SEEP - Vol.12 - Nos.2&3 - Fall 1992

volume twelve, nos.
2 & 3
tall1992
SEEP (ISSN II 1047-0018) is a publication of the Institute for Con-
temporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre under the auspices
of the Center for Advanced Study In Theatre Arts (CASTA), Graduate
Center, City University of New York. The Institute Office is Room
1206A, City University Graduate Center, 33 West 42nd Street, New
York. NY 10036. All subscription requests and submissions should
be addressed to the Editors of SEEP: Daniel Gerould and Alma Law.
CASTA, Theatre Program. City University Graduate Center, 33 West
42nd Street. New York, NY 10036.
EDITORS
Daniel Gerould
Alma Law
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Patrick Hennedy
Jay Plum
ADVISORY BOARD
Edwin WUson, Chair
Marvin Carlson
Leo Hecht
Martha W. Coigney
CAST A Publications are supported by generous grants from the
Lucille Lortel Chair in Theatre and the Sidney E. Cohn Chair in
Theatre Studies in the Ph.D. Program in Theatre at the City University
of New York.
Copyright 1991 CASTA
SEEP has a very liberal reprinting policy. Journals and newsletters
which desire to reproduce articles, reviews, and other materials
which have appeared in SEEP may do so, as long as the following
provisions are met:
a. Permission to reprint must be requested from SEEP in writing
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 the Editor of SEEP Immediately upon
publication.
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial Polley ....................................................................................... 4
From the Editors ................................. ....................... ............................ 5
Events ................................................................... ................................. 6
some Moscow Premieres: The 1991-1992 Season
John Freedman ................................................................................... 10
"The European Cultural Month and the
Witkacy Week: Cracow 1992"
Daniel Gerould ..................................................................................... 20
"The Yara Arts Group Works in Kiev"
Virlana Tkacz ....................................................................................... 30
"Meeting a Dream ... Meeting Yourselr
Dmytro Kotelenets ............................................................................... 34
"Theatre's Velvet Revolution
Melinda Jo Guttman ............................................................................ 37
"Ghelderode Colloquium at the University of Cluj, Romania"
David Willinger ................................... .................................................. 40
REVIEWS
"Metro"
Edwin Wilson .......................................................................... 42
"The Suicide Comes 'Full Circle'
In Cleveland"
Scott T. Cummings ................................................................ 44
"Edvard Radzinsky'sAn Old Actress
in the Role of Dostoevsky's Wife
at the Jean Cocteau Repertory"
Patrick Hennedy .................................................... ................ 49
3
"Audience Discussion with Eve Adamson and
Alma Law Following a Performance of "An Old
Actress In the Role of Dostoevsky's Wife" ............................ 53
"Havel's Vanek Plays at the
Jean Cocteau Repertory"
Christine A. Pinkowicz ........................................................... 58
Contributors ......................................................................................... 63
Playscripts in Translation Series .......... ............................................... 65
Subscription Polley ............................................................................. 67
EDITORIAL POLICY
Manuscripts In the following categories are solicited: articles of no more
than 2,500 words, performance and film reviews, and bibliographies. Please bear in
mind that all of submissions must concern themselves either with contemporary
materials on Soviet and East European theatre, drama and film, or with new
approaches to older materials in recently published works, or new performances of
older plays. In other words, we welcome submissions reviewing Innovative perform
ances of Gogol but we cannot use original articles discussing Gogol as a playwright.
Although we welcome translations of articles and reviews from foreign
publications, we do require copyright release statements.
We will also gladly publish announcements of special events and anything
else which may be of Interest to our discipline. All submissions are refereed.
All submissions must be typed double-spaced and carefully proofread.
The Chicago Manual of Stvle should be followed. Transliterations should follow the
Library of Congress system. Submissions will be evaluated, and authors will be
notified after approximately four weeks.
4
FROM THE EDITORS
In our last "From the Editors: we stressed that 1992 would
be a year of crisis for the theatres In the countries served by our
journal as subsidies are cut and companies must seek out other
sources of financial support in order to survive. The plight of culture
and the arts in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has
recently become a subj ect of general interest and even of some
urgency. As evidence of t he growing attention paid to our area of
study, three feature articles appeared in the New York Times
(November 9-11) by John Rockwell from Moscow, Irkutsk, and Perm:
"Arts in Russia: A Loss of Glory--A Culture Strives to Root in Free-
dom; "Getting Along without Moscow--In Provinces, Artists Learn
Self-Suff iciency i n the Price of Freedom;" and "Up from the
Underground--Russia's New Culture Begins to Emerge from Soviet
Rubble. And the New York University Humanities Council and the
Department of Performance Studies is sponsoring an ongoing Inter-
cultural Performance Colloquium, "Where is Performance Going in
Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States?"
(See Events)
We are delighted that the importance of performance In the
cultural life of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is receiv-
ing such wide recognition. In the present double Issue, we continue
our explorations of the changes In the theatrical life of these
countries. With the help of our readers and their reports we shall be
able to follow the development of new theatrical institutions and per-
formance styles in what was once the Communist wor1d.
Daniel Gerould and Alma Law
5
EVENTS
UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS
The Water Hen, by Stanisl'aw lgnacy Witkiewlcz, wUI be pre-
sented by the Nevermore Theatre Project, January 7-10, 14-17, 21-
24, 1993. The production will be directed by Anne de Mare,
choreographed by Marljeanne Uederbach, and designed by Alfred
Preisser. The Nevermore Project was founded as an effort to devote
substantial rehearsal time to a single production In hopes of creating
a fully integrated theatrical piece. The Water Hen, translated by
Daniel Gerould and C. S. Durer, has been In rehearsals for more than
six months, during which the acting ensemble has worked with
choreographers, composers, clowns, and visual artists In order to
realize the unique vision of Witkiewicz's theatre. For more Informa-
tion, call (212) 475-3569.
Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre Is offering a new stage
adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. The production runs In
repertory with Harold Pinter's The Caretaker through February 12,
1993. can (212) 677-0060 for tickets.
The Neighbors, Nikolia Chichkine's examination of the
Importance of living together on Planet Earth, will make its world
premiere at The Triplex Performing Arts Center, Borough of Manhat-
tan Community College, December 5, 1992. For tickets, call (212)
346-8510.
