adapted professionally by major contemporary playwrights. But,
Philip asked with irresistible logic during one long phone conversation, ''Why
produce four usable texts when you can produce seven?" So we retained our
original idea of having translators do line-by-line translations of four plays,
from which writers would create Russian adaptations. But we also turned three
plays over to Russian playwrights whose command of English allowed them to
create performable texts directly.
4
By September 2011, we had seven new Russian texts to offer to the
world. Suzan-Lori Parks's The Book of Grace, translated by Maria Nikolaeva, was
adapted by Yury K.lavdiev. Annie Baker's The Aliens, translated by Yekaterina
Raikova, was adapted by Mikhail Durnenkov. Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio,
translated by Anna Shulgat, was adapted by Ivan Vyrypaev.
5
Adam Rapp's
Nocturne was adapted by Maksym Kurochkin in collaboration with me. Charles
Mee's Big Love was translated by Sergei Task. Deborah Zoe Laufer's End Dqys
was translated by Nina Belenitskaya with the assistance of her sister, Alexandra
Belenitskaya. Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics was translated by Yevgeny
Kazachkov.
The translation and adaptation process was this project's fulcrum.
Philip and I always believed this is where we would make or break our goal
of reaching Russia's stages. I matched American to Russian playwrights
thinking about their individual sensibilities, outlooks, and styles. It seemed
obvious to me that the violent and tender Klavdiev suited Parks beautifully.
Baker's playfulness slipped like a hand into the glove of Durnenkov's talent for
understatement. Bogosian's monological structure matched Vyrypaev ideally.
Who could I tum Rapp's symphony of language and images over to if not
to Maksym Kurochkin? The promising young writers Nina Belenitskaya and
Yevgeny Kazachkov had the right approach to humor, history, and culture
to take on Laufer and Cruz. Task, in my opinion, is the finest translator of
English-language drama into Russian and is capable of inhabiting any writer's
style.
In short, I made my decisions; others would pass judgment on them.
That process began in late October when the Fifth Theatre of Omsk hosted
public readings of three plays as part of their bi-annual Young Theatres of
39
40
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Russia festival. The Book of Grace was done as a table reading; End ~ s and The
Aliens were performed as fully staged readings with costumes, props, and stage
business. Responses from actors, spectators, and directors were encouraging.
Most of the deeply American aspects in Grace and End Dqys now had Russian
equivalents that revealed their inner workings. The Aliens, directed by the young
Ksenia Zorina from Moscow, simply knocked people back in their seats. This
"staged reading," which was rehearsed over a five-day period, was a full-blown
performance. In Durnenkov's adaptation, Baker's back-lot losers were Russians
at heart without ever losing their American underpinnings. By the time I left
Omsk two days after this reading, the theatre had resolved to ask Zorina to
complete her production. Three days of public presentations and we already
had one production scheduled.
We presented staged readings of four plays in Moscow from November
21 to 22, 2011. Olga Galakhova, who coordinated the event for the Playwright
and Director Center, had an interesting suggestion. She wanted Americans
living in Moscow to bring their understanding to the plays. Therefore, Robyn
Quick, in Moscow on a Fulbright grant, directed The Book of Grace.
6
Adam
Muskin of the Moscow Art Theatre School and New York's Studio 6 directed
The Aliens. I had the mad hubris to direct myself in Nocturne (and was duly
panned in at least two reviews), while Odin Lund Biron, an American actor in
the company of the Satirikon Theatre, staged Talk Radio. Halls were packed to
overflowing. Post-performance discussions were lively, especially with Annie
Baker and :tv1ikhail Durnenkov in attendance following the reading of The
Aliens. Baker was hailed as the "modern, female Chekhov," and it was not long
before an agreement was struck between Baker and the Pushkin Theatre for a
fall2012 production of the play. Two events and two future productions under
our collective belts.
:tv1ilena Avimskaya, the founder of the feisty new ON.TEATR in St.
Petersburg, jumped at the opportunity to host readings from November 25
to 27, 2011. They were timed to coincide with a conference called ''American
Drama: New Discoveries," organized by Yulia Kleiman and Nikolai Pesochinsky
of the St. Petersburg Theatre Academy. Avimskaya, a woman of extraordinary
energy and vision, resolved to present all seven plays during the three days
of the conference. In fact, it was one of the first big events ON.TEATR had
hosted since moving into its new space on Ulitsa Zhukovskogo in August. As
in Moscow, the theatre was a beehive of activity as scholars, spectators, actors,
41
directors, and journalists jockeyed for seats in the two halls where readings took
place. Virtually all were more than mere readings, but were actually minimalist
productions, replete with costumes, props, blocking, and lighting.
In St. Petersburg we had the ideal opportunity to examine the
difference between scholarly and practical approaches to theatre. Some
academics were distrustful of the criteria for selection and dismissive of the
project's adaptation aspect, believing that the texts needed to be translated
"more faithfully." Some scholars were concerned that instead of translating
word-for-word, adaptors supplied cultural equivalents for such American
manifestations as little-league baseball parks or that they employed slang words
which some of the older commentators perceived as being too contemporary.
On the other hand, St. Petersburg's young theatre community embraced the
texts with almost voracious enthusiasm. When I departed St. Petersburg, I
traveled with the news that three of the plays were being added to the repertory
at ON.TEATR. These included Big Love, directed by Georgy Tsnobiladze; The
Book of Crace, directed by Denis Shibaev; and End Dqys, directed by Ricardo
Marin, a United-States-born Mexican now based in Russia. Subsequently it was
decided to add still another to the theatre's repertory: The Aliens, directed by
Maria K.ritskaya.
A reading of Anna in the Tropics was staged at the Tomsk Drama
Theatre in December and, as I write at the end of February 2012, staged
readings are being prepared of End Dqys and The Book of Crace at the Vologda
Young Actors Theatre. More such events are planned in other cities. It will take
a few years to see just how much of an impact this program will have. But I
can't help but be encouraged by the fact that, just four months after the first
public presentation, we have six productions in line at theatres in three cities.
O'Neill, Williams, and Albee are already moving over to make room for Baker,
Mee, Parks, Laufer, Cruz, and Rapp in Russia.
In memory of Daniel C e r o u ~ who was a constant presence for me throughout the twenty-
four years of my collaboration with this publication.
42 Slavic and East European Performance VoL 32, No. 1
-l'>
V>
The Book of Grace, directed by Robyn Quick, Playwright and Director Center, Moscow 2011
NOTES
1. Robyn Quick and Yury Urnov, "Bringing New Russian Drama to the
United States," Slavic and East European Performance 31, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 39-52.
Stephen Nunns, "The Natasha Plays: Yaroslava Pulinovich at Towson University,"
Slavic and East European Performance 30, no. 3 (Fall 2010): 43-54. Quick oversaw the
creation of a valuable, fact-filled website that details the project: http:/ fwww.towson.
edu/theatre/russia/index.html.
2. See Kathleen Cioffi, "New Russian Drama: The Familiarity of the
Strange," Towson University, May 2010," Slavic and East European Performance 30, no. 3
(Fall2010): 35-41.
3. For one of the hundreds of reports of this well-known event, you may see
Michelle Keleman, " Clinton Says She'll Hit ' Reset Button' With Russia" on the site of
National Public Radio, posted March 6, 2009: http:/ / www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyld = 101532912.
4. To follow the process in more detail go to a page on my website that
chronicles the project's development and provides links to informative articles and
videos: http:/ /johnfreedman.webs.com/americanplaysproject.htm.
5. It is worth noting that Talk Radio was originally written in 1987 and thus,
technically, fell out o f our self-imposed time range. However, the American partners,
noting that the play was reworked for a Broadway run in 2006, felt strongly that its topic
could strike a chord in Russia. We agreed that even the best rules are best violated when
necessary, and included it.
6. Quick produced a Russian-language website of dramaturgical materials for
The Book of Grace: https:/ /sites.google.com/site/russianbookofgrace/.
RADU AFRIM: A QUEER LOOK AT LIFE
Cristina Modreanu
An artist builds his signs, he builds a garden of signs and he
waters it, he takes care of it, he admires it, he walks through
it, and he eats the garden's fruits.
Radu Afrim
The Romanian director Radu Afrim's favorite case studies are the
unknown heroes of everyday life, whose destinies may not be glamorous
but are filled with a poetry found in their simple gestures and painful
powerlessness to embrace life in a world for which they are unfit. Getting
up from the table of life-in the sense theorized by Sarah Ahmed in Queer
Phenomenology'-Afrim's characters can suddenly see the world from a different,
oblique angle, and they show us what they discover, guiding us to the unseen
corners of our own sensitivity. Speaking about his favorite type of character,
Afrim often mentions the "vulnerable,"
2
their vulnerability transformed into
"sublime transparency ... a vulnerability which helps [him] build powerful,
credible, and full-of-life new worlds."
3
Afrim is not interested in the dynamics of power as seen in the world
or on stage, but rather in deepening his queer look on life. He explains, "I
pass over powerful characters because I am not able to understand power. I
choose strong texts about weak people instead of the weak plays about strong
people."
4
Afrim is one of the most popular directors to rise on the Romanian
stage after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Born on June 2, 1968 in Beclean, a very
small city in Transylvania, he likes to remember how he once spent an entire
summer looking at the Tudor History of Painting in 1000 Color Reproductions and
developed a true passion for painting and photography. Later on, he studied
literature and then theatre, and in 2000, he directed his first production. It
was called BluEscape, and he declared it was inspired by Laurie Anderson's
music and performances. Since then, he has staged an ever-growing number
of productions, moving rapidly from small, independent venues and cafes
straight to the major urban stages of Romania, including the National Theatres
in Targu Cluj, and Bucharest. The capital was "conquered"
in 2010.
45
By that time, Afrim had already achieved rock star status with young
audiences, and his sold-out productions were included in major festivals both
across the country and internationally. After being awarded the Coup de Coeur
de la Presse for the best production at the Avignon (Off) Festival in 2008 and
the European Culture Award in 2009, Afrim's production of The Disease of
M Fami!y was included in the Odeon (Paris) Theatre's 2009- 10 season. His
most recent production, When the Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bowell at the
Rezidenztheater MUnich (November 2011), is a fresh sign that only ten years
after his debut, Afrim's career has become an international one.
Afrim has achieved success in a short time without any exterior
help or "protection" and has remained free of all socio-political influences,
making his traj ectory in Romanian theatre quite unusual. His theatre itself is
equally exceptional. From his earliest productions, Afrim decided to break
with tradition, openly abandoning the Stanislavskian influence that is still a
powerful presence in Romanian theatre. By choosing to speak about a marginal
world rarely observed by other Romanian directors-the world of homeless,
aging, abandoned human beings or the world of hidden or suppressed desires
and proclivities-Afrim builds a parallel universe that enriches our lives. His
characters-woven out of the fabric of dreams rather than realiry-are deep,
complex human beings, full of imagination and creative impulses, often driven
by their unconscious, the embodiment of everything contemporary beings
have lost over time by living in a perpetual state of fast-forward. Afrim's
characters have the time to dream, to collect old things, to engage in long and
slightly absurd conversations, to dance, to eat and drink together, and even to
skate when they feel like it. They fiercely undergo complex metamorphoses,
sometimes turning into strange animals, leaping over thresholds to other
dimensions, breaking free from all temporal and spatial limits. Meanwhile, they
remain creatures driven by impulse and feeling, in constant search of that inner
part of themselves that they hope to express by interacting with others.
Afrim's characters attempt to embody our own subjugated, hidden
desires and, therefore, reveal a never before seen truth. They often do so by
singing; many of Afrim's productions include songs presented in a Brechtian
sryle. He works with composers such as Ada Milea or Vlaicu Golcea, coming
from the world of theatre or jazz, in order to add one more dimension to
his very particular universe. He also works closely with talented young set
designers in order to bring to life his world of imagination. For The Disease of
Paul (Cezar Antal) in Herr Paul, directed by Radu Afrim, Youth Theatre, Piatra Neamf, 2009
:!:J
The Pi/lowman, directed by Radu Afrim, Maria Filotti Theatre, Bdila, 2008
M Fami!JI by Fausto Paravidino (National Theatre, 2008) he worked
with Velica Panduru to create a grove in which the characters could play
hide-and-seek, take walks, or ride bicycles. Having a set with multiple planes
enables him to employ cinematic techniques, playing with close-ups and
long-shots at his (and the spectators') will. For Roosevelt Plaza by Dea Lober
(National Theatre, 2009) and So Much Hope! by Hanoch Levin
(Odeon Theatre, Bucharest, 201 0) he worked with Juliana Valsan, using different
planes on which the action could develop. For some of his productions he also
invented a type of "cellular set," consisting of three, four, or more separate
little boxes in which different scenes are played, sometimes simultaneously.
He used this set design for Cheek to Cheek by Jonas Gardell (Nottara Theatre,
Bucharest, 2005), Krum by Hanoch Levin (National Theatre, 2006),
and most effectively for The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh (Maria Filotti
Theatre, Bd.ila, 2008) where he and set designer Cosmin Florea built the small
boxes into a spectacular vertical wall.
Afrim's favorite kind of performance space, however, is one in which
spectators are placed very close to the actors. Sometimes Afrim himself places
pillows for students in front of the first row in order to bring the audience
even closer so that a true exchange of energy can take place. In these cases,
the set design takes on a claustrophobic aspect. For example, in Herr Paul by
Tankred Dorst (Youth Theatre, Piatra Neamr, 2009), Paul's room is full of
stuffed animals and old objects, like an intimate museum of his life about
to be destroyed by the agents of the new world. In Lucia Is Skating by Laura
Sintija Cerniauskaite (Andrei Theatre, Sfantu Gheorghe, 2008),
the spectators face a small skating rink, the place where the story unfolds. In
The Avalanche by Tuncer Ci.icenoglu (National Theatre, Bucharest, 2010), all
the rooms in a family house are brought together in the same space, its walls
covered with white cotton to stop the noise which could provoke the feared
avalanche; like the characters in the play, the audience feels trapped in a white
prison where their voices cannot be heard.
For a long time after the fall of communism, the Romanian stage
was almost exclusively a text-based theatre. The main characters had to be
portrayed sympathetically as heroes of some sort, good people able to fight
for their ideas or at least recognize their faults and try to correct them, and
thus become an example for others. Aside from realistic plays with this type
of good-bad dichotomy built into them, the audience's favorites were often
49
the classical characters of Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Moliere, whose ability to
embody all human typologies allowed spectators to read between the lines and
find the hidden message.
In the very personal universe built by Afrim, all boundaries are
blurred, characters seem to come not from reality but rather from a dreamland:
they seem not to know the difference between good and evil. They can be cruel
in a beautiful, direct way, but they have the excuse of being only in search of
themselves, not in search of power. Their gender is sometimes uncertain, as
is their age. Afrim works with his actors to distort the realistic approach, no
matter what play he is staging. It can be a physical distortion (one actor playing
on his knees, an actress with an over-sized bust, another with a deformed head
or wearing an animal mask) or a distortion of behavior (an unexpected burst
of dance or a sudden change of the rhythm of movement) so as to induce the
uncanny sensation of another reality. "Uncanny" describes the atmosphere of
almost all of Afrim's productions. The feeling arises from the use of small
objects that sometimes fill the performing space or from the omnipresence of
stuffed animals that often seem to take over the live beings: a recurrent image
in Afrim's productions is the half-animal/half-human creature coming from
outer space to distort the straight lines of people's lives.
The fabric of Afrim's productions directly assaults the senses: his
exquisite sense of composition rules over the visual dimension, and music is
usually present in one form or another, as is dance. The built-in poetry of his
creations is a quality rarely seen in Romanian theatres today. Another of Afrim's
signature devices is his sense of humor informed by contemporary practices
and realities, from which he never strays far. In fact, his very contemporary
sense of irony helps Afrim "translate" any kind of play for an audience raised
in the age of television and new technologies.
Afrim also re-imagines the classics. His approach to Chekhov's Three
Sisters or Federico Garcia La rca's House of BernardaA/ba (retitled Bernarda House
Remix) or, more recently, his resuscitation of the almost forgotten Romanian
playwright Mihail Sebastian (1907-1945) with Holiday Games, were successful
attempts at cultural translation for a new age and audience.
Afrim deftly uses his "garden of signs" to revive the classics as well as
to bring new plays from all over the world to the Romanian stage.
50
NOTES
1. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 2006).
2. Susan Sontag associates vulnerability and queerness in her journals: "Being
queer makes me feel vulnerable. It increases my wish to hide, to be invisible." Susan
Sontag, Reborn. journals & Notebooks 1947-1963 (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux,
2008), 221.
3. "Afrirn. Presentation. Montaj Alex Condurache/Roftlco/Bogdan Stanga,"
interview posted to Radu Afrim's website, 3:12. March 20, 2011. http://www.
raduafrirn.ro/afrirn-presentation-montaj-alex-condurache-rof.
4. Ibid.
51
EASTERN EUROPEAN PLAYWRIGHTS:
WOMEN WRITE THE NEW
Marcy Arlin and Gwynn MacDonald
The societal shifts of post-communist Eastern and Central Europe
posed new artistic and philosophical questions for artists about content and
style. We are always interested in the new issues affecting a society in transition.
On the thirtieth anniversary of the League of Professional Theatre Women,
we wondered how this period of change has affected women playwrights in
particular. Has it influenced their language, the style in which they write, their
choice of subject matter? Are they focusing their attentions on what might be
perceived as women's issues? And how clearly are their voices being heard? Our
impulse derives from a general concern in the League, and in theatre nationally,
with the visibility and viability of women playwrights both in the United States
and on stages abroad.
Since 2003, Immigrants' Theatre Project has been presenting Eastern
European plays in translation to an American audience, stimulating both interest
in the work and a cross-cultural dialogue about contemporary performance.
For 2012, we narrowed our focus to the work of women playwrights. In
emailed discussions with the dramatists and in reading over twenty plays, we
found many common themes and concerns written in distinctive styles. The
plays selected for the yearlong reading series, held at the Bohemian National
Hall, Romanian Cultural Institute, and Bulgarian Consulate, represent a cross
section of content and form. We made our choices based on the artistic quality
of the plays, the accessibility of the translations, and whether we felt the
material best represented women's writing from the respective region. We were
fortunate to work with international theatre colleagues who helped locate the
plays and illuminate the social contexts in which they were written.
For this article we sent a series of questions to the playwrights Vera
Ion and Mihaela Michailov (Romania), Radmila Adamova (Czech Republic),
Virag Erdos (Hungary), Yana Borisova and Theodora Dimova (Bulgaria), Eva
Maliti-Fraiiova (Slovak Republic), and Milena Markovic (Serbia), asking about
their careers, their plays, how they thought of themselves as women artists,
and how gender might affect their writing. Some have had success with their
plays; others feel that their themes and style are too outside the mainstream
53
and, therefore, have not been staged. We also found that although there is
little overt acknowledgement that women's issues are a mainstay of their work,
there is a realization that as women playwrights they face particular obstacles to
having their work produced by theatrical institutions often dominated by men.
Several hinted that their personal lives (childcare, relationships, etc.) might be
more difficult because they are women.
The more successful of the playwrights have had their work translated
into several Eastern and Western European languages and have had their
plays produced outside of their native countries, including some in nations
as culturally and geographically distant as Japan. To some of the playwrights,
their plays are written with a local audience in mind; for others, they feel that
their subject matter has a universal appeal and is not specific to any particular
country or culture.