The Yara Arts Group announces the tentative production of
Blind Sight, December 4-5, 1992, at La Mama ETC First Street work-
shop space. For more information about the Yara Arts Group, see
the articles by and about Virlana Tkacz in this issue. For details
about the production of Blind Sight, call (212) 475-6474.
INTERCULTURAL PERFORMANCE COLLOQUIUM
"Performance in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of
Independent States Since 1989, a colloquium sponsored by the
Department of Performance Studies at New York University, will
examine the status of contemporary performance and its future
potential in the former Soviet Union and Eastern block. The collo-
quium opened on November 11, 1992 with a panel discussion that
asked the question, "Where Is Performance Going in Eastern Europe
and The Commonwealth of Independent States?" Speakers included
Grigori Gorin, Russian playwright and director; Daniel Gerouid,
6
Slavic and East European Performance Vol. 12, Nos. 2 & 3
Professor of theatre and comparative literature, CUNY Graduate
Center; Damon Popchrlstov, President, New Theatre Committee of
the International Theatre Institute; Larissa M. I. Zaleska, director and
consulting editor of the Princeton Research Forum; and Andrei Ser-
ban, director of the Hammerstein Center Arts Program, Columbia
University. The session was moderated by Richard Schachner.
As part of the colloquium, on December 9, 1992, the Yara
Arts Group will present excerpts from their work-In-progress, Blind
Sight, and In the Light in the seventh floor "loft" of the Department of
Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts.
A panel devoted to the topic of contemporary performance
In Russia will conclude the series, January 27, 1993. Professor
Anatoly Smeliansky, literary manager for the Moscow Art Theatre
Studio School, will speak about "The Russian Theatre After Yurl
Lublmov." Mikhail Shvydkol, an editor with the Kultura Publishing
House, Moscow, will examine the "Changing Economic Circum-
stances of Russian Theatre." Susan Larsen, a member of the Depart-
ment of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University, will dis-
cuss "Women in Russian Theatre Since Perestroika."
For more Information about the colloquium, contact the
Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New
York University, at (212) 998-1620.
RECENT STAGE PRODUCTIONS
The Threshold Theater Company presented the English-
language premiere of Geza Pasklmdi's comedy, No Conductor,
October 25 through November 8, 1992. The production was directed
by Pamela Billig and starred Robert Katlms.
The Players Forum, "Home of the Slavic Theatre, offered a
series of staged readings as part of its fall season, Including produc-
tions of Agathamania, by Arnost Goldflam and Twenty Minutes With
an Angel, by Alexander Vampilov (September 30); Night of the Gods,
by Miro Gavran and To Steal a March on God, by Hanna Krall
(October 16); and A Warsaw Melody, by Leonid Zorin (November
13) . Through such readings, the Players Forum hopes to
demonstrate "the marvelous heritage of classical Slavic theatre and
the vitality and genius of contemporary Slavic Theatre audiences."
An Old Actress In the Role of Dostoevsky's Wife, written by
Edvard Radzinsky and translated by Alma Law, was presented by the
Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre, October 22-23 and November 7
7
and 13, 1992. See the review and excerpts from a post-show discus-
sion In this Issue.
A stage adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor,
performed by Brad Greenqulst and directed by Roger Mrazek, was
produced by Primary Stages In association with Rundfunk, October
17-20, 1992.
The Ubu Repertory Theatre presented Yalta, by Vladimir
Volkoff, October 5, 1992. The production was directed by Shirley
Kaplan.
FILM
FUm Forum presented a two-week retrospective of the career
of Polish director Andrzej Wajda, October 2-15, 1992. Seventeen
films were presented, including Ashes and Diamonds, The Birch
Wood, Danton, Everything For Sale, A Generation, Kana/, Korczak,
Landscape Alter Battle, Man of Iron, Man of Marble, The Promised
Land, Samson, The Shadow Line, Siberian Lady Macbeth, The Wed-
ding, Without Anesthesia, and The Young Girls of Wilko.
Ukranlan director Mikhail Belikov's exploration of the nuclear
disaster at Chernobyt, Rapsad, opened April 29, 1992 for a limited
run at the Eighth Street Playhouse in New York. The film uses
Chernobyt as a metaphor for the collapse of moral values In the for-
mer Soviet Union ("rapsad" means "collapse" or "deterioration" In
Russian).
Two Russian-language films entered in the main competition
of the Cannes Film Festival were warmly received by audiences:
Vltaly Kanevsky's Independent Life and Pavel Lungln's Luna Park.
According to Janet Masslin, "each of these films attest[ed] to its
director's talent and vision, but neither [was] coherent enough to
have taken the festival by storm.
Hear Me Cry, a forty-five minute documentary by Maclej J.
Drygas about Ryszard Siwlec's suicidal protest of the Soviet invasion
of Czechoslovakia, received the 1991 Felix Prize for European
documentary film. Only recently has the film been shown In Polish
theatres.
EXHIBITIONS
The exhibition, "The Great Utopia: the Russian and Soviet
Avant-Garde, 1915-1932," features the scenic designs of several con-
8 Slavic and East European Performance Vol. 12, Nos. 2 & 3
structlvlst artists. The exhibit Is showing through December 15, 1992
at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum In New York.
"Marc Chagall and the Jewish Theatre, an exhibit at The
Guggenheim Museum Soho, is showing through January 17, 1993.
The IBM Gallery of Science and Art hosted the exhibit,
"Theatre In Revolution: Russian Avant-Garde Stage Design 1913-
1935" during the spring and summer months. Hailed as "the most
compelling show of the spring season" by the New York Times, the
exhibition featured the works of such arts as leon Bakst, Alexandra
Exter, Kazlmlr Malevich, liubov Popova, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Var-
vara Stepanova, Aleksandr Vesnin, and Georgi and Vladimir Sten-
berg, among others.
prepared by Jay Plum
9
10
Slavic and East European Performance Vol . 12, Nos. 2 & 3
SOME MOSCOW PREMIERES:
THE 1991-1992 SEASON
John Freedman
In recent years. one often heard that theatre In Moscow had
ceased to be an "event. True or not, It would be hard to say that
about the 1991-1992 season. Even with three months left to go,
there were so many interesting new productions (and ticket demand
was so great) that keeping up with them was not always easy. Fol-
lowing Is a survey (through March) of some of the season's most
talked-about productions.
Since Its Inception In 1990, Alia Slgalova's Independent
Company has stirred controversy for Its sensual productions that mix
dance and drama. The November premiere of Salome added a new
twist. Billed as Oscar Wilde's Salome, It Is, In fact, a fantasy that
owes as much to Nabokov's Lolita. Following the biblical legend, the
title role Is performed by a young girl (ten-year-old Anna Pollt-
kovskaya) whose primary antagonist Is a sort of gentle Humbert In
white. The erotic focus of the work shifts to Herod and his wife who
battle between themselves for sexual and familial supremacy.
Vladimir Makslmov's spare black and white set consists
primarily of a modernist sculpture standing upstage left. This stylized
jungle-gym ties together the themes of Salome and Lolita. A small
aluminum structure echoing the sculpture stands downstage right
next to a white chair. The performance begins as four actors emerge
to the accompaniment of rhythmic music, humping across the floor
like worms and portending the performance's sexual theme.
Wilde's and Nabokov's texts are usually replaced by
Slgalova's highly expressive choreography. The dancers' bold
sweeping movements, In which the hands often cluster around key
body parts (the head, the crotch, the breast), form a vision of people
desperately attempting to seize control of the world they Inhabit.
They stand In stark contrast to the young natural man-
nerisms. The dancers seldom perform In unison, usually doing solo
numbers or differently choreographed scenes simultaneously.
The performance's turning point Is the powerful confronta-
tion between Herod (Andrei Sergievsky) and his wife (Anna Terek-
hova) when Herodlas ultimately consents to doing the
dance of the seven veils. Slowly, the two roll across the stage In a
love-making scene while delivering Wilde's text in clipped rhythmic
phrases. The dance of the seven veils Is performed by everyone but
and John's head is served up as a chUd's ball that bounces
gaily across the stage.
The striking choreography, the set, lighting, music, and
sparse use of text gives Salome a sense of inner space and freedom
11
that leaves much to the Imagination. Indeed, one cannot help but
feel that the hour-and-a-half performance Is not quite complete.
That, however, Is but a minor drawback In this otherwise haunting
and liberating work.
Another November premiere was the graduation production
of May 32/City of Mice at the Shchukln Theatre Institute. The play
consists of two one-acts unHied only In that they appear to be the
product of someone's dreams, and they both scorn the spoken
word. The success It enjoyed (City of Mice has been performed In
Spain and Germany) prompted the Shchukln Institute to allow the
students to remain on for an additional fifth year, while they
organized Into a professional theatre.
May 32 Is a collection of scenes about a man visited by
nighttime visions based on the class's movement exercises. Most of
them are run-of-the-mill vaudeville or circus fare, but the students'
execution of them Is not. Included are a "mirror" scene, an eastern
candle dance and a circus act in which an actor cavorts on
champagne bottles. Especially Impressive is an Inspired slow-motion
Ping-Pong game in which shadow characters lift and spin the two
players In the air. They fly over the first row of the audience. diving
and tumbling in their mad pursuit of an illusive ball held on the end of
a stick by an actor who is determined to make each return more dHfi-
cult than the last. Transitions among the segments are often made
by rather tedious slow-motion war or fight scenes.
City of Mice was created by the students themselves under
the direction of their classmate Eduard Radzlukevlch. It is primarily a
musical phantasmagoria performed on an array of unorthodox instru-
ments ranging from bottles and pipes to match boxes. It begins as
an actor walks out on his hands and the lights come up to reveal a
stage littered with bodies covered by black blankets. These are the
"mice" who will come to life and act out various scenes. Among
them are a fencing match among three men that slides gracefully into
a flamenco dance performed by three women, a story of violent pas-
sion, and a music-box scene replete with dancing figurines. City of
Mice Is a kind of visual concert In which the action develops as H It
were music, flowing from one theme to the next, transforming and
being reprised.
May 32/City of Mice is unmistakably a student production.
However, the potential shown by the young actors fully justifies the
attention It has brought them.
The year's finest production, perhaps, was The Bald
Brunette, which opened at the Stanislavsky Theatre In December.
Written by the 22-year-old Daniil Gink (the son of Kama Ginkas and
Henrietta Yanovskaya) and staged by the 25-year-old David
Babltsky, It was a major sign that a new generation Is ready to make
13
14
Itself heard. Both author and director, Incidentally, are 1992 gradu-
ates of the directing faculty at the Moscow Art Theatre School .
The play begins as three half-lit figures, the Bald Man, the
Brunette, and the Woman, stand motionlessly or move mechanically
across Mark Polyakov's sparsely-decorated stage. Upstage right Is a
large battered closet that occasionally serves as a stage entrance
and exit. A green chair stands at center stage with a small television
set. Downstage left there is an enclosed transparent construction
that vaguely resembles a store window in which characters can iso-
late themselves from the others. The white backdrop splashed with
red, yellow, and green is illuminated in a kind of neon glow. Later, it
is revealed to be semi-transparent and allows for shadow scenes to
be performed backstage.
The not-so-young Bald Man and the youthful Brunette
engage in small talk, the significance of which lies primarily in what
their intonation and mannerisms reveal about their relationship. At
constant odds with one another, the two are so closely Intertwined
that, In fact, they may be elements of a single psyche. Twice, the
Bald Man Is joined by the enigmatic Woman (Lydumila Lushina) who
may be his mother or a potential lover. Conversations develop
almost randomly Into philosophical discussions, nonsensical
aphorisms, or occasionally break down entirely. When this happens,
the Bald Man and the Brunette stand on the proscenium and com-
municate through exquisite and hilarious mimetic gestures.
Whatever the medium of expression, the themes tend to center
around childhood, loneliness, complexes, and a frantic search for lib-
eration.
The Bald Man Is performed by Pyotr Mamonov, formerly of
the avant-garde rock group Zvuki Mu, and he brings to his role all of
the quirks and flights of fantasy that made him a youth idol In the
1980s. Blessed with amazing stage instincts and extraordinary body
control, Mamonov Is a whirlwind of motions, contortions, and
skewed facial expressions. Denis Burgazliev as the cool, prodding
Brunette is his perfect straight man.