Whatever their perceptions about their work and whom their audiences
may be, these playwrights are neither objective about their subjects, nor do
they want to be. Several of the plays are full of scenes of domestic violence
and sexual abuse, and include portrayals of drunken degraded relationships.
Others explore the modern experience of alienation exemplified in seeking
love through personal ads or in misguided romances. A few deal with lingering
legacies of corruption and social unease, vestiges of life under communism.
What the plays all have in common is an almost cinematic close-up
of their subject matter: we are dropped smack into the middle of a family,
housing block, police station, ar t studio, cafe. The playwright as observer
never holds back. There is an intense examination of social ills and societal
stratification with outrageous humor and wit. They give a voice to those left out
of mainstream theatre: women (rarely made central characters), drug addicts,
victims of abuse, new immigrants, abandoned children, damaged souls.
Czech playwright Radrnila Adamova (b. 1975) focuses on the
absurdities of women's places in contemporary media and commercialism. In
an earlier work, The El/e Girls, three unsettlingly similar women compete for a
modeling position, their looks and lives as disposable as their names. Adam ova's
play for the series, Alluring Little Stall, represents another reality, examining
another process of commodification, that of Vietnamese immigrants in the
Czech Republic. Based on 2010 interviews with Vietnamese living in Prague
and Brno, the play is about a daughter in a family of small-store owners in a
Vietnamese shopping center. Adamova states that the play is inspired by true
stories, characters, and ideas, "completely different from everything I wrote
before. In previous plays I used ... short dialogues that produced a relatively
rapid pace. This play is epic in some way; it is applied to poetry and the pace is
made up of alternating monologues. I wanted the form of the play to capture
[the] mentality of real characters."
Regarding women's roles, Adamova states that her Czech "society
gives equal opportunities to us all, but it feels like people subconsciously have
prejudices. I do not think anyone would intentionally and purposefully prefer
men or women; however, I just met with the fact that a great female director
has to fight because she is underestimated by others even though her artistic
quality is excellent." Adamova's work is theatrical, funny, and smart, yet her
characters are full of a discontented sadness, interspersed with a wild hope for
a better future.
Many of the newest, most talented, and experimental playwrights in
Romania today are young women who are overcoming the fear and caution of
their parents' generation that suffered deeply under Ceaw;:escu. These women
do not speak much of discrimination against women in the theatre (other
than a reference by Ion to an offer to sit on the lap of a producer, which she
rejected), but Ion comments that perhaps this is because she works outside
the mainstream, in alternative venues, where women's plays are touching on
a universal sense of outsiderness that young people, artists, minorities, and
children are feeling. This perspective is new to the Romanian theatre.
Mihaela Michailov (b. 1977), author of Famijy Offline, explains that
for her "the main challenge ... is to highlight discriminating realities (gender,
political, etc.) as I encounter them. I try to propose a discourse which shakes
up comfortable brains, which confronts them with a reality they usually deal
with in unreflected stereotypes. A play has the chance to provoke perplexity,
to go deep into the history of prejudice, and to reveal disobedience to systems
of rules and roles, to ideologies imposed on us and to ready-made truths."
Famijy Ojjline is about a family composed solely of children, whose parents
have left Romania to pick strawberries in Spain. Role reversals dominate:
children as parents, boys as mothers, daughters as wage earners. There is
sporadic communication by phone with adults. Using slapstick comedy, the
play reflects the horrible reality that today more than a quarter of a million
children are left alone in Romania as a result of extensive workforce migration.
Michailov says that she wrote the play with the community she writes about
55
Krchen the Immortal by Eva Maliti-Fraiiova
56
Slavic and East European Performance ~ o L 32, No. 1
and that she welcomes its input into the final artistic product. She believes
that there has been no staged productions of her play (though there have been
readings in Romania) because the subject is too controversial for a society that
might prefer, as a habit left over from living under a communist police state, to
ignore ugly realities.
Vera Ion's (b. 1981) you shine, you are beautiful also deals with another
unforeseen consequence of Romanian communism: the anxiety of young
people constantly at war with themselves over their worth, place in society, and
ability to earn a living. This one-woman show, written and performed as an
internal monologue by Ion, emerged from the Bucharest-based Write Yourself
program of theatre artists working with community members. Based on her
student experiences husking for English pounds on the streets of London, Ion
dresses as Peter Pan. Since there is a new law in the city prohibiting the making
of balloon animals, she panhandles, having her picture taken by a diverse cast
of Londoners. Approached by a Romanian pimp and his crew, she abandons
her husking, swamped by guilt and confusion about her friends, her family, her
career, and her country. The play touches on the theme of surviving as an artist,
learning by making mistakes, and the question of the Romanian immigrant
in the West. In spite of all the craziness that unfolds, as a vulnerable young
woman in a near miss with street crime and exploitation, Ion feels liberated and
"closer to the audience."
Milena MarkoviC's (b. 197 4) The Pavilions is a Grand Guignol horror
story about sexual and physical abuse, drug addiction, and the desire for
love and intimacy in a working-class housing block in Belgrade, though
Markovic says "it could happen in any patriarchal family and any sorrowful
marriage . . .. [a] story about a boy who is a junkie and has post-traumatic
war syndrome is very familiar." There is also an alcoholic father, a complacent
mother, and an abused and confused daughter. The language is coarse, violent,
and shocking, yet weirdly captivating and beautiful, and for the Serbian
audience, extremely funny. It is a play like Gorky's Lower Depths, "a story about
a people .. . trapped in a ghetto; it's a suburban life in a ghetto country." (Often
European suburbs are not middle-class enclaves, but areas near cities isolated
by poverty, violence, and hopelessness.) As for being a woman playwright,
this is not such a big issue, professionally, for Markovic. 'Why there are more
men is a civilization question, not a sexual one." It seems that the new women
Serbian playwrights are daring to put the worst that society has to offer on the
57
stage to be examined in a harsh light. First produced about twelve years ago,
the play reflects the disintegration of a society recently at war and the violent
devastating economic and moral effects on MarkoviC's generation.
Suicide Bomb, Hungarian playwright Virag Erdos's (b. 1968) most
acclaimed play, casts violence in an entirely different light. The play begins with
a domestic scene: Mother scurries about in anticipation of the father's return
from work, while Girl tries unsuccessfully to tell her exciting news. A bomb-
Girl's bomb- has ripped through downtown Budapest causing mass death
and catastrophic destruction. The entire play takes place on a set depicting
the fresh bomb site. All the characters are dead except for the detective
who questions them about Girl's motives, establishing a surreal world with
conflicting statements and swift reversals of "fact." What emerges is a history
of violence directed at Girl, unable or unwilling to conform to the expected
roles of Hungarian society. Even though it means suicide, she breaks free of
these strictures and blows open her ossified society.
Erdos is widely considered the leading female playwright of Hungary.
Penned in 2004 when things were politically easier than they are currently, Suicide
Bomb was conceived as a social commentary. It served, Erdos says, as a personal
catharsis: the suicide bomb resonating with her own exploding marriage. While
the play won almost every award in Hungary and launched Erdos, known for
her poetry and novels, as a playwright, the author acknowledges the continuing
difficulties for women playwrights in a theatre community dominated by men.
If Suicide Bomb is a dramatic condemnation of, in Erdos's words, "the society
that is intolerant and inflexible, and is unable to give way to any kind of social
mobility," then the very act of her writing in such an atmosphere could be
called a revolutionary act.
Slovakian playwright Eva Maliti-Frailova (b. 1953) wrote Krchen the
Immortal first as a novella in the spring of 1989. She notes that the project
came out of her own need to make sense of the tumultuous period during
the collapse of communism. By the millennium, the novella had not lost
its relevance, and she decided to adapt it for the stage. It was an immediate
and huge success, and catapulted her to prominence as a playwright, with six
foreign-language translations and numerous runs in Slovakia.
In this most symbolic, political play of the series, post-communist
Slovakia is embodied in the title character,Krcheii, and through Maliti-Fraiiov:i's
representation, receives a scathing critique. Krcheii is an old thug whose
59
venality has exacerbated the greed and hypocrisy of fellow villagers, from
whom he has prospered. He has raped his daughter, rendered his wife mute,
and, though mortally ill, refuses to give up his perverse existence and die.
Writing the play, Maliti drew upon her academic work in literary theor y, Russian
literature, symbolism, and Slovak myth. If Krchen represents the violence and
criminality of those perpetually in power no matter what the political system,
the two tragic female characters-his daughter driven to suicide and his wife
incapacitated by guilt for not protecting her-represent the body and soul of
the young Slovakia. In the end, Krchen kills all those who might hold him
accountable and walks away scot-free. Marka, his daughter, occupies the stage
last. As she exits slowly, Maliti-Franova has shifted focus from a story of the
persistence of evil to the uncertain future of good.
Theodora Dim ova (b. 1960), author of The Innocents, is one of the older
playwrights in the series and is an established novelist from a heralded Bulgarian
literary family. Yana Borisova (b. 1972), author of PLEASANTLYSCARY, is
considered one of Bulgaria's hot young playwrights; she also works in TV and
film. Both women developed their scripts in close collaboration with a director
and a company of actors, but with large differences in style, subject matter, and
conception. For The Innocents, Dimova adapted her own award-winning novel,
The Mothers, as a theatre piece. Dim ova and her director Stilian Petrov cut down
the number of characters, created new dialogue, and developed a stageable
concept for production. Throughout the process, Dirnova hewed closely to
the original guiding question of the work: where does teen violence come from
and can we find compassion for the perpetrators?
At the time Dimova was writing the novel, there was an epidemic of
teen violence in Bulgaria. Children born at the time of Bulgaria's freedom from
communism were causing tremendous distress for the new society. In language
that is rich and poetic, Dimova writes a fictionalized account of a high school
teacher murdered by her students. The play's audience follows six children
telling their stories during police interrogation. On a split stage, their mothers
respond from an adjacent viewing room. With the mothers, sits a mystical
female figure-she is part spirit of the dead teacher, part conscience of the
country. It is what is said in this room that is most incriminating. Dimova lays
blame for the murder squarely at the feet of the mothers. She argues that during
the transition from communism, parenting was severely compromised by the
hardships of economic survival, political demonstrations, and strikes. Parents
60
failed their children, mothers, in the end, failing the most as they struggle under
the additional weight of a cultural myth of glorified motherhood. The Innocents
came out of a specific time and place, yet its first production ran for five years,
and the play continues to be mounted, attesting to its enduring importance.
Yana Borisova's PLEASANTLYSCARY does not examine the larger
issues troubling Bulgaria. Instead, the play looks inward to the internal life of
its characters. Like Dimova's play, it has a spiritual shimmer with fantastical
elements. But PLEASANTLYSCARY is about a phase in the lives of four
young adults where they must find purpose, set priorities, and reconcile their
inner passions with their outer responsibilities. Creativity figures prominently
in the play as two couples work to construct a design for a garden, making,
through their collective imagination, a magical space. The extraordinary garden
becomes an inspiration for making a life of beauty and for giving value to
artistic pursuits. Although poetic in theme, PLEASANJLYSCARY's dialogue
is entirely naturalistic. The playwright remarked that she does not set her
script until she has worked with actors on the text. What hits her ear must
be the sound of her voice and that of real people. One could say the most
contemporary and Bulgarian thing about Borisova's play is its dialogue. The
problems dramatized, however, stem not from what country the characters are
living in but from what stage of life they are experiencing; the solutions arrived
at are personal and universal, not political or specific to Bulgaria.
For many of the series' playwrights, working in their countries today
means having to work in other media as well. They write novels, short stories,
screenplays, and poetry. One discipline bleeds into another, making for poetic
text in plays and enhanced dialogue in their novels. 0 ften they adapt their work,
but always they must accommodate themselves to an industry still considered
to be the domain of men. When necessary, they write outside it. There is, in
a few of these countries, no long tradition of women writing for the theatre.
Without such a tradition, these playwrights must be cultural pioneers even as
they grapple with their own individual artistic goals.
While they are seemingly not intimidated by cultural taboos, they do
tend to engage political and social issues indirectly-often critiquing politics
and economic policies, for example, by showing their effects on children. Are
the plays any less political for being couched in what has customarily been
thought of as the sphere of women? Judging from their popular reception,
one would have to say no. There seems to be, in fact, a growing need for this
61
62
Slavic and East E uropean Performance Vol. 32, No. 1
work and a growing urgency to write it. There is a vibrancy that comes through
these plays despite the challenges and frustrations that many writers say they
face as female playwrights in their countries today. They recognize that within
and beyond their national borders, the significant issue we all face-the global
fmancial crisis--disproportionately affects them as women and as artists.
This reality makes the possibilities for productions and for maintaining life
as an artist even more precarious. But there is a simultaneous recognition of
the importance of theatre in confronting the social and economic problems
precipitated by this crisis: what makes for limited resources also makes for
material worthy of being staged.
We are grateful to the following institutions for hosting the readings: Czech Center New
York: Pavia Niklovti (Director), Jan Zahour, Krystina Milde, Marek Milde; Romanian
Cultural Institute in New York: Carina Suteu (Director), Oana Radu, Stefan Peca, Andra
Catalina Stoica; Consulate General of Bulgaria in New York: Radoslav Totchev (Consul
General of Bulgaria); the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in New York: Zuzana
Andreanska (Head of Cultural Diplomary); Plus 421 Foundation; and the Hungarian
Cultural Center New York: Zita Vadtisz (Cultural Secretary).
Our thanks to the following institutions and individuals who helped us locate these remarkable
plqys: Arts and Theatre Institute of Prague, Martina Cerna; Di!ia LiteraryAgenry, Marie
Spalovti; Aura-Pont Literary Agenry, Jitka Sloupovd; League of Professional Theatre
Women; Art Office Foundation of Sofia, Kalina U7agenstein; Youth Theatre, Nikolqy
Binev, Petar Kaukov;Jelena Stup!janin; Gina DiDonato; Mqyia Pramatova; Eva Vo!itzer;
Anita Rakoczy; Roger Danforth; and Katerina Bohad/ovd.
Our special gratitude to Dr. Frank Hentschker and Professor Daniel Gerould (1928-
2012).
63
ZACHARY KARABASHLIEV AND THE CONTEMPORARY
BULGARIAN THEATRE: AN INTRODUCTION
Virginia Hinova-DiDonato
Because Bulgaria is a small country with its own distinct language,
its repository of dramatic literature has remained largely underexplored by
the rest of the world. There are few English-speaking theatre scholars who
translate Bulgarian plays. As a result, in the United States there has not been a
significant interest in the presentation or study of Bulgarian theatre. Currently
there are only eight Bulgarian plays that have been translated and published in
English. They can be found in Contemporary Bulgarian Plqys volumes I and II,
published by British Tantalus Books. Volume I includes works from the early
1970s to the early 1980s. Volume II is made up of plays produced between
1998 and 2003. The themes of the plays range from folklore to football and
embrace local traditions as well as a collection of broader cultural perspectives.
On November 21, 2011, the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the
Graduate Center CUNY, seeking to expand US interest in contemporary
Bulgarian theatre, presented an evening dedicated to the work of the Bulgarian
playwright Zachary Karabashliev. With staged readings of excerpts of two
of Karabashliev's plays, Sundqy Evening and Lissabon, followed by an insightful
discussion, the event allowed an international audience to share this witty
Bulgarian dramaturgy on common ground. The translations of Sundqy Evening
and Lissabon were directed by Marcy Arlin and Hristo Hristov respectively. The
event was a celebration of Karabshliev's talent and his work as a bridge between
Eastern and Western theatre. The discussion following the readings addressed
many issues regarding this bridge and helped to illuminate the complexities of
Bulgarian theatre history in the post-communist period.
The history of Bulgarian drama is clearly divided by the fall of
communism in 1989. Theatre during communism can be characterized in large
part as merely an exercise in propaganda, intending to intoxicate the masses
with social idealism. After the political changes of the late 1980s, the theatre of
the 1990s was dominated by a chaotic and insecure search for identity. Between
1990 and 2005, Bulgarian theatre could be best described as director centric.
Directors were the driving forces behind most of the dramatic productions in
the country. They were the primary theatre artists creating and experimenting
in the first decades after communism. Their work mostly entailed offering new
interpretations of established works. When new plays were produced, they had
little success.
Critics, such as Violeta Decheva, describe distinct stages in the
post-communist theatre of Bulgaria, which ultimately involves a move away
from a directors' theatre to the recognition of the importance of new Bulgarian
playwrights.
1
Decheva suggests that the first stage, which occurred in Bulgarian
theatre after 1990, involved a process of withdrawal (or disavowal) . At this
time, playwrights were apparently refusing to face the socio-political realities
of the country and, in turn, pulled away from discussing such issues in their
work. Decheva explains that this period of withdrawal was driven in part by a
desire to make up for lost time: Bulgarians were now able to produce plays that
had been forbidden for decades and so returned to classical works. In addition,
fueled by a combination of curiosity and existential envy, there was a growing
interest in the culture of the West, leading theatre artists to material originating
outside of Bulgaria's borders.
For decades before 1989, the life, literature, and drama of the
world on the west side of the wall was something that Bulgarian playwrights,
actors, and audiences could only dream about. After the fall of communism,
however, Bulgarians were exposed to an array of theatrical forms, and within
a short period of time, a new conceptual movement began to take place in
Bulgarian theatre. Directors less focused on the immediate social, political,
and moral changes in Bulgaria began to explore broader existential questions.
The Theatre Sfumato exemplified this work.
2
Sfumato represents the efforts
of two Bulgarian directOrs: Margarita Mladenova and Ivan Dobchev. Using
unconventional spaces, in ways similar to the American experimental theatre
of the 1960s and 1970s, and engaging classic texts, they helped to redefine
Bulgarian theatre. The first theatre in Bulgaria to be created after 1989, it
started as an analogue to the Moscow Art Theatre. Their first performance
was a staging of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in 1989. Their next performance
was Post Scriptum, a collage of several of Chekhov's plays, primarily The Cherry
Orchard and The Seagull. In 1994, they staged Uncle Vturya and The Three Sisters.
They described this era as their Chekhov period. Simultaneously, they were
developing another program that integrated the the talents of Bulgarian writer
Iordan l ovkov with the works of Yordan Radichkov. Radichkov's expression
of the universality of the human spirit and his transcendentalism became the
65
center of the Sfumato's philosophical project. Mladenova and Dobchev found
a new identity in the cosmology of Radichkov's plays and through the poetics
of chaos in Chekhov's oeuvre. Even though Mladenova and Dobchev's theatre
was neither an anti-political nor an apolitical theatre, it had the most influence
after 1989 and represented the search for a new identity that many artists and
intellectuals embarked upon in response to the fall of communism.
Another major occurrence in the Bulgarian theatre after 1989 was
what Decheva describes as the general rejection and denial of authority,
cultural norms, and tradition. One of the earliest examples of such work was
Stefan Moscov's The Street. With a spirit of spontaneity reminiscent of commedia
dell'arte, Moscov turned values once considered sacred into the mundane.
Representing human beings as a construction of many selves, on the border of
sublimity and banality, Moskov explored the individual's ability to find humor
in life. Decheva describes this as the "lyricism of the mundane." He tackled
subjects ranging from poverty to media-created celebrity in Bulgaria.
During this same period, another director, Alexander Morfov, used a
popular approach of deconstruction to explore the individual's confrontation
with his or her reality. Exploring in particular the works of Shakespeare, he
created impressive carnival interpretations of classic plays. His versions
created a world of the individual in which life was experienced through the
body. Another proponent of rejecting the traditional theatrical experience was
Vuzkresia Vihrova. Her original performances incorporated a collage of text
and citations, futuristic body movements, and monotone vocalizations. She
also created an alternative acting school, introducing new training techniques
to actors.
In spite of these trends, there were no clearly defined and
truly "established" features of Bulgarian dramaturgy for more than a decade
after the fall of communism. According to Decheva, "Through the 1990s the
Bulgarian theatre had lost its purpose, it fell into unknown territory and still
struggles to find a new identity."
3
With playwrights like Zachary Karabashliev,
Mayia Pramatarova, Yana Borisova, Teodora Dimova, Ana Petrova, and
Konstantin Iliev, however, this picture began to drastically change in the new
millennium: focus shifted from director to dramatist.
After the fall of communism, as critics have noted, Bulgarian theatre
was in a crisis so deep that there was virtually no Bulgarian dramaturgy at
all. In a 2005 round-table discussion in Sofia, many Bulgarian theatre critics,
66 Slavic and East European Perjom1ance Vol. 32, No. 1
playwrights, and actors sat down to discuss the problems of contemporary
theatre. The Round Table 2005 is still thought to be a watershed event in
Bulgarian theatre history for how it brought many important issues to the fore.
The discussion addressed two main topics: the profound economic crisis of
the theatres and a unique self-debasing, self-preserving Bulgarian perspective
that seemed to be permeating the Balkan theatre.
The economic crisis at the time was quite dramatic. The government
subsidies to theatres, which had once paid for salaries, heating, and maintenance,
were largely cut from the budget after 1989. This combined with a shared
belief among the round-table participants that Bulgarian theatre was holding
itself back from international recognition because of a fear of cultural loss:
a fear rooted in the idea that by allowing Bulgarian culture to be shared with
outsiders, it might be lost. Noted Bulgarian critic Dimitur Chernev explains
it this way:
There is the presence of a very solid instinct, which controls
the Balkan theatre and keeps it locked into its own verbal
expression of language and references, the interrupted meta-
narrative of the Bulgarian society as a whole. The break off
within the public space created a void in the creative space.
4
Despite these pessimistic and self-deprecating declarations about Bulgarian
theatre, a new Bulgarian theatre of the twenty-first century was still ultimately
born.
Zachary Karabashliev was one of those ready to accept the challenge.
He is one of the most well-known and reputable contemporary Bulgarian
novelists and playwrights. He is part of a significant Bulgarian trend in which a
novelist turns to the dramatic form. What is exceptional about his artistic voice
is that it appeals to multicultural audiences. His international critical acclaim is
a result of his prolific and unique, yet universally comprehensible writing style.
Zachary Karabashliev has had four plays produced in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Sundqy Evening was awarded the Askeer in 2009. (The equivalent of the New
York Tony awards, which began in 1991). The play premiered at Sofia City
Theatre in 2009 with rave reviews. According to Yana Doneva, a theatre critic,
Sundqy Evening was one of the first plays that brought the Bulgarian dramaturgy
back from the dead. "Karabashliev is not afraid to speak of the problems of
people beyond their thirties and he does it catching you by the throat, not
67
letting you go until the very ftnal moment. The illusion that he has created
something so close to 'reality' is simply chilling."
5
The success of Zachary Karabashliev's plays brought other dramatists
into the spotlight. New Bulgarian plays were staged with great success, proving
that the Bulgarian dramatic voice had found its own sophisticated theatrical
identity. The 1990s era of directors retreated, and the stage was offered to the
playwrights in the new twenty-first century.
The MESTC event marked Karabashliev's significant place in post-
communist Bulgarian theatre by drawing attention to his unique dramaturgy.
The emotional and successful presentation of Karabashliev's Sundqy Evening
and Lissbon can be attributed to the excellent translation by the playwright
himself, sensitive direction by Arlin and Hristov, and outstanding acting.
Sundqy Evening captures a night of explosive personal dysfunctions
causing a family catastrophe. The setting is a middle-class family living in
California, and the references were Americanized. The second fragment
from the play Lissbon salutes the Theatre of the Absurd. The setting of the
play resembles Waitingfor Godot. two people stuck in one place, waiting for a
phone call. Technology becomes the main communication tool, the new way
of realizing oneself. Giants like Samsung, Apple, Google, Nextel, etc. are our
new Olympic gods; they set our limits and decide our fate. Through the way
Karabashliev challenged communication in that play, we can see the influence
also of Ionesco.
The fall of a political or economic system shatters its own discourse
and naturally creates the need to create a new one. This urgency was felt during
the readings and it is an integral part of Zachary Karabashliev's work. One way
to create cross-cultural experiences is by de-fragmenting language, challenging
conventional characters, and exploring dramatic situations with humor. A
description of Karabashliev's dramatic model on a character level would
include: the repetition of ones own mistakes, the comparative evaluation of
ones old and new beliefs, and the intense investigation of behavior patterns that
elevate the characters to ironic and self-depreciative psychological states. There
the characters ftnd themselves at a crossroads between the infantile and the
profound, stumbling onto insights while procuring the mundane. Conflicts and
resolutions evolve with universal appeal, making it translatable and accessible
to the American psyche. The two fragments presented supported this model
through the directors' keen sensibilities and the conviction of the casts.
68
The discussion following the event opened a new discourse in
understanding the theatre of Bulgaria. Provocative questions about personal
anger, realizations, and disappointments of the author worked in conjunction
with questions about self-expression before and after 1989. There were, of
course, no simple answers.
During communism the primary purpose of the theatre was
propaganda. It left the playwrights with little opportunities for unique
expression. Fused together, characters, dramatic situations, and writing style
had to carry a certain set of beliefs to the people of the state. In Zachary
Karabashliev's twenty-first-century plays, he is able to freely share his own
ideas and beliefs without concern of censorship or propaganda. The playwright
admitted the conscious choice and attraction to Theatre of the Absurd.
Stripped of a specific ideological purpose, man is left free to choose between
his survival instincts and when and how to manipulate cultural codes.
Karabashliev's plays offer an example of how contemporary Bulgarian
voices are engaging in a process of confronting a post-communist society. His
work represents a new direction for Eastern European theatre, one that the
Segal Center event both drew attention to and celebrated.
NOTES
1. Violeta Decheva, The Theater of the 1990s (Sofia: Sonm Press, 2001), 200.
2. Ibid., 201.
3. Ibid., 182.
4. Dimitur Chernev, "Contemporary Bulgarian Theatre, Justifying the Text"
(lecture, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 18, 2005).
5. Yana Do neva, "Zahari Karabashliev Reminds Us We Are Alive" Every Dtry,
October 2, 2009, 3.
69
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70
WITKACY'S ARTWORK AT ZAKOPANE'S OKSZA VILLA
Adrian L.R. Smith
I first encountered Witkacy's photographs and pastel portraits whilst
working, alongside Anna Wende-Surmiak, on the English-language version
of Teresa Jablonska's bilingual The Zakopane Style of Stanislaw Witkiewicz.
1
This
beautiful, well-researched, and groundbreaking volume portrayed the various
folk-stylized buildings designedby Witkacy's father at the end of the nineteenth
century in the southern Polish mountain village that gave the style its name. As
an Arts and Crafts era movement, it additionally sought to articulate a national
Polish architectural style, drawing inspiration from the surrounding Podhale
region and the traditions of the local Tatra Highlander people. Jablonska's
book on the Zakopane Style also included the most intimate, sensitive,
and psychologically revealing photographic portraits we have of the elder
Witkiewicz, which were taken by his son Witkacy.
In May 2011, Zakopane's Oksza Villa (built 1895-96) was opened to
the public for the first time after a yearlong period of renovation by the Tatra
Museum.z According to Jablonska, the museum's current director, this wooden
Zakopane-style villa was originally planned as a museum solely devoted to
Witkacy. However, after careful consideration, she believed a showcase of
Zakopane's prodigious output of art from around the time of Witkacy would
better complement the Tatra Museum's other collections.
The ground floor of Oksza Villa now houses the Gallery of
Twentieth-Century Art, though what is on display dates from 1880 to 1939,
which includes five works by Witkacy: two early oil studies of water ( c.1905),
two landscape photos (c.1900), and a photo of the Halny Windstorm (c.1900).
3
The most important and impressive paintings, textile work, lacework, sculpture,
posters, prints, and other artifacts in this collection come from the inter-war
period when, in newly independent Poland, Zakopane became an important
and influential center for artists and their work. Unlike other small-town
artistic colonies in Europe, Zakopane wasn't just a meeting ground for artists
from elsewhere. Many of the artists and craftsmen were homegrown, educated
at Zakopane's School of Woodcrafts and National School of Lacemaking.
4
Artists such as the sculptor Jan Szczepkowski and the painter and graphic artist
Zofia Stryjenska went on to win multiple Grand Prix awards and the French
71
Legion of Honor at the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial
and Decorative Arts in Paris.
To many at this time, Zakopane was considered the cultural and
spiritual capital of Poland. Some went so far as to consider the village "the
hub of the universe," which refers to the title of a book published in 1960
by Witkacy's close friend Rafal Malczewski about Zakopane society in the
inter-war period.
5
It is also the name of the museum's current exhibition.
According to Jablonska's exhibition notes, the elder Stanislaw Witkiewicz
thought that Zakopane was "something so necessary that aU the ways by
which the life of our society flows, intersect at this place."
6
Witkacy viewed
the village in a rather different light. In 1919, he wrote of a subtle drug called
zakopianina by which "beguiled artists of all disciplines lose themselves in
complete omphalopsychism, that is an uncontrollable contemplation of their
metaphysical navels, without any care that their works get poorer and poorer
and they lose touch more and more with the reality of the vibrant life around, so
they become only specimens who might be of interest to psychopathologists,
or people consciously devoted to perversions of all kinds."
7
While Witkacy's father, the painter Stanislaw Witkiewicz, had been
the central figure at the end of the nineteenth century in the development
of the Zakopane Style, Witkacy was a key figure in the inter-war period. This
was not only because of his artwork and ideas, but also because he held close
relationships with influential artists and intellectuals of the time, some of
whom he helped and promoted. Many became the subjects of his portraits. In
recognition of his significance, one of the rooms in Oksza Villa is devoted to
his photographs, pastel portraits, and drawings.
The Witkacy Room is located on the ground floor of the northwest
wing in what was originally a small guest bedroom. Marcin R z ~ s a a local
sculptor and the exhibition's designer, wanted a strong accent at the end of
the exhibition that would be enhanced by the room's claustrophobic interior.
8
The room's twenty-one photographs are all portraits dating from the period
1911-27 and largely comprise his "soul portraits" taken between 1911 and
1913.
9
Witkacy's "metaphysical portraits" characteristically feature close-ups
of the face, sometimes in blurred focus, to uncover and capture the subject's
inner self. Anxiety seen in the luminous eyes expressed the metaphysical
state Witkacy sought to portray. A clear example is Portrait of Tadeusz LAngier
( c.l912).
10
Unlike his pastel portraits and drawings, Witkacy's photography was
purely for his private use and never exhibited. The value of this collection
is that it provides an intimate and revealing portrayal of how Witkacy saw
himself as well as his family and friends.
Family portraits include his mother Maria (c.1912) and father
Stanislaw (1913), which hang above the entrance to the room, and Jadwiga
Janczewska ( c.1913), Witkacy's fiancee who later committed suicide. Elsewhere
in the small room hangs a photograph of his cousin Maria (c.1912). We know
from Witkacy's letters to his wife that Witkacy disliked his cousins and their
cohabitation was not easy. After Witkacy's uncle died, the house in which
Witkacy's fum occupied a room was passed to his children (Witkacy's cousins),
Jan Witkiewicz Koszczyc and Maria "Dziudzia" Witkiewicz6wna. As the new
owners, Witkacy's cousins started charging him rent.
Portraits of friends and their families in the room include Witkacy's
closest childhood friend, the renowned anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski
(1911-13). Also seen here are three children's portraits, two of Janina Illukiewicz
( c.1912)-Langier's friend's daughter- and one of Hania Solska ( c.1913)- the
daughter of Irena Solska. Witkacy conducted an affair with Irena which he
writes about in The 622 Dowtifa//s of Bungo; or, The Demonic Woman. His father is
known to have disapproved of the couple's age difference.
Portraits of Witkacy himself hang in the room alongside those of his
friends and family. There is a series of six portraits of Witkacy, taken circa 1931
by J6zef Glogowski, showing Witkacy in various poses and states of anguish.
Witkacy often took self-portraits, sometimes dressing up as a character.
According to Daniel Gerould, "these 'faces' constituted a private theatre in
life that Witkacy was constantly staging," which "enabled the artist to pretend
to be someone else."
11
In another photograph, we see Witkacy with members
of the Theatre Society (1925-27), including the doctor Marcel Staroniewicz
(the bald man standing) and Witkacy's close friend and actor J6zef Federowicz
(seated in the second row with his head turned). Federowicz's daytime job was
as a meteorologist at the newly built, Witkiewicz-designed, Tatra Museum on
Krup6wki Street, and Witkacy often dropped by for conversations in his attic
office.
The museum considers the most important photograph in its collection
to be the well-known self-portrait Collapse f?y the Lamp (c.1913). Unlike many of
the other photographs on display, the museum has the glass negative of this
portrait. The majority of the portraits displayed are enlargements of originals
73
Witkacy, Portrait of Julitta FederowiliJ 1936
74
from the private collection of the photography enthusiast Stefan Oko!owicz
and his wife Ewa in Warsaw. The couple bought up many of the negatives and
original prints kept at Witkacy's villa on Antal6wka Street in the 1960s when
many institutions, including the Tatra Museum, showed little interest.
All of the room's twenty-eight pastel portraits and eleven pencil
and ink drawings are original and date from the time when Witkacy operated
the S. I. Witkiewicz Portrait-Painting firm (1925-39). These pastel portraits
are among Witkacy's best known visual artworks because of their distinctive
distorted manner with arresting eyes and the number of cigarettes, amount
of narcotics, and quantity of alcohol consumed (or not) scribbled alongside.
The S. I. Witkiewicz Portrait-Painting fum first operated on Chramc6wki
Street, but in 1930, after a few temporary locations, it moved to a wooden villa
built and designed by Witkacy's uncle Jan Witkiewicz at Antal6wka 6 (since
renamed Villa Witkiewicz6wka and more recently renumbered Antal6wka 9,
this building has been beautifully restored and is now in private hands). He set
up the one-man operation after recognizing that metaphysical feelings, which
were such an essential component of his Pure Form art, had disappeared
from his paintings. He therefore no longer considered himself an artist in his
own comprehension of this notion: "I stopped being an artist, which means
someone who creates formal compositions on a flat surface and I am now only
a portraitist. This means I use painterly means to present human psychology."
12
From this time on, he devoted all his painting activity to this fum
and hence portraiture, many of which were composed under the influence
of narcotics. He drew over 3,000 portraits,
13
using a mix of charcoal, colored
pencils, and pastel very often on colored cardboard of about 65 by 48 em. Many
of the drawings were of his friends done for free, but he also created portraits
of anyone who was willing to pay and follow the firm's regulations. Published
in 1928 and 1932, The Regulations of the S.l Witkiewicz Portrait Firm set out the
basic conditions of using the firm's services with detailed characteristics of the
types of portraits and long lists of behaviors, privileges, and duties for the firm
and its clients. These clients included members of the intelligentsia, bankers,
politicians, artists, philosophers, and writers.
On display in the Witkacy Room are pastel portraits of the people
Witkacy knew or was close to in Zakopane. These include the women he
adored such as the theatre actress Nena Stachurska;
14
Nena's sister and wife of
Witkacy's friend Tadeusz Zwoliri.ski, Modesta Zwoliri.ska (1929); and another
75
friend's wife, Janina Turowska-Leszczyriska (1930). There are portraits of male
members of his social circle such as the doctor Marcel Staroniewicz (1927),
who directed Witkacy's The Pragmatists in 1925; J6zef Diehl (1920), a lawyer,
journalist, and editor of the weekly Zakopane newspaper; and Jerzy Gawliriski
(1937), a librarian and philosopher friend of the Federowicz family. Members
of the Federowicz family are also represented in this room: J6zef (in the role
of Richard III in 1925, straight portraits 1927, 1930), his mother Anna (1929),
and daughter Julitta (September 1936, October 1936), and J6zef's sister, Maria
(1927). Julitta Federowicz is the only person featured in the Witkacy Room
who remains alive. A retired stage designer, she now lives in Szczecin. She sold
some of the pastels of her family members on display to the museum in 2005
and 2006.
The late 1930s was a difficult period for Witkacy. He started to doubt
the significance of his own work; he was afraid of the future, had catastrophic
premonitions, and suffered bouts of extreme depression. Due to the commercial
basis of the firm, Witkacy considered his portraits as "production," not art,
and confided in a letter to his German philosopher friend Hans Cornelius in
1939 that: "I probably paint many portraits with pleasure; nonetheless, 1. this
is not art at all, 2. it does not release it from the accusation that I make it for
money and without any satisfaction."
15
An important and representative pastel from this time is Self-Portrait
with Tadeusz Langier and Bronislawa Wlodarska (1938). The two lovers are placed in
the foreground, as was often done at that time in wedding photos, and Witkacy
himself stands behind them in the role of a catastrophic visionary. Drawn
when the prospect of war was looming, this drawing conveys a great sense
of foreboding. A year later Witkacy committed suicide shortly after writing to
Wlodarska "I will come to Zakopane for the final guest performance (finale).
Here are my closest intentions. Death smiles to me best from afar: I wrote to
Langier: an asphalt road in the sun with trees, with a yellow gate at the end,
behind which total mist and nothingness."
16
Witkacy is known to have painted some of his portraits while relaxing
and experimenting with drugs with Doctor Teodor Birula Bialynicki at Villa
Olma, which still stands at 7 Zamoyski Street. Bialynicki avidly collected
Witkacy's portraits, and after the doctor's death, his large collection of 330
Witkacy pastel portraits was offered up for sale. The then director of the
museum, Juliusz Zborowski, was a former member of Witkacy's Theatre
77
Witkacy Room at Oksza Villa, Zakopane
Society, but chose to abandon Witkacy and support Tadeusz Mischke and
Realist Theatre when the society split in June 1925. This split is rumored to
have been the reason why Zborowski failed to make an offer on Bialynicki's
collection in the 1960s. As a result of the museums inaction, the collection was
bought and taken to Slupsk at the opposite end of the country where it is now
a key feature of the Museum of Central Pomerania. Many of Witkacy's works
are presently in private hands, but most of Poland's large art museums-
including the National Museums in Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan, and Wrodaw,
and also the literature Museum in Warsaw-have holdings, though currently
some can only be viewed by appointment.
Puzzled by these Witkacy drawings and the various attempts to
decipher them, I contacted the editor of this journal, the late Daniel Gerould,
who encouraged me to write this article. It has developed out of my work
with the Tatra Museum, where I strive to assist the staff in the use of English
to communicate the superb legacy of the buildings and artworks in their care
to a wider international audience. The unique genius loci of Zakopane and
the Podhale area, as well as their great historical importance in the cultural
and artistic life of Poland, deserve to be much more widely appreciated. The
Witkacy Room at the Oksza Villa is just one way in which the important artistic
contributions of this region are being preserved and collected for a global
audience.