The Bald Brunette brought a strikingly fresh feel to the Mos-
cow stage and gave signs that the long-suffering Stanislavsky
Theatre, which was taken over by Roman Kozak in 1991, may be
poised for a renaissance. (However, later premieres of Bulgakov's
Don Quixote, staged by Kozak, and Janusz Growacki's Fortinbras is
Drunk, staged by Dmitry Brusnikin, were not as strong.)1 The Bald
Brunette is entirely lacking In cliched stage mannerisms and "social
commentary." The very rare social references are Invariably Intended
to explore the Bald Brunette's inner reality, not to reflect the external
world. It is no wonder that young people are flocking to this play,
and not only because the lead role is played by one of its heroes.
15
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16
February saw the debut not only of an entertaining new play,
The Gamblers-21st Century, but also of a new production company
as well, Sergei Yursky's ACTors ARTel. This enterprise Is the most
recent in a trend which has seen theatres begin experimenting with a
western style of organization. To one degree or another, other com-
panies plying their trade in rented halls with actors contracted for a
specific show are the Anton Chekhov Theatre, the Oleg Borisov
Enterprise, and Roman Viktyuk's Fora Theatre.
The Gamblers-21st Century is Yursky's own adaptation of
Gogel's play set in a modern Black Sea resort hotel. In addition to
creating one new character, changing some names, and significantly
altering characterization (the tavern servant Aleksei becomes the
hotel maid Adelaida lvanovna), Yursky reshaped Gogel's text, filling it
out with excerpts from Dead Souls and other works. However, the
essence of the plot is left intact. It is still a story of a cheater being
cheated by cheats. The simple, masterfully illuminated set was
designed by David Borovsky.
The cast includes some of Moscow's best-known actors,
prompting one critic to quip that the play was "doomed to success."
He need not have been so snide, for indeed, it Is a sparkling actors
showcase. The "local" group of shysters Is especially effective. Alek-
sandr Kalyagln as Uteshitelny, Vyacheslav Nevinny as Krugel (a mas-
sive, modern cop) and Evgeny Evstigneev as Glov (a dissembling
professor in town to auction off some paintings) simply put on an
actor's workshop. Following Eustigneev's sudden death a week after
the premiere, Yursky himself took over as Glov. Those who don't
already know the play's outcome would never guess that this odd lot
of sincere, nervous, and bumbling card sharks have a real surprise in
store for the sleazy city slicker, lkharev (Leonid Filatov). When the
famous stand-up comic Gennady Khazanov appears late in the play
as the well-brushed Dergunov (changed from Gogel's Zamukhrysh-
kin), he makes the lot of them look like amateurs. At least for a short
while.
The production does have its share of flat moments although
one senses that the culprit is the very reason for Its success. The
simultaneous presence on stage of so many top-notch actors
creates a kind of tug-of-war for the play's center. Even in Gogel's
text there is a good deal of sitting around and, perhaps, not enough
care was taken to fill those scenes with an inner dynamic. Ultimately,
however, the staging's minor flaws are far outweighed by its suc-
cesses.
The Gamblers-21st Century is both a bold example of how to
go about modernizing a classic play as It is a throwback to another
era when good actors carried the burden of a theatrical performance.
Undoubtedly by coincidence, the March appearance of What
Are You Doing in a Tux? at the Modern Play Theatre faintly echoed
17
The Gamblers. It, too, Is an adaptation of a classic (Chekhov's The
Proposal) and It, too, sports a cast of bonafide stars. On that note,
however, the comparison ends.
Director losif Raikhelgauz staged a whimsical mock opera/
mock ballet that both pokes fun at tradition and ever pays it its due.
The witty libretto and perky music (by Dmitry Sukharev and Sergei
Nikltln, respectively) is played out against an Ingenious cartoon-like
set by Boris Lysikov consisting of several "drops" that slide from side
to side and reveal a seemingly endless number of scenes. At one
point, onstage motion Is simulated by the actors walking in place as
a long canvas is rolled from right to left behind them. Chekhov's
three stock vaudevillian characters are distributed perfectly among
actors who obey to the letter the laws of the genre while filling their
roles with very individual personalities.
The performance begins as Albert Fllozov's sincere and
slightly nervous Lomov stands in front of the stage quietly explaining
his desire to get married: "I need propriety and regularity In my .. .
life. The casual pause, shifted from the position noted In Chekhov's
second scene, immediately signals the teasing quality that forms the
basis of the performance. This is one of only a few scenes that are
not sung but spoken. Filozov's positioning and his intimate manner
of speech set up a direct line of communication between actor and
audience. At the premiere, when Lomov observed that he was cold,
one spectator responded naturally, "it's hot in here!" Filozov kindly
acknowledged the response with a twinkle in his eye and went on as
though It all were planned.
Lomov's main antagonists, Chubukov and his daughter, are
performed by the imposing Aleksei Petrenko and the sultry Lyubov
Polishchuk. The hefty, unkempt Petrenko, doing butterfly steps and
"flying" from the stage, increases the humor by doing everything in
dead seriousness. Polishchuk, like a provincial prima donna, is both
irascible and ironically condescending. When she joins Petrenko or
Filozov for an aria or pas de deux, the clash of stage personalities
and the total harmony of actors' talent is a combination that can't
help but produce boldly comic results.
What Are You Doing in a Tux? ends as Petrenko aims his
cane at a cardboard cutout of the Art Theatre seagull that hangs over
the stage and then shoots It down. Uke the performance itself, the
gesture implies the healthy mix of reverence and irreverence which
the director feels for his rich theatrical heritage.
The five productions discussed here are the cream of last
season's crop in Moscow, but they hardly exhaust the Jist of
noteworthy stagings. Ekaterina Vasilyeva's return to the stage at the
Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre in two plays (From the Life of Rain
Worms, staged by Mikhail Kochetkov, and Women's Games, staged
by Krzysztof Zanussi) showed that the Art Theatre still has life in It
18
even if it is experiencing difficult times. Grigory Gurvich's I Tap About
Moscow at the Bat cabaret continues this theatre's attractive mix of
dry-eyed sentimentalism and theatrical parody. Mark Rozovsky's
staging of Triumphal Square at the Theatre-Studio "At Nikitsky Gates
is a memorial to Vsevolod Meyerhold that struggles through a slug-
gish first half before hitting Its stride in the Gogolian scenes of Meyer-
hold's interrogation by the NKVD. Finally, the young Sergei
Zhenovach's production of King Lear at the Malaya Bronnaya seats
the audience on the stage and seeks to personalize the grand scope
of Shakespeare's tragedy. In this case, the results were mixed, but,
the effort was indicative of Moscow's 1991-1992 season as a whole.