17
79
NOTES
1. Teresa Jabloriska, Sryl Zakopimiski Stanislawa Witkiewicza (Sanok: Bosz,
2008). Sadly, this book is not readily available outside of Poland.
2. An excellent and detailed description of Oksza Villa-its architecture,
history, and reconstruction, including the fascinating correspondence between the elder
Witkiewicz and the villa's co-commissioner Wincent Kossakowski- has been written
by the local architectural and conservation specialist Zbigniew Mozdzierz in the Tatra
Society's 2010 yearbook. See Zbigniew Mozdzierz,"Pierwsze lata 'Okszy,"' Pamitnik
Polskiego Towaryystwa Tatrzmiskiego 19 (2011): 241-54. According to the museum's
accounting department, the villa's renovation work and gallery implementation cost 3.2
million zlotys (approximately one million US dollars), 75% of which was funded by the
European Union and 25% by the Malopolska government.
3. The local foehn wind causes an increase in temperature and a significant
drop in atmospheric pressure. Amongst locals it is popularly believed that during these
warm windstorms cases of nervous disorders and incidences of suicide rise.
4. Opened in 1883, the National School of Lacemaking was co-founded
and funded by Witkacy's godmother, the celebrated Polish and American stage actress
Helena Modrzejewska. Beginning in 1886, the school's students started winning prizes
and awards at exhibitions in Vienna, Czerniowce, Cracow, and Glasgow, including a
gold medal at the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative
Arts in Paris.
5. The book is called Pq;ek Swiata, which literally means "Navel of the
World," but the museum thought "Hub of the Universe" was more understandable.
Its author was also a distinguished painter and draughtsman and, like Witkacy, was the
son of a famous and influential artist (the Symbolist painter Jacek Malczewski). Rafal
Malczewski, Pq;ek Swiata, (Warszawa: Sp6ldzielnia Wydawnicza Czytelnik, 1960).
6. Stanislaw Witkiewicz, "Po Ia tach (1907)," reprinted in Stanislaw Witkiewicz,
Pisma Zebrane, Tom I-IV, W Krfg,U Tatr 2 (Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1970), 82.
7. Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, "Demonizm Zakopanego," Bez kompromisu:
Pisma kryryciJ1e i publirysryczne (Warszawa: Paristwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1976), 496.
8. Unlike the other rooms in the gallery, the window in the Witkacy Room is
covered with artwork.
9. Witkacy's photography of this period is succinctly written about by
Daniel Gerould, and three of the portraits reprinted in this article are on display at the
museum: Witkacy's wife J adwiga "Unrug" Witkiewicz, ( c.1923), the celebrated concert
pianist Artur Rubinstein (c.1912), and self-portrait, (1903-1910). For more on these
portraits, see Daniel Gerould, "Polish Avant-garde, 1920- 1945 at the Ubu Gallery,"
SEEP18, no. 3 (Fall1998): 39--47.
10. Tadeusz Langier (1877-1939) and Witkacy became lifelong friends in
Zakopane before the First World War when they both shared an interest in artistic
photography. Langier went on to become a photographer, among other professions.
11. Gerould, 43.
12. Stanislaw lgnacy Witkiewicz, "Rzecz o i ~ l o s i bzdury malarsko-
krytycznej: G!os 'plastyka' wolajq_cego na puszczy," Bez kompromisu, 477.
13. For the best and most detailed source of 3,073 artworks by Witkacy
(existing and lost ones as well) see Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz 1885-1939 Katalog dziel
malarskich, edited by Irena Jakimowicz and Anna Zakiewicz (Warszawa Muzeum
Narodowe, 1990), Exhibition catalog. This figure is Likely to be much higher now
as many previously unknown Witkacy works, formerly in private hands, have since
appeared at auctions.
14. There are some seventy-seven known pastel portraits of Nena Stachurska
by Witkacy in existence, eight of which are on display here.
15. Janusz Degler, "Kronika zycia i tw6rczo5ci Stanislawa Ignacego
Witkiewicza czerwiec 1918-wrzesieri 1939," Pami{tnik tealralf!J (\X'arszawa: Paristwowy
Instytut Sztuki, 1985), 133.
16. "Listy Witkiewicza do Bronislawy Wlodarskiej i Tadeusza Langiera," Zycie
literackie 51/52 (1963): 14.
17. For more information on the Witkacy Room and Oksza Villa visit http://
www.muzeumtatrzanskie.pl. Witkacy's playwriting/theatre legacy wiU be further revived
in Poland this September (2012) when the Witkacy Theatre building in Zakopane will
be officially reopened after a two-year-long refit and renovation project costing more
than thirty million zlotys (approximately ten million US doUars). For more details (in
Polish) go to http:/ /www.witkacy.zakopane.pl.
81
SIMON LISSIM'S EARLY YEARS IN PARIS
Bella Neyman
The 1920s and 1930s were exciting times for young artists living in
Paris. There were many expatriates who contributed to the lively scene. One
such artist was Simon Lissim, a respected stage designer, decorative artist, and
educator whose name is recognized by the cognoscenti of Russian art and design.
Lissim was involved with many of the major avant-garde theatres, directors,
and exhibitions, a feat that should not be overlooked. The artist was celebrated
by critics and his contemporaries for being able to embrace the style around
him. At the same time, he was so erudite and curious that he never stopped
studying, even when he became a teacher himself, and used the lessons offered
by his predecessors to create something that was completely original and
entirely his own. Although Lissim left Ukraine as a young man, his connection
to his mother country remained strong and he was consistently grouped with
other important Russian artists.
Born Simon Mikhailovich Lissim in Kiev on October 24, 1900,
his family was of the type that supported their children's creative urges and
even encouraged them. At the young age of seventeen, Lissim served as the
assistant stage designer at the Kiev Repertory Theatre. But just as the young
man was graduating from art school in 1919, history had other plans for him.
The Russian Revolution forced Lissim and his family to flee Kiev and relocate
to Paris.
Lissim wrote that living in Paris during the 1920s one could not resist
becoming involved with all the great artists and theatre directors. One of his
earliest and most memorable positions was as Art Secretary in the Parisian
editorial office of Zhar-Ptitsa (Firebird).
1
This art journal, itself a work of art,
was published bytheMirlskusstva (World of Art) members from 1921 to 1926in
Paris and Berlin under the direction of Georgy Lukomsky. In his manuscripts,
Lissim had nothing but the fondest memories of his colleagues. He considered
Lukomsky to have a profound effect on his early career, especially from the
1920s until the 1940s, the entire length of his sojourn in Paris. In his diaries,
he described Lukomsky as being "an architect by education, art historian by
chance, watercolorist by need."
2
Lissim did not find himself on Lukomsky's
doorstep accidentally. He brought with him a letter of introduction from
83
Alexander Kogan, the publisher of Zhar-Ptitsa. While it is now difficult to be
precise about Lissim's responsibilities as the Art Secretary of Zhar-Ptitsa, we
know that he was there for three years. One of Lissim's tasks was to assist Leon
Bakst with choosing artwork that was to be reproduced in two publications
being prepared by Kogan and Lukomsky on the famous stage designer.
3
Working with Bakst was a childhood dream come true for Lissim.
There is no disputing the fact that it made a lasting impression on the young
artist. As a young boy of eleven or twelve, Lissim was already aware of Bakst's
reputation, as well as of Serge Diaghilev's, as the stories of their success in
Paris were talked about at home. This was 191 1 and Schehirazade already had its
premiere at the Paris Opera the year before. In his spare time the young Lissim
collected magazines and postcards with works by his favorite artists from
the Mir lskusstva. Years later when writing about Bakst, Lissim recalled that
"among these postcards was a series of Bakst's costumes, some I believe for
Schumann's Carnaval. For hours on end I admired and studied these costumes:
The soldier, the mail carrier, the ballerinas, the beautiful little doll. Even today,
I see them clearly, and wonder sometimes if these postcards were not one of
the best schools I went through."
4
Lissim left several accounts of his friendship and working relationship
with Bakst. He reminisced that, "I had the good fortune to know him very well.
I met him at the end of 1921 or early 1922, and since he died in December
1924 I knew him only two or three years. During these years I believe hardly a
week passed without seeing him."
5
One particular story is about spending time
with Bakst in his apartment, a combination of three studios in one building
that were all connected. Its interior fascinated Lissim, and he was once present
there during a meeting between Anna Pavlova, the great ballerina, and Bakst,
who had just completed a portrait of her and was about to present it to her for
the first time.
6
It is difficult to understand what that experience must have been like
for the young artist, who at that time was only in his early twenties and very
impressionable, working with his childhood idol and a man that all of Paris
considered a genius. Bakst, after all, by this time had already gained notoriety
as the brilliant stage and costume designer behind Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
masterpieces. Lissim considered Bakst to be the preeminent costume designer
of the twentieth century. Studying his mentor's work, Lissim wrote that Bakst's
"costume designs were most characteristic of his work and also the strongest
amongst all of his other artistic pursuits. This is what separates him from his
contemporaries, Berain and Bocce."
7
He further analyzed, "I think that even
today [1954] we do not fully realize Bakst's influence on the art of our time;
his philosophy, his color sense, his 'style,' had a tremendous impact not only
on theatre, but also on fashion and textile design, on interior decoration, on all
our everyday life."
8
Lissim wrote several articles about Bakst that were published in
prestigious art magazines, including the Revue de /'Oeuvre as well as an introduction
to Raymond Lister's The Muscovite Peacock, a memoir about Bakst.
9
In his
introduction titled "Bakst As I Remember Him," he recalled, "his comments
and opinions on matters of our common interest had a tremendous influence
on my artistic career." Bakst encouraged Lissim to abandon his studies at the
Ecole du Louvre, arguing that Lissim had already made incredible progress as
an artist and a formal education was no longer crucial to his career.
10
Lissim
further acknowledged Bakst's support in Charles Spencer's book, L eon Bakst
and the Ballets Russes. In an interview with the author, Lissim said, "his mind
and his heart were open to anyone who loved the theatre, the stage, and the
wonderful art of stage
For the remainder of his career not one article would be published
that did not compare Lissim's work to that of Bakst's. For example, an early
review in 1936 in The Art Ne1vs, which inaugurated his first solo exhibition in
New York at the Wildenstein & Co. gallery said that ''Lissim's imagination is
so unflinchingly Russian in all its ramifications that the exhibition comes as an
exotic note in this month's calendar. In this varied material he proves that, like
Bakst, he is a past master in the art of combining minute and intricate pattern
with large schemes of design."
12
Almost forty years later, when reviewing his
final exhibition Dreams in the Theatre at the Vincent Astor Gallery (1975), John
Bowlt wrote, "Lissim uses the stage as a kinetic totality, extending the pioneer
concepts of Bakst. The function, therefore, of Lissim's extravagant colors, of
his mosaics full of tones, of his neglect of chiaroscuro in his stage designs is
not simply to provide an 'oriental flavor' ... but rather to build a kaleidoscope
of moving, colored forms."
13
In an ode to his mentor's work, Lissim produced "The Yellow Sultan"
and "The Sultan with Dragons." These gouaches were created after Lissim saw
an exhibition of Bakst's work in 1928 at the Galerie Jean Charpentier in Paris.
Inspired by Bakst's series of Sultanas, Lissim decided to paint a companion
85
----- ---------------
Simon Lissim, Two Figures, 1934
to each one. "The Yellow Sultan" was a counterpart to the yellow Sultana and
"The Sultan with Dragons" corresponded with the pink Sultana.
14
Bakst and
Lissim shared a love for wild colors and rich patterns and effortlessly combined
diverse influences to create a cohesive composition. A unique Asian flavor
comes through in both of their depictions of their vibrant costumes.
Lissim garnered a significant amount of attention from critics and
curators. Lissim was included in Friedrich Kiesler's important International
Theatre Exposition in New York in 1926. Twenty-four of the artist's works
were featured in the Russian section along with stage and costume designs
by Alexandra Exter, Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Gontcharova, and, of course,
Bakst. It is important that Lissim was recognized as being a Russian artist
though he never worked there. Just a year prior to this, the Winter 1924-1925
issue of L'Ouevre featured Lissim's article about Bakst, and another article by
Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, titled "Some Young Russian Decorators" (Quelques
jeunes decorateurs russes) which praised Lissim. Znosko-Borovsky selected Nicolas
Benois and Lissim as the two most promising young Russian stage designers
working in Paris. Summing up the thoughts of other critics, the author described
Lissim, as having a "theatrical imagination" and as being the type of artist
that brings his own imagination and passion to each design. Znosko-Borovsky
argued that Lissim was able to achieve a true costume design by mixing styles
and by exaggerating the characters' attributes. And, most importantly, his work
easily translated from paper to reality. By bringing color to his creations, Lissim,
unlike other artists who were also influenced by the Mir lskousstva, was able to
avoid the "dryness" of other avant-garde artists.
15
What made him such a fascinating artist was that Lissim found
inspiration in a variety of styles. For Lissim, those influences were, aside from
Bakst and his circle of friends and colleagues, the commedia dell'arte, and
eighteenth-century France,includingtheworkof the JeanBerain (1640-1711).
16
Lissim studied at the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre, and had access to the
greatest museums in the world and to one of the great monuments to human
indulgence, Versailles. Since Lissim has been linked to the artists of the Mir
lskusstva, we can connect him to their work here once more, as they too were
stimulated by the aesthetics of eighteenth century France. According to John
Bowlt, "within the context of the World of Art, the ensemble of Versailles
was the prefigurement of Russia's eighteenth-century and it left a profound
imprint on the World of Art's aesthetic undertakings."
17
In Lissim's opinion,
87
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"the ideal stage design must always be the creation of one artist. It must create
the atmosphere of the play, a beautiful background, a perfect frame for the
play."18
The years 1921 to 1932 were dedicated to creating the "ideal" stage
design, and were perceived by Lissim as "playing an important part in [his]
development as an artist."
19
Lissim was incredibly active, working on several
plays simultaneously and participating in solo and group gallery exhibitions. He
was involved with some of the most experimental theatres of his day, including
the Theatre de l'Oeuvre, the Theatre des Nouveautes, the Theatre de !'Atelier,
Theatre National de l'Opera Comique, the Theatre Michel, and the Theatre
Antoine, all in Paris. Additionally, he designed some stage sets for Nikita
Balieff's Theatre de la Chauve Souris. Lissim also participated in the Exposition
lnternationale des Arts Dicoratifs (1925), taking part in two different sections,
20
and creating stage designs for the official theatre of the Exhibition which was
designed by the brothers Auguste and Gustave Perret, who were responsible
for the magnificent Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris (completed in 1913).
21
Over the course of his long career, which spanned much of the
twentieth century, Lissim proved himself more than a capable artist and
scholar. Theatre pursuits aside, while living in Paris Lissim decorated porcelain
for the Manufacture Nationa/e de Sevres and Limoges. In 1941, the artist relocated
to New York City where he became an educator, first through the New York
Public Library and then as a full-time professor at the City College of New
York. While he no longer enjoyed new commissions for stage design, in his
free time at home, he continued to revisit old projects. Periodically Lissim's
work was written about and exhibited throughout the United States. Today we
can help to carry on his artistic legacy by not placing him in the shadows of his
mentors but remembering his work for what it was, original and unmistakably
Simon Lissim's.
The author would like to thank Professor john Bowl! of the University of Southern California for
his help in editing this article.
89
NOTES
1. Simon Lissim, "Paris 1920-1940," The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society
1850 to the Present 2 (1977): 14.
2. Simon Lissim Papers, ca. 1919-1982, Bakhmeteff Archive, Columbia
University Libraries, Columbia University, New York.
3. According to Lissim, Kogan had "begun to publish books on Bakst, one
of them for Brentano's in New York City." Lissim, "Paris 1920--1940," 14-23.
4. Raymond Lister, The Muscovite Peacock (Cambridge: Golden Head Press,
1954), 11. In 1910, Bakst designed the costumes for Le Carnava!, which had its premiere
at Pavlov Hall in St. Petersburg.
5. Lissim, "Paris 1920--1940," 21.
6. Simon Lissim Papers; Lissim, "Paris 1920--1940," 21.
7. Simon Lissim Papers.
8. Lister, Muscovite Peacock, 13.
9. "LS Bakst," Spolochi (October 1922); "Uon Bakst: Ses Decors et Costumes
des Theatre," L'Oeuvre 2 (March 1924); "Uon Bakst 1866--1924" L'Oeuvre (Winter
1924-1925); "Un Renovteur de Ia Decoration Theatrale: Leon Bakst," La Revue de /'art
(February 1925).
10. Simon Lissim Papers. See "Notes on Friends and Art Contacts, 197 4"
11. As told to Spencer in a conversation. Charles Spencer, Leon Bakst and the
Ballets Russes (London: Academy Editions, 1975), 214. This quote was also used as part
of Simon Lissim's introduction in Lister, Muscovite Peacock, 13.
12. Ann H. Sayre, "Lissim's Imagination Recreates the Theatre," The Art News
(April 1936): 8.
13. John Bowlt, "Simon Lissim," Art Ne1vs (November 1975): 125.
14. Louis Reau, An Artist's Interpretation of Nature (New York: Fred Stein,
1958), plates 1, 2.
15. Eugene Znosko-Borovsky "Quelques jeunes decorateurs russes,"
L'Oeuvre (Winter 1924):54-55.
16. Lissim wrote an article about Jean Berain for L'Oeuvre in 1923. Simon
Lissim, "Les Costumes par Jean Berain" L'Oeuvre 70 (November 1923): 37-44. And,
the French decorator had been the subject of several other articles in the publication,
including one in the Autumn 1924 issue titled "La Mise en Scene a !'Opera de Lully"
which also featured the work of Lissim.
17. John Bowlt, "Diaghilev and The Eighteenth-century," in Working for
Diaghilev, ed. Sjeng Scheijen (Belgium: BAI, Schoten, 2004), 38-48.
18. Raymond Lister, Simon Lissim Interviewed I!J Raymond Lister (Cambridge:
The Golden Head Press, 1962), 20.
90
Slavic and East European Performance Vol 32, No. 1
19. Raymond Lister, Simon Lissim lnttrviewed, 20. While he was active as a stage
designer, from 1921 to 1932, Lissim was not simply a stage designer. He had already
begun to work as a decorative artist whose reach also extended to the decoration of
porcelain and textiles and to fashion design. Yet he recognized that at this point in his
career, stage design occupied most of his time. In a later article Lissim wrote that to be
a successful artist in Paris during the mid-1920s you had to be involved with all areas of
the arts, but mosdy the decorative arts. See Simon Lissim, "Paris 1920- 1940," 14-23.
20. At this point Lissim was already designing porcelain for the Manufacture
Nationale de Sevres and for the Limoges House of Martin and Duchet. Both of these
porcelain manufactories included his work in their sections. Lissim worked with Sevres
for approximately sixteen years, during which over 550 of his designs were executed
and manufactured. Of these, a hundred pieces were produced as one of a kind, 170
in limited editions of five to ten pieces, and about thirty were patterns for various
sets executed in larger quantities. This count is according to Raymond Lister, Decorated
Porcelains of Simon Lissim (Cambridge: Golden Head Press, 1955), 17.