New names combined with old in a season of risk-taking and innova-
tion. In several cases, the results were genuine theatrical "events."
1Kozak's attempt to revive the Stanislavsky Theatre fizzled
quickly. He resigned as artistic director at the end of the season.
19
THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL MONTH AND THE WITKACY WEEK:
CRACOW 1992
Daniel Gerould
Uke the other theatres of Eastern Europe, the Polish theatre
faces the problem of how to survive without the previous high levels
of state support--in some cases without any subsidy whatsoever.
Perhaps because Poland began to convert to a market economy
immediately after the demise of Communism In 1989, Its artists and
impresarios have had to learn quickly to become capitalist
entrepreneurs. Foundations, festivals, patrons, and sponsors are the
essential Ingredients for success. I should like to discuss this quest
for funding in relation to specific instances of theatre-going and
festival -attending that I experienced during several trips to Poland in
1992.
An attractive site is a powerful asset. The ancient capital of
Poland, unscathed by the destruction of World War II, Cracow is one
of the most beautiful medieval cities of Central Europe and a cultural
center of many resources, proud of its Jagellonlan University,
splendid market place, and Saint Mary's Church with the Wit Stwosz
altarpiece celebrated by Kantor in Let the Artists Die. Following the
success of the mammoth two-week Mroiek Festival in June 1990
(SEEP vol. 10, no. 3, Winter 1990), Cracow, confident of its rich
potential and proven abilities, hosted a much more ambitious interna-
tional event, the European Cultural Month held in June 1992 at the
Initiative of the European Community. The Cultural Month brought
together thousands of artists from Europe, America, and the Middle
East in hundreds of events devoted to music, film, theatre, and the
visual arts. Once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Cracow Is
well positioned as a cross-roads for highlighting the artistic ties
between East and West and displaying the variety of European cul-
tures.
The artistic director of the project, J6zef Opalski, who had
organized the Mroiek Festival, deserves much credit for the high
quality and broad scope of the performances and exhibitions. Finan-
cial support came from the Commission of the European Com-
munities in Brussels, the Ministry of Culture and the Fine Arts of the
Republic of Poland, the City of Cracow, and the Government of the
Republic of Italy, as well as private and national culture foundations
and councils, airlines, and businesses.
Within the total program of art, music, and film, there were
two special events: the Third Festival of Jewish Culture and the Wit-
kacy Week, which I attended in its entirety and wish to describe in
some detail after first giving a general idea of the whole enterprise.
Theatre occupied a central position during the entire month--not sur-
prising given the pre-eminence of Cracow's Stary Theatre and, of
course, Kantor's Cricot II. Many of the theatrical events were several
years old, but had not yet been seen outside their place of origin.
The European Cultural Month had as one of its principal functions to
bring together the best productions and make them accessible to a
broad public both Polish and international. I shall mention In passing
some of these to give an idea of the scope. The Third Festival of
Jewish Culture featured a symposium on Bruno Schulz and anum-
ber of performances based on his works, including Rudimentaries by
the Mandala Theatre of Cracow with the Julia Pascal Theatre of Great
Britain, Dead Season at Drohobycz by the Insomnia Theatre ASBL of
Brussels, Cinnamon Shops by the Kreatur Theatre of Berlin, and
Loneliness by the State Puppet Theatre Banialuka of Bielsko-Biafa
and the Compagne Lazaro of Paris.
In the context of the general program, the Stary Theatre was
represented by four of Its outstanding directors. Jerzy Jarockl's
austere and elegant production of Gombrowlcz's Marriage--his
seventh staging of this play--was acclaimed as the best Polish
theatrical performance of 1991. The Marriage was already on the
festival circuit; I saw it as part of the Odeon Festival of Eastern Euro-
pean Theatre in France in January, and it then appeared at the War-
saw Theatrical Meetings In February. Andrzej Wajda's offering for
the Cracow Cultural Month was his fourth version of Hamlet from
1989 (seen In New York at the Pepsico Festival at Purchase).
Wajda and his wife, the designer Krystyna Zachwatowlcz.
now have a foundation established in their name, The Kyoto-Cracow
Foundation for the Propagation of Japanese Art in Poland. Wajda
took his Stary Theatre production of Wyspianskl's Wedding to Japan
in 1991 and exhibited his Japanese drawings In Poland. Former
Senator Wajda, who has now abandoned politics and returned to a
full-time artistic career. made the following explanation of his commit-
ment to Polish classics in an interview with Le Figaro when The Wed-
ding was shown at the Odeon Festival : "I had hoped that liberty
regained would permit me to stay in the realm of art without thinking
of politics. It was a naive idea. Liberty has not solved the problems,
and I think that artists in Poland will always have political duties. But
they will not be tied to immediate action; they are rather duties with
regard to the tradition of the past. In the disintegration of society it is
necessary to maintain Polish culture confronted by the Influx of a
new culture, which Is very Americanized."
Rudolf Zlol'o's Midsummer Night's Dream, premiered In
March, is a thoroughly theatricalist and knockout treatment of the
text, stressing gags and acrobatics, much in the manner of his Prin-
cess Turandot of the previous year. Krystian Lupa's Malte, or A
Prodigal Son's Triptych (1991), based on Rainer Maria Alike's prose,
Is the latest In the director's experiments with Viennese life and cui-
21
ture for which he does the adaptation and stage design as well as the
directing, following his version of Musil's Man Without Qualities.
Famous for his long rehearsal periods and long performances, Lupa
has become one of the most Influential of the post-Grotowskl direc-
tors; an extensive exhibit tracing his career Is on display In the lobby
of the Stary Theatre.
Despite all these signs of vitality, there Is a certain malaise
present at the Stary. Even though it has been designated one of fif-
teen national theatres dedicated to the preservation of national cul-
ture and will therefore continue to be financed by the state, It Is a
gigantic empire that must cut its personnel. At present It has two
hundred and seventy people on the payroll, of whom eighty-six are
actors. During the 1990-1991 season, the Stary presented twelve
new creations and thirty-three revivals for a total of seven hundred
and twenty-one performances In its four different theatres. The
actors have already organized a foundation In order to protect their
Interests.
Other events at the Cultural Month included a performance
of Janusz Life Is a Miracle, an appearance by Henryk
Tomaszewski's Wroctaw Pantomime Theatre, a showing of the film
version of Mahabharata and a lecture by Peter Brook to celebrate a
Peter Brook Day, and a Festival of Historical Mounds, culminating in
a celebration of the seventh-century Krakus Mound with a proces-
sion, carnival and wake, and oak rite. Gardzlenice presented
Carmina Burana and The Life of Archpriest Awakum, there was a
retrospective of all twenty-two of Pasolini's films, a Klimt exhibition,
and a showing of El Greco's Laocoon on loan from Washington, as
well as dozens of magnificent jazz and classical concerts.
The Cultural Month, which strove for class and style, issued
an attractive book-size program in Polish and English on quality
paper with different colored edges and lettering according to the
kinds of events: music, theatre, fine arts, or film. Throughout the
month a news bulletin, To the East From the West, appeared daily.
Ranging from four to eight pages, the journal contained articles,
interviews, reviews, information about events, photographs, paintings
and drawings. In no sense a throwaway publication, these issues-
unpretentious and often witty and amusing--provide valuable back-
ground documentation on the performances.
Now to the Witkiewicz Week, which in Its variety and plenty
demonstrated to what extent the playwright-painter-philosopher has
entered into the cultural life of contemporary Poland. The program
consisted of productions, exhibits, symposia, and a visit to
Zakopane. Although he had been relegated to the margins by the
literary establishment during his lifetime and treated as a danger to
be contained by the communist regime, Witkacy and his friend Bruno
Schulz were the dominating artistic personalities of the European
Cultural Month. The range of Witkacy's accomplishments In the dif-
ferent arts was effectively revealed; his work In various media
appeared throughout the city. There was an exhibit of Witkacy In the
world at the theatre section of the History Museum of the City of
Cracow and another of Polish postwar productions at the 9fowackl
Theatre. Several dozen pastel portraits done by Wltkacy as part of
his mock business enterprise, "The Portrait Painting Film, were on
loan from the Sfupsk collection and on display at the Museum of
Archaeology.
The Rules of the Portrait Painting Firm, which the artist drew
up to keep his customers in line, served as the basic material for an
inventive one-woman cabaret show created and performed by Beata
Fudalej, a young actress from the Stary Theatre. In the Intimate sur-
roundings of a small Cracow art gallery, Fudalej recited the texts,
using a blackboard for diagrams, and sang poems by Wltkacy set to
music by Zbigniew Raj and Stanisfaw Radwan. Cracow Television
organized an entire evening of music and song from productions of
Wltkiewicz's plays, Involving such well known singers and com-
posers as Marek Grechuta, Micharurbaniak, and Zbigniew Raj.
Of the many stage versions of Witkacy's plays presented at
the Cultural Month, the most unexpected and hilarious was the
simultaneous performance of The Madman and the Nun by three
theatres under the direction of Krzysztof Jasinski of Theatre STU.
Started in 1965 as a student theatre and turning professional in the
mid-1970s, STU has survived all the vicissitudes of recent Polish his-
tory and emerged as an independent private enterprise supported by
the STU Foundation which Jasit\ski established in 1989. Many of
Poland's most talented actors, directors, poets, critics, composers,
designers, and artists have worked with STU at one time or another.
Now STU has become a complex theatrical organization,
taking over the functions that were previously performed for it by the
state. It has its own theatre school at the STU Center for Theatrical
Explorations on a sprawling estate outside Cracow with stables and
an eighteenth-century mansion, where guests can be accom-
modated and receptions held (such as the banquet for the new Wit-
kiewicz Foundation given during the Cultural Month). But that's not
all . The STU Foundation has its own Theatrical Agency that pro-
duces on an impresario basis. It runs a recording studio; publishes
programs, books, and posters; organizes concerts, festivals, and
outdoor spectacles; offers legal services; and collects paintings.
If STU's plunge into the world of commerce seems formid-
able, I am happy to say that Jasinski's Madman retains the freedom
of spirit that has always been the trademark of the best Polish
theatre. Here Is how it evolved into a triple play. a s i ~ s k i Initially
directed The Madman in Cracow at STU in 1986; he next repeated
the same production in Minsk at the Gorky Theatre with a Russian
23
24
Katarzyna Utwin and Dariusz Gnatowski in Witkiewicz's
The Madman and the Nun, Theatre STU, Cracow
Slavic and East European Performance Vol . 12, Noa. 2 & 3
cast In 1989 (the first Russian staging of Wltklewicz); and he finally
recreated the production at the Contemporary Theatre In Wrootaw In
1991 . For the Wltklewlcz Week of the European Cultural Month,
Jasirl'ski first presented the Minsk Russian version, acted by Alek-
sander Tkaczonok as Walpurg and Anna Malanklna as Sister Anna
with a Stanlslavsklan psychological Intensity. Then, after a short
intermission Jasinski presented the entire play again combining all
three casts, first replacing actors from one production by those from
another individually in shifts, and finally bringing them all on stage
together. What ensued was precisely controlled mayhem of a purely
theatrical nat ure, true to the spirit of Wltkacy's Madman In the
postcommunist era. In 1992 the Theatre STU Foundation published
conference papers, Wltkacy in the Theatre at the End of the Century
(In Polish and English, edited by the theatre's literary manager,
Edward Chudzltlski), exploring the future of the playwright In Poland
now that a politicized Witkacy is no longer needed as an ally In the
struggle against totalitarianism.
Although Wltklewicz appears to have a secure place In
Polish culture, exactly what that position should be still remains a
subject of controversy. Members of the younger generation argue
that the rebellious Witkiewicz, despite his being pre-empted by the
official custodians of high culture, really belongs to the countercul-
ture of rock and jazz musicians who find inspiration In his work. The
Cultural Month provided evidence of Witkacy's ability to appeal to
both worlds In the ballet lnsatiabiliw with a jazz score by the
trumpeter and composer Tomasz Stailko. Choreographed by Zofla
Rudnicka for the Wielki Theatre of Warsaw In 1987, the first part of
the ballet tells the story of the novel, the second presents a series of
peyote visions based on Witkiewicz's drug studies.