21. The Theatre des Champs-Elysees has a history of showing the work of
Russian artists; it was the location of the Ballets Russes production of the Rites of Spring
(1913), and also showed the entire first season of the ballet company's work.
91
92
ANDRAS VISKY'S I KILLED MY MOTHER
LA MAMA IN ASSOCIATION WITH CHICAGO'S THEATRE Y
FEBRUARY 10-MARCH 4, 2012
Beate Hein Bennett
In the 1980s news about the dismal state of orphanages in
Romania seeped into Western news media, bringing about a widespread initiative
in the United States to adopt Romanian orphans. At the same time, the terrible
economic conditions prevailing under repressive regime created
a particularly troublesome medical reality for women: neither pharmaceutical
means of contraception nor medical abortions were available. Malnutrition
and poor pre-natal care resulted in a significant number of infants born with
disabilities. They were often abandoned in orphanages because their mothers
could not or would not be able to care for them. Children without impairments
were also dropped into these orphanages usually for economic reasons. The
result was that tens of thousands of children without any clear identity and
with little hope were growing up in institutions: they were anonymous captives
in a prison country.
This is the historical context of Andras Visky's play, which is based on
his interviews with aRoma woman who grew up in two of the most notorious
Romanian orphanages. The play, however, far transcends this particular
geography of human suffering.
Regarding the play's title: no mother is killed on stage or off. In two
discussion sessions, held in conjunction with the show's run at La MaMa's
Ellen Stewart Theatre and sponsored by the Hungarian and Romanian Cultural
Institutes, the author stressed this point. The title, however, points to a core
question driving the text: How do human beings form identities in a world that
rejects and marginalizes them even as it warehouses them?
The production by Theatre Y (Chicago) under the superb direction
of Karin Coonrod, with Peter Ksander's evocative lighting and set, and Oana
Botez Ban's almost Beckettian costumes, establishes from the first image the
desolate landscape of a young girl's intense search for self. This includes the
quest and discovery of her real name, her parentage, and various aspects of her
past and present. Ultimately, she is able to create a picture for herself of what
the future might hold.
93
La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre is an intimate space. The production
made good use of the raw, empty square playing area. It is framed by two
exposed brick walls on stage right and left and a cinderblock wall with three
doors upstage. The lower half of the upstage wall is painted with rough white
strokes. Above it, about six feet from the floor, a perfectly straight gold line
runs across. The downstage area separating the per formance space from the
audience is demarcated by a row of stones and cinderblocks. The environment
evokes timelessness, solitude, destruction, but also possibilities.
Sitting on a cinder block, leaning against the back wall, under gray
work lights, a young man plays a toy ukulele quietly to himself. He is dressed
in threadbare pants that are too short for him, a gray smudged shirt, and a
shapeless hat. Suddenly, through one of the doors on the upstage wall, a girl
bursts forth dressed in a gray, short, shapeless dress, wool cardigan (also gray),
and boots, holding a bouquet of spring flowers. She utters the first words
of the play: "I am Irina Grigutsa, your daughter. You are my mother, Ela
Grigutsa." Silence. She drops the flowers in front of the audience, just beyond
the stone barrier that frames the stage. Offering a brief sketch of her life's bare
beginnings, she then drops to the floor. She remains there, lying on her back,
spread-eagled and silent, as the boy with the ukulele, touching the gold line
upstage, explains his existence "in some thin strip, the Land of Never, where a
sharp line is the border between my life and not my li fe."
The play establishes from the outset a poetic non-linear dramaturgy
in which each segment of text exposes another facet of the girl's journey.
Visky explains, "My theatre creates a mosaic not a straight story. When the last
fragment is put in, the image appears." These fragments relate to different points
in Irina/Bernadette's life, beginning with her fl.rst memories of the maternity
ward where she was abandoned by her Roma mother. We are taken to her
flrst days in the orphanage where she befriends Clip, the boy with the ukulele,
to her teenage years when she is almost adopted by the attending physician,
Clara, to her escape with Clip and other boys, which ends in a bloodbath and
Clip's death. We also witness her adult life as a "Tiramisu woman"- named
after the Cafe Tiramisu where an assortment of broken outcasts flnd solace
with each other and where her mother suddenly surfaces to ask her for money.
Each segment, punctuated by a black out or light change, is like a station in the
circles of her hell. The two actors, Melissa Lorraine Hawkins as Bernadette
and Andrew Hampton Livingston as Clip, inhabit the space fully. Using their
95
entire bodies, they express the changing ages of their characters. They move
and connect like dancers with incredible precision and control.
Clip and Bernadette share a unique and deeply emotional relationship.
Clip teaches Bern, (his name for her as a form of endearment) how to speak
"clippish." This means speaking with a steel clip attached to the tongue tip.
(The actors actually clip their tongues for a long stretch of dialogue, which
is a feat of diction.) Clipping the tongue was a favorite form of punishment
in the orphanage. It was used by authorities to discipline rebellious children.
Clip, however, transforms "speaking clippish" into a language of honor for
him and Bernadette, claiming it is spoken by "the naked Orphan God" in
heaven. They seal their bond of friendship with an oath: "for as long as I
live and afterwards too." Then, they exchange their clips, hanging each around
the other's neck from a shoelace that Clip donates from his boots. This bond
becomes Bernadette's lifeline even after Clip's bloody death. Clip continues
to function as Bernadette's guardian angel for the rest of the play, shadowing
her with his comforting voice and music, singing, "I am but sound, Light, and
wind." In the end, Bernadette finds her independent self and is liberated from
the pain of her mother's abandonment and subsequent social injuries. At the
close of the play, she picks up the flowers she dropped in the beginning and
places them on a stone. It is a stone she identifies with her mother. She ends
with words from Leviticus (19:9-11): "When you reap the harvest, do not turn
back for the last sheaf, but leave it for the stranger, the wanderer, the orphan."
Andras Visky was born in Romania in 1957, the seventh child of a
Hungarian/Romanian father and an Austrian mother. In 1958, as part of a
political mop-up in Romania after the unsuccessful uprising in Hungary in
1956, his father was incarcerated for twenty years in the Romanian prison
system while his mother, along with her seven children, was interned in one
of Romania's labor camps. Visky's own early childhood memories, therefore,
beginning at the age of two, involve being a prisoner. (He has the paper to prove
it.) Being subjected to the arbitrary terror and the anonymity of imprisonment
as a child obviously left its mark. His experience as a member of a minority
in a country with strong nationalist tendencies nurtured his empathy for the
marginalized. As Associate Artistic Director and Dramaturg of the Hungarian
Theatre in Cluj, one of the most celebrated theatres in Romania, he lends voice
to a theatre that speaks for and to a minority and its experience with an open
Central European, even global, perspective.
96 Slavic and E ast E uropean Performance Vol. 3 2, No. 1
Theatre Y's powerful production of this provocative play demands
and deserves full attention as problems of marginalization, enslavement, and
dehumanization continue to threaten children and adults. While Andras Visky's
text deals with some of the most fundamental questions of human existence
and social responsibility through the story of the orphaned child, he makes the
point that we are all "strangers, wanderers, and orphans" in this world. Like
Oedipus or Dante, we do not know who we are until we have passed through
our own hell. Similar to Beckett, a writer Visky very much admires, he sees the
theatre as a "sounding space" in which "the words create silence which then
creates words." Theatre is where memory and being are made manifest both in
spoken language and physical stillness, but it is also where our acts of rebellion
against systematic obliteration find communal attention.
I wish to dedicate this article to Professor Daniel Gerould I was in contact with him about
writing it until his passing on Sundqy, February 12, 2012. His friends and colleagues 1vill
forever treasure his tireless encouragement and gentle nudges.
97
The Ensemble in 12 Chairs, choreographed by Dmitry Yakubovich and directed by Anastasia Grinenko,
Belarus National Musical Theatre, Minsk, 2011

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12 CHAIRS AT THE BELARUS NATIONAL MUSICAL THEATRE
Aleksei Grinenko
An old pianist is improvising a lively accompaniment for a silent movie
that is being projected on an enormous screen on stage. Some spectators are
still looking for their seats; others are already ensconced in their comfortable
red chairs and chatting softly with one another, their eyes moving idly from the
black and white images on the screen to the beautiful art nouveau light fixtures
on the ceiling to their mobile phones. After a while, four burly Soviet workers
walk through the house and unceremoniously climb up on the stage. The
spectators grow quiet as the workers stop the movie and force the musician to
perform a new repertoire: the song of the people.
Thus begins 12 Chairs, a two-act ballet, choreographed by Dmitry
Yakubovich and directed by Anastasia Grinenko, with music by popular
Russian composer Gennady Gladkov, which opened on September 12, 2011
at the Belarus National Musical Theatre in Minsk.
1
Like all theatres in Belarus,
this one is a state-run repertory that exists, formally, to provide the tax-paying
citizens of the country with professional cultural entertainment at affordable
prices. (fhe most expensive orchestra seat costs the equivalent of seven US
dollars.)
The labor resources utilized in the show are staggering; they include
a cast of forty dancers and an orchestra consisting of no less than fifty-five
musicians. Such spectacular benefits of state subsidies make many European
theatres attractive, yet the fmancing of the arts by the government is frequently
regarded as a double-edged sword, since it is inextricably bound up with the
question of the government's interference with artistic freedom. In Belarus,
where the state owns all the stages, what is the function of the theatre, and how
much ideological freedom does it have? Can the theatre ever talk back to the
hand that is feeding it? 12 Chairs is an invigorating event evoking the enduring
local tradition of theatrical productions that unfold on multiple rhetorical
levels.
The negotiation of the music by the proletariat in the opening
scene establishes the ballet's self-referential preoccupation with the complex
relationship of theatres and regimes. The enforcement of ideological
99
reorientation in the art scene continues to inform the production as the
Bolsheviks (played by stagehands, not dancers) repeatedly intrude on the visual
action of the show by rearranging and redesigning pieces of the scenery. Their
seemingly haphazard yet stalwart attempts at regulating cultural production
evoke the modus operandi of the Communist Party, which was constantly
adjusting its program to the shifting demands of the day. For the most part,
these builders of the ideal state operate in a separate performative dimension
that is not concerned with the plot of the ballet. They are not individuated
characters, but rather a representation of unstoppable historical processes set
in motion by the formation of the Soviet Union.
Yet the fact that their building campaign and the ballet's narrative
unfold in the same theatrical space provides a revealing commentary on the
relationship of politics and art. While the workers expend a great deal of
initial effort on a set which deliberately upholds the principles of Russian
constructivism, ironically, they are also the ones to tear apart the stage of the
Colombo Theatre, conceived as a good-natured parody of Meyerhold. The
statue of the Worker and the Peasant Girl, a famous exemplar of socialist
realism that they try to assimilate into the constructivist aesthetic, also fail to
express adequately the elusive architecture of their shape-shifting program.
The finale shows their dimension and the world of the ballet to be inseparable.
With the set disassembled and rolled out of the way, the workers' ultimate
scenic vision is eloquently embodied by the people, a self-building and self-
multiplying monument all unto itself.
The ballet's story is one of delayed gratification. Based on the novel
by Ilia Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, the narrative begins in 1927, the closing year
of the New Economic Policy (NEP). This moment was the last gasp of
exuberant innovation in the arts, soon to be stifled by the intensification of
Stalinist censorship and the ensuing political repressions. The NEP was an
attempt by the early Soviet government to launch a market model based on the
coexistence of public and private sectors of the economy. Until Stalin's five-
year plans put an end to this capitalist-influenced experiment in 1928, post-
revolutionary Russia, much to the consternation of the Left Opposition in the
Bolshevik Party, enjoyed a brief period of increased economic freedom and
shrinking state control.
In 12 Chairs, Kisa (Vitaly Krasnoglazov)-once a member of Russian
nobility, now a sad Soviet clerk-finds out that his mother-in-law hid a
.....
0
.....
Kisa (Vitaly Krasnoglazov) in 12 Chairs, choreographed by Dmitry Yakubovich and directed by Anastasia Grinenko,
Belarus National Musical Theatre, Minsk, 2011
treasure in one of her twelve chairs on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution.
Unfortunately, the chairs have since been dispersed amongst many different
owners. Kisa is trying to think up ways to recover the money, when he meets
Ostap, who quickly becomes his sidekick.
In this production of Gladkov's ballet, sex figures as a commodity
that has the potential for conversion into rubles. Ostap (A.rtur Ivanov), a
representative of the cosmopolitan, enterprising element of 1920s Russia,
promises to initiate Kisa into the joys of sexual conquests in exchange for
partnership in the chair hunt. The sexual politics of the early years of the Soviet
Union, where women are emancipated and built up as men's equals, precludes
I<isa's old-time notions of femininity from being imagined as freely available.
In this new culture, where the ideas of marriage and domesticity are regarded
as bourgeois and retrograde, Kisa longs for the silent and submissive female of
the past. Invoking Rio de Janeiro as a mythical land of sexual Otherness, Ostap
populates his and his partner's fantasies with exotic birdlike women who, unlike
the liberated female of the NEP period, exist only for man's pleasure. Their
heads at times completely hidden in the plumage of the upraised wings, these
fantastical creatures are, in essence, only legs and genitals. The choreography
of the scene in which Kisa and Ostap strike the deal underscores the sexual
submission of Kisa, who, after having his crotch stepped on, ends up crawling
obediently between Ostap's legs like a tamed animal.
Sex and money operate as the two irreplaceable and, for the most
part, conflated components of desire in their venture. As long as one of the
ingredients is missing, gratification is not possible. While Ostap is making love
to Madam Gritsasueva (Liudmila I<iseleva), a frustrated I<isa tears through
the upholstery of her chair. On finding nothing underneath, he continues
to ravage the chair, his frenzied, masturbatory moves blurring distinctions
between sexual and material deprivation. Although Ostap has multiple sexual
encounters, he too remains unfulfilled. The partners continue to pursue their
ever-elusive fantasy until, having located eleven disappointing chairs, they turn
on each other.
I t is here, in the scene titled "The Partners' Desperation," that the
ideological contradictions embedded in the socio-political landscape of the
ballet come to a climax. In the absence of satisfaction, I<isa, who represents an
obsolete nobility in the new times, condemns Ostap, who can be read as a sign
of a fraudulent, capitalistic West, now perceived increasingly as an .intrusion
more dangerous than the Soviet regime. The heroes perform an ambivalent
duet which, in addition to explicating the dynamic of their relationship, cannot
help but comment on the historical tensions between East and West, both past
and present. Ostap sits on the floor, barely paying attention to his partner's
accusatory lunges. Kisa continues to circle menacingly until Ostap gets up
swiftly and pins his partner to the floor. The act of roughing up abruptly
turns into a sweeping adagio, suggesting a perpetual, if stale, heteronormative
romance. Kisa's body is feminized and, once again, brought into submission,
simultaneously illuminating the underlying East-West power relations.
The resolution that follows historicizes Kisa and Ostap within the
tightening ideological controls of the Soviet regime in the late 1920s and early
1930s. With the NEP experiment denounced by the state, Ostap is confined
within a giant wheel that doubles as a piece of scenic constructivism and a torture
device. Kisa docilely gives himself up to the burgeoning "sex-less" culture of
the Soviet Union, the symbolic, collective owner of the satisfying chair, which
appears at the penultimate moment on top of the highest scaffolding unit,
far out of the people's reach. The bright-eyed, cheerful mob--marching in
a peaceful demonstration of Soviet workers on the first of May-is staged
with a machine-like precision of movement that simultaneously signals a Gulag
style labor camp.
In this faceless throng, we make out the actors of the Meyerholdian
troupe, now rendered homogeneous and "normal," as they march toward
an ideal based on a permanent postponement of fulfillment. A white screen
descends downstage, blocking off this disturbing image. In contrast to the
entertaining silent film that opened the ballet, we are now offered a Soviet
propaganda fJ.lm, which extends the previous scene historically, reiterating
the increasing rule of the machine and, in its snide attacks on capitalism,
foreshadowing the rhetoric of the Cold War.
Ending the ballet's narrative here might have made this production
a safe exploration of Soviet history, a subject ostensibly, if not unreservedly,
open to public debate in Belarus. The finale, however, destabilizes this
comfortable perspective by offering, in parting, an oblique gesture, a slight nod
.in the direction of wider, more disquieting implications. After the cinematic
montage of Soviet history, we see Ostap, safe and sound, sweeping the streets,
biding his time. A sudden surge in the music makes him start and look up. A
shrewd smile appears on his face. His time has come again.
103
Lev Loseff, who theorized the organization of Aesopean language
in Russian literature, might have called this scene "a marker," an element that
signals the possibility of a double-reading to a knowing audience.
2
Ostap's
awakening takes us to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and suggests a
repetition of history, hinting at the parallels between the NEP and perestroika,
as well as the subsequent tightening of goyernment controls and the birth of
new regimes. This final moment produces a startling realization that the ballet's
quasi-historical action has never left the present.
It is interesting to speculate about the viability of this form of
politically minded theatre in light of the recent Belarus Free Theatre tour
which left the New York critics curiously spellbound and, in my opinion, oddly
reticent about the aesthetic values of the troupe's performances. (If only these
critics could be as generous when it came to reviewing American shows!) I can
understand why an outside critic is likely to write off the work of Belarusian
state-run companies as politically inconsequential and impotent as opposed to
Belarusian artists who are able to enjoy a much fuller freedom of expression
and visibility in the West. The posicion of innovative theatre practitioners
succeeding within a state-supported theatrical culture makes them vulnerable
to accusations of selling out.
Yet I doubt that anyone closely familiar with the theatre history of
countries like the Soviet Union will dismiss the importance of boundary-
pushing local artists working from within the system. While many such artists
may have been cruelly consigned to oblivion in the rubble of Soviet history,
I am haunted by the possibility that analogous processes may be reinforced
today-not by the hand of their state, but by the tendency of foreign media to
seize hungrily upon the loud story of the Belarus Free Theatre, sweeping other
theatrical activities in Belarus under the shameful rug of presumed complicity
with the regime.
Gladkov, Russia's genuinely beloved composer with a long list
of popular and critical successes in Soviet and post-Soviet theatre and
cinematography, knew very little about the revisions his score and libretto (co-
authored with Andrei Petrov) had undergone to accommodate the concept
of this new staging. He arrived in Minsk on September 13, 2011 to catch
the second performance of the opening week. When the dancers and the
production team were taking their final bows, he joined them on stage and
confessed to the audience: "On my way here, I felt somewhat afraid. But I
.....
0
U>
Kisa (Vitaly Krasnoglazov) and Ostap (Artur Ivanov) in 12 Chairs, choreographed by Dmitry Yakubovich
and directed by Anastasia Grinenko, Belarus National Musical Theatre, :Minsk, 201 1
leave enthralled." Gladkov's words, seconded by a thundering ovation, broke
the cycle of delayed gratification on the stage of the Belarus Musical Theatre.
NOTES
1. I was a permanent company member at this theatre from 1998 to 2010.
Since moving to New York, I continue to maintain a close relationship with this
repertory by setting up cultural exchange programs and occasionally visiting Minsk to
see the company's new productions and perform.
2. Lev Loseff, On the Beneficience of Censorship: Aesopian Language in Modern
Russian Literature (Munich: Sagner, 1984).
106
WORD FOR WORD, VERBATIM
AND THE "GYPSY SUPERMAN"
9 scenes
78 shots
11 Molotov cocktails
reckless endangerment of 55 lives
6 dead including a 5-year-old
Anita Rakoczy
1,916 items of evidence including 2 pellet guns and a shotgun
2000 people interrogated
4.5 million calls and 800 hours of CCT-camera records checked
170 experts, 85 special force policemen and 100 detectives involved
1 00 million forints offered for leads
Anna Lengyel and PanoDrama, Word for Word, Verbatim
On August 8, 2008, attackers threw Molotov cocktails at two houses
in the Hungarian village of Piricse, then started shooting at the people inside:
five children, their father, mother, in the next grandmother.
Luckily, they all survived the attempt on their lives. This is how, four years ago,
a series of attacks on the Roma population in Hungary began. These few lines
also serve as the exposition of Word for Word, Verbatim, a highly confrontational
piece of Hungarian contemporary theatre, created by PanoDrama through the
joint work of an international team of writers, actors, and dramaturgs.
The production is pioneering in two senses: first, it is an initial attempt
to deeply penetrate into the taboo territory of Hungarian hatred toward
the Roma population; second, as the evocative title suggests, Word for Word,
Verbatim is a professionally staged, shocking documentary genre
that has little tradition in Hungary. Strictly following the requirements of the
artistic form, the production contains only unaltered original materials: oral
history, in-depth interviews with survivors, family members, attorneys, and
police officers, as well as statements by public figures and the media. The trial
of the four people charged with the Roma murders began on March 25, 2011.
The world premiere of PanoDrama's Word for Word, Verbatim took place at
Traf6 House of Contemporary Arts on March 10, 2011, and the production
107
was then transferred to the National Theatre on December 2, 2011 as part of
the Contemporary Drama Festival, Budapest.
Documentary drama is one of the most exciting and influential
voices in the field of contemporary theatre; through the devices of ftlm,
dance, fine arts, music, and related disciplines, it utilizes a range of means in
order to reflect the unresolved social, political, and sociological problems of
the present. According to Peter Weiss's definition, documentary theatre "is
a theatre of reportage ... [It] refrains from all invention; it takes authentic
material and puts it on the stage, unaltered in content, edited in form."' The
genre has a long-standing history and practice in several countries throughout
the world, including the United States, Germany, and Russia. However, for
various reasons, it has failed to take root in Hungary.
As Thomas Irmer argues, by introducing a new dramaturgical model
in the 1920s, Erwin Piscator had a crucial impact on the history of German
documentary theatre. In his early agitprop pieces, he used authentic documents
and f.tlm in order to create a theatrical language for addressing the historical and
political events of the time. The expression "documentary theatre" originates
in 1925 with the monumental Piscator production, Trotz alledem!. After a long
interval, the first examples of German contemporary documentary drama
began to appear in the rnid-1960s. In their plays, which are based on original
historical documents, Peter Weiss, Rolf Hochhuth, and Heinar Kipphardt
reinterpreted and adapted a number of scandals and historical cataclysms
of the twentieth century for the stage, thus making them unforgettable and
imperishable for their own and future generations.
2
Since the 1990s, the genre
of documentary theatre has been flourishing in Germany.
3
Although documentary theatre is highly relevant in Russia, artists
struggled through the crises of the 1990s before they fmally began to explore the
wide range of options this artistic form provides. After the change of regime,
Russian society was forced to face problems such as drugs, homelessness, an
economic crisis, and prostitution-issues that had previously been unknown,
undiscussed, or hidden. The world of theatre, however, failed to acknowledge
these issues, gradually losing its function as social and political catalyst. It
lacked direction and purpose in the new world, where it was suddenly possible to
talk about almost everything without any restriction.
4
Then, in 1999, a group of artists from the Royal Court Theatre in
London held a workshop in Moscow to train Russian theatre professionals
109
in the use of documentary drama and "verbatim," a technique that has
been applied in the UK since the end of the 1980s. The fundamental rule
of verbatim is that texts from documents and interviews used in docudrama
have to be kept in their original form. Teatr.doc, the first independent Russian
documentary theatre, has "imported" this creative process, without, however,
fully observing its main principle-they take greater liberty with their material.
Since 2002, Teatr.doc has become a distinguished venue, providing theatre
space for various creative artists and verbatim projects.
One might wonder why the genre of documentary theatre has never
prospered in Hungary. Starting from the propaganda plays of the 1960s, there
have been numerous endeavors to introduce docudrama as a means of artistic
self-expression. These have met with mixed success, however, and the intensity
with which the German, Russian, British, and American representatives gained
international prominence has been absent from the Hungarian theatre scene.
It is worth noting that documentary drama has succeeded in
becoming an integral part of theatre culture and social awareness primarily in
those countries where people have been forced to come to terms with their
past collectively and in due time. For example, on October 19, 1965, the world
premiere of The Investigation, Peter Weiss's Auschwitz play, took place on the
same day at more than ten different theatre venues in East and West Germany.
One of the most authentic productions was directed at the Volksbuhne,
Berlin, by Piscator himself, and several radio stations broadcast the piece in the
following weeks throughout West Germany. In contrast, we Hungarians have
never been particularly good at facing our past.
Although a phenomenon like Weiss's play would be inconceivable
in Hungary, there have been a number of attempts at, and antecedents for,
Hungarian documentary drama over the past decades. However, these were
memorable but isolated artistic creations scattered over time. For instance, in
1973, Isrvan Pail's PetOft-Rock caused a great stir throughout the Hungarian
theatre world in a legendary production at Szegedi Egyetemi Szinpad
(University Theatre of Szeged). The performance included revolutionary
poems and original texts from the diary of Sandor Pet6fi, the emblematic
poet of the 1848 Revolution, as well as informers' materials and police reports
from the period. In the same year, the documentary drama A holtak hallgatdsa
(Silence of the dead) by Istvan Orkeny and Isrvan Nemesklirty premiered in
Pesti Szinh:iz, raising a monument to the memory of the Hungarian Second
Army, the men of which were massacred in World War II.
In 1994, after returning from New York to Budapest, Peter Halasz,
founder of Squat and Love Theatre, directed a stunning series of documentary
productions, Hatalom, PeniJ Hirnev, Szepseg, Szeretet (Power, Money, Fame,
Beauty, Love). These plays can be considered "disposable theatre" in that he
presented the audience with a different performance every evening. The scripts
were usually written overnight, based on the articles of Nepszabadsdg, a daily
newspaper that provided the artists with an advance copy every evening before
publication.
5
However, PanoDrama's Word for Word, Verbatim is the first production
that has shown the courage to stand up for something important which has
never before been the subject of a Hungarian documentary theatre production.
By using the facts from a series of attacks on the Roma in 2008 and 2009 and
investigating the responsibility of the community in the murders, they openly
fight against the racism that is prevalent in Hungarian society.
Anna Lengyel, founder of PanoDrama and Elfriede Jelinek's co-
artist and fellow-fighter against racism, explains, "I've never liked political
theatre. But what I would like even less is not talking about what's going on in
Hungary today, that we perform Chekhov and Feydeau as if murderous racism
weren't back on the streets and as if we weren't forced to read slogans from
the thirties on the walls and in certain papers."
6
She traveled to the various
Hungarian villages where the crimes occurred-Tatarszentgyorgy, Nyiradony-
Tamasipuszta, Galgagyork- with a group of actors and dramaturgs, and talked
to victims, witnesses, neighbors, relatives or friends of perpetrators, mayors,
and attorneys, so as to be able to present the audience with a complex set of
disturbing and appalling fragments of reality. However, the artists do not teach
us a lesson, nor do they force anything down our throats. Instead, they let the
facts presented on stage speak for themselves. All PanoDrama has added to the
authentic materials is selection, organization, and magnificent dramaturgy.
The stage is almost empty-a simple black box with some chairs,
small television sets irregularly arranged on the floor, and a screen projecting
images of the crime scenes, close-ups of faces, and highly relevant textual
information, crucial data that must be seen as well as heard. A group of
eight actors, Gergely Banki, Yvette Feuer, Anna Hars, Robert Ors6s, Tamas
Ordog, Marta Schermann, Zs6fia Szamosi, and Krisztina Urbanovits deliver
their alternating parts with precision, sitting, or standing, mediating the exact
111
words of interviewees to the audience. At times, the loudspeaker joins in and
becomes the invisible ninth actor.
Like most documentary theatre productions, Word for Wort4 Verbatim
lacks "plot" as well as dramatic conflict in the classical sense; instead, the
conflict arises from the various shocking, awkward, or provocative fractions
of reality that the audience puts together. After completion, this puzzle reveals
disturbing parts that confront our feelings of responsibility and compassion
with our declared, hidden, or subconscious racist views.
The play operates on several dramaturgical levels that alternate
throughout the production: the audience can ftnd out about the views of
pouticians, leaders of the local minority governments, mayors, attorneys,
police officers, and the Hungarian media, which provide the context around
the massacres. However, the actual interviews conducted with the survivors
and their families draw us much closer to the people who have gone through
these terrible ordeals.
The incredible luck was that I came home that day, I
sat down in the kitchen to eat. ... The double bed was
here, two boys sleeping with me like this, their heads like
that .... I just noticed that the house was in flames. The last
shot was loud, I jumped up ... My wife pulled the kids down,
put them in the corner. But I wanted to go out ... But the
key ... the key ... it broke in the lock. That was my great
luck, 'cause if I'd gone out . . . they were shooting in the
doorway ... like that ... one, two, three of them. Right there,
in a row.
7
PanoDrama helps us witness the fear they are experiencing to this very day.
PanoDrama increases dramatic tension by demonstrating the
destructive force of racism on the most intimate personal level as we are
gradually introduced to the story of a young Roma woman and her Hungarian
boyfriend. The girl, living with her adoptive parents, chooses to conceal her
Roma origin; she has dyed blond hair, blue contact lenses, and an exotic, but
unsuspicious, brown complexion. The love of her life, who happens to be
a racist Roma-hater, ftnds her very attractive with these attributes. However,
because of some rumors spreading in town, the girl feels the need to confess
her true identity to her boyfriend, as the relationship is important tO her, and
......
V>
Word for Word, Verbatim, directed by Anna Lengyel, PanoDrama, Budapest, 2011
she cannot believe that such great love could vanish just because she is aRoma.
From time to time, her monologue is broken up by the racist remarks and
comments collected from the "Man of the Street," the Hungarian "Everyman."
We begin to hope that the young Roma woman's boyfriend receives the
news well, but PanoDrama makes sure that the evening is not about happy
endings. Of course, he dumps the devastated girl: he cannot imagine having
"half-Gypsy" children, since for him all "Gypsies" are dirty and should be
exterminated. The actors then create a blog-choir out of common Hungarian
racist slogans, and chant them with rising rhythm and volume: "Parasite pricks
I I Fuck yourselves to death I I White Christmas I I Jewish slave, Gypsy mare
I I Hit the Gypsy where you can, you'll defend the motherland."
8
There are two outstanding theatrical devices through which Word for
Worti, Verbatim manages to elevate its chosen topic to the height of archetypes.
At one point, a woman is standing center stage in a jacket with the road map
of Hungary printed on it. Then, a black toy car appears in her hand that she
slowly starts pushing along the map on her jacket While its close-up image is
projected onto the screen, we can hear recorded associations concerning the
black car, coming from Roma children perhaps, who live in isolated country
villages, defenseless, unprotected by the police, in constant fear.
Another cathartic element of the production is the introduction of
the "Gypsy Superman" to the audience-a mythical hero born out of in-depth
interviews that is always there to protect and fight for the undefended. Leaving
no room for anxiety, his appearance and armament are carefully planned so
that they assure victory over what aRoma child calls his "Nazi" enemies: "You
will recognize the "Gypsy Superman" from afar, exuding safety. His shield will
be yellow, but underneath he can wear other colours. Green or purple, but only
one colour."
9
Letting the world know that there is a "Gypsy Superman" out there
somewhere who will come to defend his people any time they are subjected to
verbal or physical violence is one of the production's greatest merits. Until the
hero arrives, PanoDrama takes on this role and fights against racism through all
possible means of verbatim documentary drama. No matter how discouraging
political and economic times may seem for the theatre, it can serve as a catalyst
for professionals to take sides, stand up for their artistic and human rights,
and bring forth a new generation of contemporary Hungarian documentary
theatre artists.
Special thanks to Bernard Adams for proofreadint,J the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, the
Hungarian-American Commission for Educational Exchange, the US Department of State, and
liE. I herei?J acknowledge that the views and information presented here are my own and do not
represent the Fulbright Program or the US Department of State.
NOTES
1. Peter Weiss, "The Material and the Models. Notes Towards a Definition of
Documentary Theatre," trans. Heinz Bernard, Theatre Quarterly 1 (1971): 41.
2. Thomas Irmer, "A Search for New Realities: Documentary Theatre in
Germany," The Drama Review 50 (2006): 16-28.
3. See in particular the work of artists such as Hans-Werner Kroesinger,
Roland Brus, llimini Protokoll, and She She Pop.
4. PEREVEZENCEVA, Olga Perevezenceva, "Az orosz dokumcntarista
szinh:iz," Sifnhtiz 8 (2007): 60.
5. In connection with contemporary Hungarian documentary theatre, Arpad
Schilling's groundbreaking productions, Black/and and Fatherland should be mentioned,
as should the name of Gabor Mate, the present General Director of Katona J6zsef
Theatre: greatly influenced by Peter Halasz, he founded Hirlap Szinhaz Qournal
Theatre) in 2008, the idea behind which is to stage performances based on current
newspaper articles.
6. "PanoDrama Plays," accessed January 12, 2012, http:/ /panodramaplays.
blogspot.com/2011/01/hunting-feast-and-b-sector-with-jelinek.html.
7. Anna Lengyel and PanoDrama, Word for Word, Verbatim, unpublished
playscript, trans. Lengyel Anna, (Budapest: 2011), 1-2.
8. Ibid., 31-32.
9. lbid. , 20.
115
Duncan Oure Henigman) and Lady Macbeth (Milena Zupanic) in Macbeth After Shakespeare,
directed by Ivica Buljan, Seoul, 2010
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BREAKING DOWN THE BARD:
HEINER MULLER'S MACBETH AFTER SHAKESPEARE,
DIRECTED BY IVICA BULJAN,
AT LA MAMA'S ELLEN STEW ART THEATRE
Shari Perkins and Sissi Liu
It is extraordinary how malleable classic stories can be-how they are
able to be formed and reformed into frothy visions or new nightmares to suit
the tastes and needs of the current moment.
1
On Saturday, December 10,2011
at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre in New York, lvica Buljan's production
of Heiner MUller's Macbeth After Shakespeare offered a violent reimagining of
the Bard's work. The resulting carnage was simultaneously thrilling and-
paradoxically-numbing to the point of tears. Muller's version strips almost
every last bit of hope from Shakespeare's tragedy, adding a generous portion
of vulgarity and peopling the stage with a brutalized and oppressed peasantry.
Buljan's production takes Muller's original impulse even farther into
the shadows, weaving elements of Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty with
Sarah Kane's and Mark Ravenhill's brutal realism. The result is a violent,
physical performance style. iVfacbeth After Shakespeare is an overbearingly visceral
and explosive exploration of themes of degradation, nihilism, and ultimate
despair.
Originally co-produced by Mini tearer (Ljubljana, Slovenia) and
Novo kazaliste Zagreb (Croatia), the production has already been presented
around the world in Cuba, South Korea, Slovenia, and Croatia. Future
performances are scheduled for Serbia and France.
2
\'V'hile at La MaMa the
play was performed primarily in Slovenian with English supercities that were
projected on the back wall of the stage. The displayed English text-a dense,
often incomprehensible translation by Carl Weber-was supplemented by
occasional, strategic interjections from various cast members in English.
The mixture of spoken English and Slovenian, aJongwith the projected
translations, underscores the universality of i l1acbethA.fter Shakespeare's chronicle
of violence. Bulijan's staging, which he recreates anew for each incarnation
of his production, offers a similar gesture toward the universal. It is regularly
adapted to meet the needs of the theatre space where it is currently being
performed, the mise en scene encompassing many different configurations,
117
including proscenium, arena, and thrust. Buljan, speaking about the group's
choices, explains, "This logic of adaptation and changes of [actor-audience]
constellations was already a basis for our thinking how to do, create, and make
a space for the play and actors."
3
The production's flexibility is made possible by using the barest
of means to stage the show: chairs that the actors sit on in between scenes
surround the playing area, making up the entire set. The architectural elements
of the theatre-including the balconies around the perimeter of the room
and the aisles on either side of the audience-were transformed into playing
spaces. At every new venue, the company tapes white block-shaped numbers
and letters on the stage floor, indicating the exact latitude and longitude of
the performance space. Bulijan explains that this design element stresses
simultaneously the immediacy and the universality of the piece.
4
Miiller's
nightmare, it is suggested, can happen anywhere in the world, and it is in fact
already happening right here, right now.
According to his program notes, Buljan was attracted to Macbeth
After Shakespeare in part due to the controversy its original production stirred
in Sinn und Form, where critic Wolfgang Harich lambasted the German
playwright's pessimism, prompting other critics to defend the piece as an
original text. In Mi.iller's Scotland, "crimes follow one another creating a hell
circle with increasing speed," resulting in a "subversion of seriousness and
the decomposition of heroes."
5
Indeed, neither Mi.iller nor Buljan offer any
redeeming characters. Even Duncan (Jure Henigman, double-cast as MacDuff),
who in Shakespeare's play is often portrayed as an old man, is here a virile buck
who, upon his arrival at his host's stronghold, enjoys-really, really enjoys-
lounging around on a throne of corpses and copulating with Lady Macbeth
(Milena Zupanic). In The Theatre of Heiner Muller, Jonathan K.alb quotes the
playwright as identifying necrophilia with "love of the future," insisting that
"we have to dig up the dead again and again, because only from them can we
obtain a furure."
6
In this play, as murder piles upon murder and body upon
body, the sexual shenanigans underscore the fine line between life creation and
its destruction and desecration.
By incorporating the suffering of the peasantry, who are systematically
oppressed, maimed, and killed by their aristocratic overlords for little reason
beyond providing the latter with a few moments of perverse pleasure, the
author opens up the cycle of abuse to expose its deleterious effects on all
......
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Macbeth (Marko Mandie) in Macbeth After Shakespeare,
directed by Ivica Buljan, Mini Theatre, Ljubljana, 2009
Macbeth (Marko Mandie) and the company of Macbeth After Shakespeare,
directed by Ivica Buljan, Mini Theatre, Ljubljana, 2009

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classes. Particularly memorable moments in the performance include Milena
Zupanic as Lady Macbeth eagerly ordering the torture of a peasant who failed
to pay his rent, insisting "I want to see him bleed, to train my eye for the
painting we are to do this night."
7
Murder, torture, regicide, and art are blurred
in her mind-a delusion of beautiful violence that is severely undercut by a
later scene in which the peasant's wife (Domen Valic) and son Oose) struggle
to free her victim's dog-eaten body from the stocks. Yet there is no mercy to
be found among the downtrodden: as the widow weeps, the son turns on her,
ordering her to stop because the "snot is freezing on [her] cheeks" and selfishly
bemoaning the fact that he will be unable to get himself a wife due to his
father's unsettled debts.