The younger generation's enthusiasm for Witkacy could also
be seen in the many student productions from the Polish theatre
schools. The Water Hen, for example, was a diploma production by
the last-year students at the State Academy of Theatre In Warsaw,
directed by the well -known actor and rector of the school , Jan
Englert. Full of light-hearted verve and comic invention, the perform-
ance incorporated some dialogue from They to comment on the
plight of the theatre In postcommunlst Poland. The production
immediately moved on to Amsterdam as one of two Witkiewicz
entries at the Third Annual International Theatreschool Festival, the
other being a Spanish Madman and the Nun from the Real Escuela
de Arte Dramatlco In Madrid directed by Jarostaw Bielski.
The significant role played by Italy In the European Cultural
Month was reflected in several Italian and joint Polish-Italian produc-
tions. Students from the Centro Universltarlo Teatrale of Perugla
staged an Italian version of The Mother under the direction of Jerzy
Stuhr of the Stary Theatre, who years before had played Leon in
25
Jerzy Jarecki's celebrated production In 1972. The Teatro de
L.aboratori of the Centro T eatro Ateneo at the Universit8 dl Roma "La
Sapienza presented In the English their conflatlon of The Water Hen
and Macbeth, called Metamorphosis, or The Chain of Dreams, which
was directed by Wiesna Mend. Giovanni Pamplgllone, an Italian
director known for his Witkacy productions and translations, staged
La PI/lola Verde (The Green Pill) , his compilation of scenes from
Dainty Shapes and Hairy Apes, The Mother, The Water Hen, They,
The Cuttlefish, and The Shoemakers. Stylishly costumed and acted,
it was the joint creation of the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Dramatica
"Silvio d'Amico" dl Roma and L'Atelier di Sessa Aurunca, and
cosponsored by the lstituto Italiano di Cultura in Cracow.
Along with Innovative forms of sponsorship, Imaginative col-
lations of texts and theatre companies were much in vogue during
the Cultural Month. Zofia Kalil1ska, an actress former1y with Kantor's
Cricot II, brought together her own Akne Theatre (named after the
heroine of Witkacy's novel, Bungo) and the Meeting Ground Com-
pany of Nottingham for The Sale of Demonic Women, a performance
piece that viewed Witkiewicz's famous demonic women from a femi-
nist perspective as embodiments of strength and the power of the
will. Using acting styles based on psychodrama and trance, the
international cast of four women and one man appeared in striking
mirrored frames and articulated their wildest desires in a mixture of
English, German, and Polish.
The ultimate composite theatre piece based on Witkacy's life
and work was Jerzy Grzegorzewski's So-Called Humanity Gone
Mad, the title of the author's last, lost play from 1938. Weaving
together texts from thirteen plays (chiefly They) and the novel,
Farewell to Autumn, Grzegorzewskl created a dream-like picture of
Witkacy's fate that reflects the position of the artist in society in a
period of violent transition. The director's second version of the work
(the first was given at the Warsaw Studio in 1987) , So-Called
Humanity Gone Mad premiered at the Stary Theatre in 1992 with
Jerzy Stuhr in the central role, music by Stani9hlw Radwan, and
design and costumes by Barbara Hanicka.
A much-anticipated production, the Warsaw Theatre
School's Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf, did not take place
because of a great loss suffered by the Polish theatre. Tadeusz.tom-
nicki, regarded by many as Poland's finest actor, who was to direct a
group of his students in Metaphysics, died on February 22, 1992. He
suffered a fatal heart attack on stage while he was rehearsing King
Lear at the Nowy Theatre in Poznan. Here I must pause for a
moment to say a word about this controversial figure whose death
comments ironically on the new Poland that in revulsion has tried to
wash its hands of its communist past. No one questions the actor's
greatness, but many regret his politics.
27
..tomnlckl was a long-time communist and a member of the
Party's Central Committee, positions that earned him the mistrust of
Solidarity. In the 1970s, -tomnlckl benefited from his support of the
Party leader Edward Glerek; In 1976 he was rewarded with a spe-
cially created theatre of his own (Teatr na Woll) . The famous actor
quit the Party only at the eleventh hour, in 1981 after the imposition
of martial law. In his death, the atheist..t.omnlckl proved an embar-
rassment to the pious, overwhelmingly Catholic government and
cultural establishment. in his will,..t.omnicki insisted on a civU funeral
without a priest officiating and the singing of a Leonard Cohen ballad
Instead of a mass. In covering the funeral, state-run Polish television
passed over the actor's antireligious specifications in silence.
Among-t:..omnlcki's many oustanding roles were Brecht's
Arturo Ui In 1962, Glumov in Ostrovsky's Diary of a Scoundrel In
1965 (directed by Tovstonogov), Bond's Lear in 1974, Goya in
Buero's Sleep of Reason in 1976 (directed by Wajda), Sallerl in
Schaffer's Amadeus In 1981 (directed by Polanski) at his own Teatr
na Woli, and Beckett's Krapp in 1985. He was an adventurous
manager and director. In 1979 he directed the first production of
Tadeusz R6zewicz's controversial play, Dead and Buried, which out-
raged Polish patriots and occasioned protests because of its riveting
picture of an inarticulate, animal-like member of a World War II
partisan unit who is tried and executed for raping a woman. At the
time of his death,.....(omnicki was appearing on Polish television in a
six-hour drama, Stalin, by the Chilean author Gason Salvatore, which
dramatizes a series of meetings between the aging Stalin and a fic-
tional Jewish actor named Sager who, like the historical Mikhoels,
starred as King Lear. The two discuss the nature of theatre and the
playing of roles, Stalin sometimes taking the part of Lear while Sager
is assigned that of the Fool. With Jerzy Trela of the Stary Theatre as
Stalin,..t.omnicki gave one of the most powerful performances of his
career in a production directed by Kazimierz Kutz (who the year
before won a prize for his television version of the still explosive
Dead and Buried) . The European Cultural Month dedicated June 4
to celebrating the accomplishments of .t:omnicki, the Lear who died
on stage.
The Witkacy Week reached its climax with a trip to Za-
kopane, the picturesque town in the Tatras Mountains near the
Czech border where Witkacy spent most of his life. There the fea-
tured event was a production of The Madman and the Nun, directed
by Jan Paszek, one of Poland's outstanding actors who has recently
resigned from the Stary Theatre. He now heads the Cracow Founda-
tion of Theatre Artists, established in 1991 "to realize various theatri-
cal and stage events of high artistic quality, to find sources of funding
for these events, to organize promotion and advertising, to popu-
larize the newest methods of management and marketing in culture.