8
ThroughoutBuljan's Scotland, power is represented through muscular
wrestling; lascivious coitus; and aggressive, (at times) non-consensual group
sex-an effect heightened by the contrast between the beauty of the lean,
fit, sparely-clothed actors and the destruction they wreak with their bodies.
The two scenes with the witches (portrayed by five male cast members) are
particularly potent examples of this strategy. In the first, Macbeth (Marko
Mandie) and Banquo (Polona Vetrih, who is-along with ZupaniC's world-
weary, bloodthirsty Lady Macbeth-among the most compelling performers in
the cast), returning from their victory over Norway's army, discover the coven
engaged in an orgy. Fully clothed, the victorious friends-though hassled and
mocked by the witches-hear their prophesies with relative equanimity and
seemingly without harm.
While neither Macbeth nor Banquo are physically harmed by the
witches, it is as if poison has entered through their ears: the cycle of violence has
begun again, and before long Macbeth-now K.ing of Scotland-is plotting to
kill his companion. ("The future's genitals I shall tear out, /If nothing comes
of me, nothingness shall come of me.")
9
Banquo's murder is followed by a wild
coronation feast, complete with food and liquor distributed by the cast to the
audience members. During the feast, the performers try to get the audience to
join in the revelry with shouts of "Long live Macbeth!" in Slovenian. This is
one of several moments when speaking the phrase in English would have been
a more potent choice. Macbeth's madness begins to show, both in his antic
behavior and his tattered, taped, and patched coronation robe. Now, he delivers
an elongated physical monologue of agony-the climax of the entire play, and
the utmost celebration of the degradation of power and human dignity.
121
Soon after, Macbeth seeks out the witches again. This time, his body
is not inviolate: corrupted inside and out, Macbeth falls into the grasping hands
of the coven. Instead of offering mocking prophesies and mild harassment,
the witches fall upon Scotland's monarch, pinning him down, stripping him,
sexually assaulting him, and leaving him naked in the wilderness to ponder his
future course. Brutalized, Macbeth briefly yearns to return to the child he was
but instead decides to "put on the skins of all my dead ones, I to dress with
rottenness my feeble flesh I and outlast myself in the mask of death."
1
From
that moment forward, Macbeth's destructive course is set.
Although theatrically effective, Buljan's production veers dangerously
close to homophobia due to its repeated use of man-on-man (and mao-on-male-
corpse) sex as a shorthand for depravity, the sickness of society as a whole, and
the ultimate humiliation of the title character. One might generously conclude
that this is an unintentional consequence of cross-gender casting (after all, the
cast is composed of six men and two women, one of whom plays a man).
Nevertheless, the maleness of the aggressors is never disguised; more often
than not, it is highlighted by the actors' cargo pants and sleeveless undershirts.
The enthusiastically consensual sex between Duncan and the power-hungry
Lady Macbeth only makes the implications of the other sexual encounters
more disturbing.
Nevertheless, Macbeth After Shakespeare is a powerful production. With
modest production elements and a talented cast, Buljan has created a lean,
brutal interpretation of Milller's play. The simple set, powerful, saturated lights,
and spare but evocative costume design create a visceral experience of the
disposability and devaluation of human life. Emblematic of this savvy design
is the monarch's crown, constructed on the body of each actor out of brown
packaging tape. This choice sharply mocks the institution of the monarchy
and the power that goes with it. At its root, the crown and the king are just as
disposable and easily consumed as the feast that the cast and audience devour
and scatter across the stage at Macbeth's coronation.
In Milller's Macbeth, the world was already out of joint long before the
titular king's crime, and will inevitably be so long after his death. This future
is a vision so horrifying that in the final moments of the play, Duncan's son,
restored to his throne, can only look around him in terror before crying out
in English, "I'm going back to England!!" and fleeing into the lobby. Buljan's
production is not beautiful, though it is often striking to look at. Indeed, it was
122 Slavic and East European Performance Vol 32, No. 1
far from beautiful. But as the play went on, as Macbeth was left stripped nude
and vulnerable by the witches, as we watched the carnage and the violation, and
agony unfolded before us, tears came from our eyes. And yet, we felt no pain.
NOTES
1. This review has been adapted from a capsule review that Shari Perkins
published on her website: Shari Perkins, "Impromptu: Macbeth After Shakespeare,"
Dramaticlmpulse (blog), December 14, 2011, http:/ /shariperkins.com/2011/ 12/14/
impromptu-macbeth-after-shakespeare/.
2. lvica Buljan, email to the author, February 14, 2012.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ivica Buljan, directOr's notes, program for Macbeth After Shakespeare,
December 10,2011.
6. Heiner Muller, quoted in Jonathan Kalb, The Theatre of Heiner Miiller(New
York: Limelight Editions, 2001), 15.
7. Heiner Miiller, Macbeth After Shakespeare, trans. Carl Weber, manuscript
emailed to the author by Ivica Buljan, December 23, 2011.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
123
The ensemble (Krista Apple, Ross Beschler, Kate Czajkowski, Dan Hodge, Emilie Krause, Kevin Meehan, Allen Radway,
Michael Rubenfeld, Matteo Scammell, Ed Swidey) in Our Class, directed by Blanka Zizka, Wilma Theatre, Philadelphia 2011
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CONFRONTING THE DARK PLACES OF
HISTORY AND MEMORY
OUR CLASS, A PLAY BY TADEUSZ SLOBODZIANEK
AT THE WILMA THEATRE, PHILADELPHIA
Beate Hein Bennett
Though already over a decade into the twenty-first century, one of the
last century's greatest tragedies in Europe-the Holocaust-keeps haunting
us. Witnesses to those events are quietly leaving the stage of the living, yet
new revelations are being added to painfully familiar facts. As the European
Holocaust is fading from living memory, its shadow looms over more recent
genocides in which neighbor kills neighbor: Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur,
Rwanda, and on and on. Human creativity may engender inventions on the
shoulders of giants, but human destructiveness has erected a huge golgatha-
the living move with the dead attached like ghostly Siamese twins.
Enter Our Class by Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek, born
in 1955. The world premiere of this play was produced by the National
Theatre in London at the Cottesloe in September 2009 in an English version
by Ryan Craig from a literal translation by Catherine Grosvenor.
1
In October
2010, Slobodzianek received the Nike Award, the most prestigious literary
award in Poland, for Nasza Klasa, written in 2007, as the best Polish literary
achievement, and the play was produced in several cities throughout Poland,
including Warsaw. The North American premiere took place in April 2011 at
Studio 180/Canadian Stage Company in Toronto. In the United States, the
Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, under the direction of Blanka Zizka, premiered
Our Class on October 19, 2011.
2
I was fortunate to see a sold-out performance
of this production on November 12, the penultimate day of the run. The play
had excellent critical receptions in London, Toronto, and Philadelphia, as well
as in Minneapolis where it opened in November 2011 in a production by the
Minnesota Jewish Theatre. Most critics agreed, essentially, about the strong
emotional impact of the play as it lays bare the terrible truth of a pogrom
enacted by a community on its own members and the aftermath of denial,
prevarications, and lies that poison memory. While a few critics questioned the
point of performing this play outside of Poland, most found a transcendent
poignancy in the subject, given the global reality of recurring intra-communal
genocidal events in our own time. As someone who was born in West Germany
125
in 1945 and who grew up in the aftermath of World War II, watching the play
unfold while sitting next to my companion who, as a child, survived the Iasi
pogrom of June 1941 by his Romanian neighbors, I felt a profoundly tragic
community form between past victim and present observer, between theatrical
enactment and historical reality.
As I entered the steeply raked auditorium of the Wilma Theater, my
eye focused on the wide stage space dimly lit with work light-no theatrical
lights to create "atmosphere." An assortment of old wooden chairs lay tumbled
about, some bare upright wooden tree trunks punctuated the space; upstage
center loomed an unlit skeletal, gabled building resembling a country church
or a barn. The design recalled the photo of a burning barn on the cover of Jan
T. Gross's book, Neighbors, which deals with the July 1941 massacre of Jews in
Jedwabne.
3
That event, while remaining unnamed, is at the heart of Our Class.
The play follows a group of schoolchildren from 1926 through a series
of fourteen "lessons" (i.e. scenes) unti12001 as their social web is torn asunder
by the impact of politics. A class of Polish children in 1926 with aspirations
and hopes turns into a collection of victims and perpetrators, survivors and
killers, agents and time-servers. As the children grow up, they defme themselves
according to the political nomenclature imposed on them, dividing them into
categorical groups: pro-Soviet communist, Catholic nationalist, and Jew. The
Jewish former classmate is seen as the foreign element, the suspect Other and
potential traitor (pro-Soviet) to the Polish cause. Each scene is simultaneously a
narration of a past event and a reenactment of it; in the manner of a Brechtian
Lehrstiick, they are "lessons" taught by examining memory through action.
Throughout the play children's songs encapsulate with emblematic imagery the
circumstances and relationships among characters. And thus we follow lesson
by lesson as ten characters progress from innocent childhood and friendship
through betrayal, torture, rape, and mass murder to a mixed state of loss, denial,
acceptance, and an ultimate ironic life affirmation. The lessons are explicit in
their historical narration and enactment.
Blanka Zizka, the Czech born director, guided a cast of highly
individuated and sensitive actors through the difficult dramaturgy. Her personal
Eastern European background, research trip to Jedwabne, and interviews
with the author in 2011 informed her emotional yet intelligently restrained
approach.
4
In contrast to the very abstracted British spatial approach, the central
but subtle presence of the spectral barn kept this production anchored in the
main action of the play, namely the interaction between memory and present
consciousness (and conscience) as each character confronts his or her part in
that interplay. Blanka Zizka comments about her impression of Jedwabne by
recalling Hanna Krall's statement about another Polish community without a
trace of its former Jewish life: "Maybe specters are wandering about. They
don't want to leave, since no one mourns for them .... From unlamented
specters there is such a grayness. Jedwabne seemed the same to me. This idea
of specters, seeking an opportunity to tell their story, to be lamented, has
become a key idea for developing my concept of staging Our Class."
5
In the Wilma production, a strong, recurring image linked the barn
structure and the idea of spectral presence. As the play opens a grayish light
reveals a group of slowly moving shadows in the barn; as they exit the barn,
they approach the audience like a procession of specters, two by two, barefoot
and silent, stopping twice to let out a collective sigh-the only sound. They
form into a class that suddenly explodes into a group of excited children
playing catch around the trees until a bell calls them to order. They collect
the chairs, set them up in neat rows, again two by two, and begin to identify
themselves as children would on the ftrst day of school. They say their names,
their fathers' occupations, and what they would like to do when they grow up;
they tease one another, they chase each other and play games, and they sing
together-above all they demonstrate neighborly knowledge of each other
without any reservations. Only first names intimate whether the child is from
a Jewish or Polish family. After that first lesson, we begin the descent into the
maelstrom of destruction, of murderous terror by neighbor upon neighbor, to
the ultimate massacre of the Jewish community driven into a barn set ablaze by
their Polish neighbors and former classmates.
The playwright shows the rapidly changing political context of the
community from being Nazi occupied (1939), then Soviet occupied (1940),
then again Nazi occupied (1941) through the interactions of the classmates.
However, the politics are not the dramaturgical focus; the focus remains on the
individual fate of each character and his or her lament. The casual familiarity
among the characters was shown by the supple ensemble of actors, at first,
as an easy camaraderie when playing children and adolescents; and later while
playing adults surviving after murder and rape, as a physical closeness, a kind of
shadowing which exposed the moral core of the play. Blanka Zizka "admire[s]
Tadeusz Slobodzianek's resolve to ground the play in moral rather than
127
128
The ensemble in Our Class, directed by Blanka Zizka,
Wilma Theatre, Philadelphia 2011
ideological concerns and to leave it to the audience to create their own picture,
their own understanding of the events from this choir of disparate voices."
6
The most horrific events in the play are narrated by a variety of characters and
thus show the experience from different angles; the violent re-enactments, as
the events are narrated (in the past tense), were physically intense but only
with partial or no contact. The other actors functioned as witnesses like the
audience, thus blurring past and present, memory and action. The lighting
alternated between gray fluorescent general lighting-cold and dead-and
spotlighting the penumbral stage space, thus underscoring the indeterminacy
of memory. The first part ended with the ensemble retreating two by two
into the lit-up (burning) barn, silendy mouthing a children's song, embodying
the dead as voiceless specters. This choreography also ended the second part
of the play which shows the survivors as they adjust their lives though none
can remove the dead. Before the play's final image, Abram who left Poland
in 1935 as Abram Piekarz and immigrated to New York where he became
Rabbi Baker, reads his letter to his former classmate Rachel a back in Poland; in
biblical fashion he lists the names of his numerous living off-spring attending
the funeral of his wife. Rachela cannot and will not read his letters; since her
life-saving marriage to Polish classmate Wladek and forced conversion in 1941,
she is known as Marianna. She is now an old misanthropic widow glued to TV
nature shows from which she hopes to gain an understanding of life.
The relationship between memory and history is complicated and
needs ongoing examination because, as Eva Hoffman states in her book Shtet/,
"Memory, even when it is so close to experience-or perhaps especially when
it is that close-is multiple and contentious. The past depends on the angle
from which it is seen, and from which it has been lived."
7
And I would add, the
relationship between memory and history also depends on the generational
distance to this experience. How those affected, whether direcdy or by legacy,
choose to see that relationship has profound moral implications. Tadeusz
Slobodzianek never mentions in his play Jedwabne or any of the other places
by name where Jewish fellow citizens were terrorized and murdered because he
sees the problem transcending national boundaries. In an interview he states:
Choice is linked to necessity, destiny to freedom. In this
contradiction lies the mystery of existence. This is particularly
visible in theater, because theater was created precisely to
enable people to talk continually about what freedom is and
129
what destiny is ... Our Class asks questions about freedom
and destiny which every member of the audience, identifying
in some way with each of the characters, has to answer, or
at least sense what he or she would do if they were in that
position. I don't intend to help them. On the contrary, I
do my best to make a reply as difficult and complicated as
possible.
8
Individual memory is often in conflict with national memory; private
grief finds little solace in public protestations. In the immediate post-war
trials, the accused rationalized their experiences and actions. While the former
(West) Federal Republic of Germany began to deal publicly with the guilt of
Nazi Germany during the great trials in the 1960s, the former (East) German
Democratic Republic, for the most part, eschewed its part in the Third Reich
and promulgated an image of political victimhood. In both countries silence
prevailed in the private sphere. This repressive silence within families became
a dominant trope in German-language drama. After the fall of Communism in
1989 and the subsequent unification of Germany and with the establishment
of Berlin once again as the German capital, a new assessment of Nazi German
culpability, particularly in view of its conquests and occupation of Eastern
European territories during World War II, has promoted new historical research
into archives that had been formerly closed to Western and Eastern historians.
Particularly in those countries where Nazi Germany and Stalinist Soviet Russia
bartered and battled over territorial dominance, the history of World War II
and the Holocaust is being re-examined causing shocked and painful reactions
among the local populations. The generation of victims and perpetrators in
those occupied territories had also largely maintained the general public silence.
The "second generation" that grew up after the war with the pervasive
parental silence developed a spectrum of reactions to this silence; some of
them internalized it into unresolved grief, while others threw themselves into
building a shiny present under whatever political system. Some challenged the
status quo and suffered repercussions from the family or community, ranging
from alienation to downright hostility.
9
It seems that the "third generation,"
those born after 1950, is prepared to confront those dark places of history and
memory, especially in Eastern Europe, even in the face of renewed neo-Nazi
extremism or nationalistic chauvinism.
130
NOTES
1. This production was reviewed in great detail by Joshua Abrams and
Jennifer Parker-Starbuck in Slavic and East European Performance 30, no. 1 (Winter 2010):
65-73. The English version of the play was published by Oberon Books, London, in
2009 and has been the text for all subsequent English-language productions so far.
2. Director: Blanka Zizka, Set Designer: Marsha Ginsberg, Lighting Designer:
Thorn Weaver, Costume designer: Oana Botez-Ban, Dramaturg: Walter Bilderback,
Choreographer: Karen Getz, Composer and Sound Designer: Daniel Perelstein,
Actors: Krista Apple, Ross Beschler, Kate Czajkowski, Dan Hodge, Emilie Krause,
Kevin Meehan, Allen Radway, Michael Rubenfeld, Matteo Scammell, Ed Swidey
3. Jan T. Gross Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Comn;uniry in Jedwabne,
Poland (Princeton University Press, 2001). The same photo also figures on the cover
of The Neighbors Respond The Controver!J over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, edited by
Antony Polonsky & Joanna B. Michlic (Princeton University Press, 2004). Gross's
book, among other works, served Slobodzianek as a primary source. Both books are
excellent background sources for the play.
4. Blanka Zizka's blog during her trip describes her impressions of Jedwabne
and environs. She also mentions her grandfather's incarceration in a Nazi concentration
camp during the war.
5. Quoted in: Johnny van Heest, Wilma Theater Press Release, September
2011.
6. Ibid.
7. Eva Hoffman, ShtetL The Life and Death of a Small Toum and the World of Polish
Jews (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997).
8. Both quotations were taken from the program essay, "The Politics of
Memory" by Walter Bilderback, dramaturg of the Wilma Theater. The program featured
excellent background material to the play. More can be read, such as an interview with
Tadeusz Slobodzianek and Blanka Zizka's blog about her journey to Jedwabne, on the
website at www.wilmatheater.org.
9. The German ftlm The Nasty Girl based on actual events is a good example.
Literature about the children (i.e. the "second generation") of victims and perpetrators
is available in English.
For Zizka's early career and establishment of the Wilma Theater, see Marcia Ferguson,
Blanka andJiri Zizko at the Wilma Theater 1979-2000 (Germany: VDM Verlag, 2008).
131
CONTRIBUTORS
MARCY ARLIN is Artistic Director of the OBIE-winning Immigrants'
Theatre Project. She is a Fulbright scholar and core member of Theatre
Without Borders, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and the League of
Professional Theatre Women. With Gwynn MacDonald, she is co-editor
of Czech Plt!Js: Seven Ne1v Works and has written about Romanian and Baltic
theatre. She curated/directed the play series New Czech Plays in Translation
and After the Fall: New Romanian Theatre. She is Associate Professor at
Pace University, teaching Theatre & Social Change, and has taught at CUNY,
Yale, University of Chicago (her alma mater), and Brown. She has directed
at NYTW, Public, HERE, Vineyard, La MaMa, Ohio Theatre Ice Factory,
ArtTheatre/Koln, Queens Theatre, Martin E. Segal Theatre, notably Daniel
Gerould's Candaules, Commissioner, and many other venues. Her next project is
East/ West/ East, a trilingual Czech/ American theatre event about Vietnamese
immigrants. Her blog, Artistry, Immigrants, can be found on www.tcg.org.
BEATE HEIN BENNETT, Ph.D. was born and raised in Germany.
She established the dramaturgy program at Virginia Commonweath University
where she taught for many years. She is presently a freelance dramaturg living
in New York City.
EDWARD EINHORN is the Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company
#61. He curated t he 2006 Havel Festival, wrote the libretto for The Velvet
Oratorio (performed at Lincoln Center in honor of the twentieth anniversary
of the Velvet Revolution), translated Havel's The Pig, and is currently editing
five volumes of new translations of Havel's work. He is also a playwright and
directOr in New York.
JOHN FREEDMAN has translated three dozen Russian plays into English
and is the author and/or editor of nine books about Russian theatre, including
Provoking Theater, written with Kama Ginkas. He has been the theatre critic of
The Moscow Times since 1991.
ALEKSEI GRINENKO is currently studying in the Ph.D. Program in
Theatre at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Among his research interests are
psychoanalytic theories and the American musical theatre. His acting credits
132
include multiple productions in the former Soviet Union. His translations of
American musicals remain part of the active t heatrical repertory in Belarus.
VIRGINIA HINOVA-DIDONATO was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. At age
sixteen she became the youngest member of the Bulgarian National Theatre.
While studyi ng at Sofia University, majoring in Philology, her poems and
articles were published in various newspapers and journals. She is a graduate
of the American Musical and Drama Academy (AMDA) and holds a Master
of Arts degree in Theatre from Hunter College, CUNY where she studied
with Tina Howe. She was the recipient of Hunter College's John Goldman
Award for playwriting. Most recently, her work focuses on Bulgarian artists in
the United States, such as Mayia Pramatarova, Karo Atanasov, and Zachary
Karabashliev. She is able ro blend the versatile realms of theatre, art, and
writing through her involvement in various projects by One Way Theatre
and Nova Columbo. Virginia currently lives in New York City as a freelance
writer, performer, and producer.
SISSI LIU is a performing artist and scholar who has studied and worked in
China, India, and the US. She is now a student in the Ph.D. Program in Theatre
at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Sissi has presented papers internationally and
in national conferences, including as ATHE, APA, MATC, and AAP. She
teaches at Baruch College.
GWYNN MACDONALD is a freelance director and the Artistic Director of
Juggernaut Theatre Co. Her international work focuses on Eastern European
playwrights, the writings of Bernard Kops and classical women playwrights
of the English stage, and the Argentinean playwright Javier Daulte. She also
regularly collaborates with an array of Israeli theatre practitioners. Gwynn
is an associate member of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC),
a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women and the Lincoln
Center Theater Directors Lab, and an alumna of the Drama League DirectOrs
Project. She studied theatre and film at Princeton University and is graduate
of Columbia University's Arts Leadership Institute.
CRISTir A MOD REA U is the author of four books on Romanian theatre
and she is currently the editOr of t he performing arts magazine Scena.ro.
133
Modreanu also wrote the afterword for roMania after 2000: Five New Plqys,
published by the Martin E . Segal Theatre Center (2007) and a chapter on
Romanian theatre in Theater in Times of Change, published by Theater der Zeit
(2008). She contributed to special issues dedicated to Romanian theatre by
Theater magazine (2009) and Alternative Theatrales (2010). Cristina has given
lectures on Romanian theatre in Valladolid (2004), Berlin (2006), Stockholm
(2007), Tel-Aviv University (2011), and Plymouth University (2011). She
received a Fulbright Senior Award and she is a Visiting Scholar at NYU Tisch
School of the Arts, Performance Studies Department, New York University
2011-2012.
BELLA NEYMAN is a design historian living and working in New York City.
Her areas of specialization are twentieth-century decorative arts, fashion, and
jewelry. Her ar ticles have appeared in the New York Times, Modern Magazine,
Fashion Theory RU, Modernism Magazine, and the Berg Encyclopedia of Fashion. Her
blog, an online diary of current events taking place in the world of design, can
be found at objectsnotpaintings.blogspot.com.
KATARINA PEJOVIC is a dramaturg, intermedia artist, writer, pedagogue,
cultural activist, and translator. Her works have been featured at numerous
venues in over rwenty countries. She has coordinated numerous platforms,
conferences, and initiatives, as well as published articles and essays in
publications and books in seven languages. Together with Boris Bakal, she
is co-founder and co-author of the projects of Shadow Casters, the artistic
platform that won numerous awards, including two Special Jury Awards at
Belgrade's BITEF in 2007 and 2009. She is the recipient of the 2009 Desmond
Tutu Fellowship Award, granted by the organization Global Reconciliation.
She lives and works berween Zagreb, Belgrade, and Ljubljana.
SHARI PERKINS has worked as a dramaturg, stage manager, and production
assistant at regional and on- and off-Broadway theatres. She is a student in the
Ph.D. Program in Theatre at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Shari has taught
at Hunter College and Harvard University, writes reviews for various online
publications, and has served as Managing Editor of Slavic and East European
Performance.
ANITA RAKOCZY is a Hungarian dramaturg, theater critic, the Deputy
Director of the Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute. From October
2011 to March 2012, she was a Fulbright Visiting Student Researcher at
CUNY Graduate Center, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. She has attended
and reviewed a great number of European theatre events such as Edinburgh
International Festival, Theatertreffen Berlin, Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre
Festival, Spielart Munich, and Plzen Divadlo Festival. She is currently
completing her Ph.D. dissertation on Samuel Beckett's stage directions of
Endgame.
ADRIAN L.R. SMITH is a British freelance English-language teacher based
in Zakopane. Among other places he teaches at the Tatra Museum and the
Polish Tatra National Park. He has translated various albums on Poland and
Polish culture and is currently working on the translation of ~ p e k Swiata
(Navel of the World), a satirical memoir of society in Zakopane during the
interwar years written by the modernist painter Rafal Malczewski. He is also
writing an English-language guide to the natural history of the Tatras, due to
be published by the Tatra National Park later this year.
MOSHE YASSUR, born in Romania, has worked as a freelance director in
New York, Romania, and Israel. He divides his time between New York and
Bucharest where he has directed plays by Eugene Ionesco, Howard Barker,
Joe Orton. He also directed plays in Yiddish for the Jewish State Theatre in
Bucharest and the National Jewish Theatre-Folksbiene in New York.
135
Photo Credits
Daniel Gerould
Photo by Annemarie Poyo
Courtesy of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Archives
Quick Change
Courtesy of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Archives
Big Love
Courtesy of ON.TEATR
Talk Radio
Photo by John Freedman
The Book q{ Grace
Photo by John Freedman
RaduAfrim
Courtesy of Radu Afrim
The Pavilions
Courtesy of Milena Markovic
Krchen the Immortal
Photo by Jan Novosedliak
The Innocents
Photo by Simon Versano
PLEASANTLYSCARY
Photo by Milen Vasilev
Witkacy Room
Photo by Robert Parma
Simon Lissim
Courtesy of the City College Archive
12 Chairs
Photos by Sergei Sulai
Word for Word, Verbatim
"
Photo by Marg6 Klecsan
Courtesy of Panodrama
Macbeth /{fter Shakespeare (Seoul)
Photo by You Sung
Macbeth /{fter Shakespeare (Ljubljana)
Photos by Miha Fras
Courtesy of Mini Theater
Our Class
Photos by Alexander Iziliaev
Courtesy of the Wilma Theater
MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER PUBLICATIONS
Quick Change is full of surprises. It is a
nicely seasoned tossed-salad of a book
concocted by an ironic cookmeister with
a sometimes wild imagination. And how
many quick changes has he wrought
in this book of 28 pieces. The writings
range from translations of letters and
plays to short commentaries to fully-
developed essays. The topics bounce
from Mayakovsky to Shakespeare, Kantor
to Lunacharsky, Herodotus to Gerould's
own play, Candaules, Commissioner,
Gorky to Grotowski, Shaw to Mrotek,
Briusov to Witkacy. From ancient Greeks to
Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe,
from pre-revolutionary Russia to the
Soviet Union, from France and England
to Poland. From an arcane discussion of
medicine in theatre to a "libertine" puppet
play from 19th century France.
Richard Schechner
Quick Change: Theatre Essays and Translations, a volume of previously uncollected
writings by Daniel Gerould from Comparative Literature, Modern Drama, PA}, TOR,
SEEP, yale/ theater and other journals. It includes essays about Polish, Russian and
French theatre, theories of melodrama and comedy, historical and medical si mula-
tions, Symbolist drama, erotic puppet theatre, comedie rosse at the Grand Guignol,
Witkacy's Doubles, Villiers de L'lsle Adam, Mrozek, Battleship Potemkin, and other
topics. Translations include Andrzej Bursa's CountCagliostro'sAnimals, Henry Mon-
nier's The Student and the Tart, and Oscar Metenier's Little Bugger and Meat-Ticket.
Price US $2o.oo plus shipping ($3 within the USA, $6 international)
Please make payments in US dollars payable to :The Graduate Center Foundation, Inc.
Mail Checks or money orders to: The Circulation Manager, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center,
The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY10016-4309
Visit our website at: www. segalcenter.org Contact: mestc@gc.cuny.edu or 212-8171868
Barcelona Plays: A Collection of New Works by
Catalan Playwrights
Translated and edited by Marion Peter Holt and Sharon G. Feldman
The new plays in this collection represent outstanding
playwrights of three generations. Benet i )ornet won
his first drama award in 1963, when was only twenty
three years old, and in recent decades he has become
Catalonia's leading exponent of thematically chal
lenging and structurally inventive theatre. His plays
have been performed internationally and translated
into fourteen languages, including Korean and Arabic.
Sergi Belbel and Llu'isa Cunille arrived on the scene
in the late 198os and early 1990s, with distinctive and
provocative dramatic voices. The actor-director-play
wright Pau Mir6 is a member of yet another generation
that is now attracting favorable critical attention.
}osep M. Benet I }ornet: Two Plays
Translated by Marion Peter Holt
)osep M. Benet i )ornet, born in Barcelona, is the
author of more than forty works for the stage and has
been a leading contributor to the striking revitalization
of Catalan theatre in the post-Franco era. Fleeting, a
compelling " tragedy-within-a-play," and Stages,
with its monological recall of a dead and unseen
protagonist, rank among his most important plays.
They provide an introduction to a playwright whose
inventive experiments in dramatic form and treatment
of provocative themes have made him a major figure in
contemporary European theatre.
Price US $15.00 plus shipping ($3 within the USA, $6 international)
Please make payments in US dollars payable to: The Graduate Center Foundation, Inc.
Mail Checks or money orders to: The Ci rculati on Manager, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center,
The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY100164309
Visit our website at: www.segalcenter.org Contact: mestc@gc.cuny.edu or 2128171868
Czech Plays: Seven New Works
Edited by Marcy Arlin, Gwynn MacDonald, and Daniel Gerould
Czech Plays: Seven New Works is the first English-
language anthology of Czech plays written after the
1989 "Velvet Revolution." These seven works explore
sex and gender identity, ethnicity and violence, political
corruption, and religious taboos. Using innovative forms
and diverse styles, they tackle the new realities of Czech
society brought on by democracy and globalization with
characteristic humor and intelligence.
Price US $2o.oo each plus shipping ($3 within the USA, $6 international)
jan Fabre: Servant of Beauty
and I AM A MISTAKE - 7 Works for the Theatre
jan Fabre Books:
I AM A MISTAKE- 7 Works for the Theatre
THE SERVANT OF BEAUTY 7 Monologues
Edited and foreword by Frank Hentschker
Flemish-Dutch theatre artist Jan Fabre has produced
works as a performance artist, theatre maker, choreog-
rapher, opera maker, playwright, and visual artist. Our
two Fabre books include: I am a Mistake (2007),
Etant Donnes (2ooo), Little Body on the Wall (1996),
Je suis sang (2001), Angel of Death (2003) and others.
Price US $15.00 each plus shipping ($3 within the USA, $6 international)
The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NYtoot64J09
Visit our website at: www.segalcenter.org Contact: mestc@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-1868
roMANIA After 2000
Edited by Saviana Stanescu and Daniel Gerould
Translation editors: Saviana Stanescu and Ruth Margraff
This volume represents the first anthology of new
Romanian Drama published in the United States
and introduces American readers to compelling
playwrights and plays that address resonant issues
of a post-totalitarian society on its way toward
democracy and a new European identity. includes
the plays: Stop The Tempo by Gianina Carbunariu,
Romania. Kiss Me! by Bogdan Georgescu, Vitamins by
Vera ion, Romania 21 by t e f n Peca, and Waxing West
by Saviana Stanescu.
This publication was produced in collaboration with
the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York and
Bucharest.
BAiT: Buenos Aires in Translation
Translated and Edited by Jean Graham-Jones
BAiT epitomizes true international theatrical
collaboration, bringing together four of the most
important contemporary playwrights from Buenos
Aires and pairing them with four cutting-edge US-
based directors and their ensembles. Throughout a
period of one year, playwrights, translator, directors,
and actors worked together to deliver four English
language world premieres at Performance Space 122
in the fa ll of 2006. Plays include: "Women Dreamt
Horses" by Daniel Veronese; "A Kingdom, A Country or
a Wasteland, In the Snow" by Lola Arias; "Ex-Antwone"
by Federico Le6n; "Panic" by Rafael Spregelburd. BAiT
i s a Performance Space 122 Production, an initiative of
Salon Volcan, with the support of lnstituto Cervantes
and the Consulate General of Argentina in New York.
Please make payments in US dollars payable to : The Graduate Center Foundation, Inc.
Mail Checks or money orders to: The Circulati on Manager, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center,
Visit our website at: www.segalcenter.org Contact: mestc@gc.cuny.edu or 2128171868
Witkiewicz: Seven Ploys
Translated and Edited by Daniel Gerould
....
SEVEN PLAYS
This volume contains seven of Witkiewicz's most
important plays: The Pragmatists, Tumor Brainiowicz,
Gyubal Wahazar, The Anonymous Work, The Cuttlefish,
Dainty Shapes and Hairy Apes, and The Beelzebub
Sonata, as well as two of his theoretical essays,
"Theoretical Introduction" and "A Few Words About
the Role of the Actor in the Theatre of Pure Form."
Witkiewicz . .. takes up and continues the vein of dream
and grotesque fantasy exemplified by the late
Strindberg or by Wedekind; his ideas are closely
paralleled by those of the surrealists and Antonin
Artaud which culminated in the masterpieces of the
dramatists of the Absurd . ... It is high time that this
major playwright should become better known in the
English-speaking world. Martin Esslin
Playwrights Before the Fall:
Eastern European Drama in Times of Revolution
Edited by Daniel Gerould, preface by Dragon Klaic
Playwrights Before the Fall: Eastern European Drama
in Times of Revolution contains translations of Portrait
by Slawomir Mrozek (Poland); Military Secret by Dusan
Jovanovic (Slovenia); Chicken Head by Gyorgy Spiro
(Hungary); Sorrow, Sorrow, Fear, the Pit and the Rope
by Karel Steigerwald (Czechoslovakia); and Horses
at the Window by Matei (Romania). In this
unique anthology, playwrights examine the moral and
psychological dimensions of the transformations taking
place in society during the years of transition from
totalitarianism to democracy.
Price US Sts.oo plus shipping ($3 within the USA, $6 international)
Please make payments in US dollars payable to : The Graduate Center Foundation, Inc.
The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fift h Avenue, New York, NY100164309
Vi si t our website at: www.segalcenter.org Contact: mestc@gc.cuny.edu or 212 8171868
Theatre Research Resources in New York City
Sixth Edition, 2007
Editor: Jessica Brater, Senior Editor: Marvin Carlson
NJ 'f1 YOR.A Cn Y
Theatre Research Resources in New York City is the
most comprehensive catalogue of New York City
research facilities available to theatre scholars. Within
the indexed volume, each facility is briefly described
including an outline of its holdings and practical
matters such as hours of operation. Most entries
include electronic contact information and web
sites. The listings are grouped as follows: Libraries,
Museums, and Hi storical Societies; University and
College Libraries; Ethnic and Language Associations;
Theatre Companies and Acting Schools; and Film and
Other.
Comedy: A Bibliography
Editor: Meghan Duffy, Senior Editor: Daniel Gerould
This bibliography is intended for scholars, teachers,
students, artists, and general readers interested in
the theory and practice of comedy. The keenest minds
have been drawn to the debate about the nature of
comedy and attracted to speculation about its theory
and practice. For all lovers of comedy Comedy: A
Bibliography is an essential guide and resource,
providing authors, titles, and publication data for over
a thousand books and articles devoted to this most
elusive of genres.
.. ...__.<--...__..._ __ ,_
- ~ - c - . . _ . . __ ..__,
Price US $1o.oo each plus shipping ($3 within the USA, $6 international}
The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fi fth Avenue, New York, NY10016-4309
Visit our website at: www.segalcenter.org Contact: mestc@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-1868
Four Ploys From North Africa
Translated and edited by Marvin Carlson
This volume contains four modern plays from the
Maghreb: Abdelkader Alloula's The Veil and Fatima
Gallaire's House of Wives, both Algerian, Jalila Baccar's
Araberlin from Tunisia, and Tayeb Saddiki's The Folies
Berbers from Morocco.
As the rich tradition of modern Arabic theatre has
recently begun to be recognized by the Western theatre
community, an important area within that tradition is
still under-represented in existing anthologies and
scholarship. That is the drama from the Northwest of
Africa, the region known in Arabic as the Maghreb.
This volume contains four plays based on the Oedipus
legend by four leading dramatists of the Arab world.
Tawfiq AI-Hakim's King Oedipus, Ali Ahmed Bakathir' s
The Tragedy of Oedipus, Ali Salim's The Comedy
of Oedipus, and Walid tkhlasi's Oedipus as well as
Al-Hakim's preface to his Oedipus on the subject of
Arabic tragedy, a preface on translating Bakathir by
Dalia Basiouny, and a general introduction by the
editor.
An awareness of the rich tradition of modern Arabic
theatre has only recently begun to be felt by the
Western theatre community, and we hope that this
collection will contribute to that growing awareness.
The Arab Oedipus
Edited by Marvin Carlson
THE ARAB OEDIPUS
The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York. NYtoot6-4309
Visi t our website at : www.segalcenter.org Contact: mestc@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-1868
The Heirs of Moliere
Translated and Edited by Marvin Carlson
rova "lfNrtt cowrorn or rHr.
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Thi s volume contains four representative French
comedies of the period from the death of Moliere to
the French Revolution: The Absent-Minded Lover
by Regnard, The Conceited Count by
Philippe Nericault Destouches, The Fashionable
Prejudice by Pierre Nivelle de Ia Chaussee, and The
Friend of the Laws by Jean-Louis Laya. Translated in
a poetic form that seeks to capture the wit and spirit
of the originals, these four plays suggest something
of the range of the Moliere inheritance, from comedy
of character through the highly popular sentimental
comedy of the mid-eighteenth century, to comedy that
employs the Moliere tradition for more contemporary
political ends.
Pixerecourt: Four Melodramas
Translated and Edited by Daniel Gerould & Marvin Carlson
This volume contains four of Pixerecourt's most
important melodramas: The Ruins of Babylon or }afar
and laida, The Dog of Montargis or The Forest of
Bondy, Christopher Columbus or The Discovery of the
New World, and Alice or The Scottish Gravediggers,
as well as Charles Nodier's "Introduction" to the 1843
Collected Edition of Pixerecourt's plays and the two
theoretical essays by the playwright, "Melodrama,"
and "Final Reflections on Melodrama."
Pixerecourt furnished the Theatre of Marvels with
its most stunning effects, and brought the classic
situations of fairground comedy up-to-date. He
determined the structure of a popular theatre which
was to last through the 19th century.
Hannah Winter, The Theatre of Marvels
Visit our website at: www.segalcenter.org Contact: mestc@gc.cuny. edu or 212 817-1868

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