The Foundation Is an attempt to deal with the difficulties facing Polish
culture, which Paszek defines In the following terms: "There are no
Institutions for promoting and advertising young actors, directors,
and stage managers. There is no system of fair competition. There
is no employment for an increasing number of young promising
theatre people. This has been caused not only by the decay of com-
munist state funding, but also by the fact that Polish culture Is not
prepared for unsubsldlzed existence In free market conditions.
For his production of The Madman, Paszek, who plays the
role of Walpurg himself, has chosen only young actors In t heir
twenties from among his former students at the Cracow Theatre
School. The kinetic set is the creation of Jerzy Kalina, a well-known
visual artist who works in the theatre. A co-production of the Cracow
Foundation and a Japanese sponsor, Misako Ueda, Paszek's Mad-
man has gone to Tokyo for a Japanese Witklewicz Festival at the X
Theatre, which will also feature both a Japanese and Norwegian
Water Hen as well as exhibitions of portraits and photographs.
Unfortunately missing from the Cultural Month program was
a performance of Andrzej Dziuk's Witklewlcz Theatre of Zakopane,
one of the pioneering private theatres in Poland, and an Important
cultural center In the T atras, supported by its own Witkiewicz Theatre
Foundation and by municipal funds. In the winter I had been able to
see Dziuk's version of Witkacy's The Mother, called Katzenjammer
(1990), and Wedekind {1991), a collation of the Lulu plays, but during
the summer the Witklewlcz Theatre was on a foreign tour.
The Witkiewicz Week ended in Cracow with productions of
Gyubal Wahazar as a puppet drama and The Beelzebub Sonata as
an opera. i e ~ w Hejna's Wrooraw's Puppet Theatre (founded in
1946) gave a truculent and grainy reading of Witkiewicz's play about
the demented dictator of a sixth-dimensional realm, conceived as the
second part of a trilogy called The Phenomenon of Power (the other
parts being Kafka' s Trial and Goethe's Faust) . The puppet Wahazar
and his senile court were shown as grotesque zombies, while the
precocious child Piggyklns who exposes their hollowness was
played by a young actress. The final event was a gala production at
the srowacki Theatre by the Cracow Opera. Edward Bogusf'awskl's
1977 operatic version of The Beelzebub Sonata--Witkacy's play
about a Hungarian musician who sells his soul to the devil in order to
compose a diabolical sonata--was given a new staging by J6zef
Opalski, the artistic director of the European Cultural Month.
29
30
THE YARA ARTS GROUP WORKS IN KIEV
Virlana Tkacz
On Monday August 19, 1991 I was in Kiev. A ringing phone
woke me at 7:00 that morning. It was Dorian Yurchuk, our stage
manager.
said.
"Why are you calling so ear1y?"
"Vir1ana, I have two pieces of news you must hear now," he
"Tell me the good news first.
"The news is bad and worse, he answered.
"Then tell me the bad news first.
"Peter is very sick.
I knew that Peter McCabe, one of the actors I had brought
from New York, was not well. He had stomach problems, and the
food in Kiev was irritating his condition.
"We should get him to a doctor tomorrow, I said.
"No," Dorian answered, "we should get him to New York
tomorrow."
"What can be worse?" I wondered out loud.
"There's been a coup.
There was a long pause. I was busy trying to imagine how
we were going to get Peter out of the country and how I could
replace him in our show, In the Light, which was to open in Kiev that
Friday. Dorian's final bit of news never penetrated my thoughts.
"There's been a coup," Dorian repeated, "in Moscow, and it
doesn't look good.
After a month in the Soviet Union I felt pretty hardened to
any bad news. I had come to Ukraine to create a theatre piece with
actors from the Yara Arts Group in New York and local Ukrainian
actors. We had already completed t hree week-long theatre work-
shops in Kiev, Kharkiv and Lviv. We had found seven young
Ukrainian actors to complement the five Yara actors who came from
New York. And now we were just finishing our first week of rehears-
als on the newly created bilingual text with a cast that had no com-
mon language. I was one of the few bilinguals which meant that I
had to both direct and then immediately translate my own directions.
The insurmountable problems that our project generated on a daily
basis and the difficulties of everyday existence in the USSR no longer
shocked me. I would brace myself by expecting the worst and
usually I wasn't far off the mark. But I never expected political events
in Moscow would threaten our project. I listened to my heart beat for
a moment.
I remembered that just Saturday Peter had noticed that the
New York Times headline which was part of our script was from
31
August 17, 1921, exactly seventy years ago. How Incredible the
seventy-year-old news about the ravages of clvU strife In Kiev seemed
to us that day. August 17, 1991 was a glorious sunny Saturday In
Kiev. There were crowds on every corner downtown, enjoying their
dose of Glasnost. How far away a civil war seemed on Saturday, but
how real the possibility loomed on Monday.
"Dorian, call the American Consulate and ask them to help
us get Peter out. I want to talk to everyone before we start rehears-
als. I'll call mama."
The "mama" I called that morning was Ellen Stewart of La
Mama Experimental Theatre in New York, the mother of the interna-
tional avant-garde, who had come to Kiev a few days eartier to see
what her "babies were up to. The Yara Arts Group was born at La
Mama the previous year. Yara creates theatre that focuses on the
ideas and cultures of the East. We came together while creating A
Light From the East, a play about Les Kurbas, an avant-garde theatre
director from Kiev from the 1920s (SEEP vc:A. 11, no. 1, Spring 1991 ).
We called the piece a docudream and interwove documentary
material on Kurbas with the poetry of Pavlo Tychyna and our own
dreams. Now we were in Kiev, where together with the Ukranian
actors, we were creating a bilingual ver:;lon of our show we now
called In the Light.
When I spoke to Ellen that morning, she advised me to
change the placement of a song in the show, urged me to give the
Ukranian actors a more active part, and as always, told me to cut
some of the talking. In New York we had always wondered how
Kurbas managed to concentrate on theatre in 1920-21 during the civil
war In Ukraine. Talking to Ellen that morning I understood that we
had stumbled on the answer when we wrote, "You do what you have
to do."
That afternoon Ellen opened the press conference on our
show by saying that La Mama existed today because thirty years ago
a Ukrainian landlord In New York was willing to rent her, an African
American, the space where she started her theatre. She was there-
fore very happy that Yara, a company from her theatre had initiated
the first Ukrainian-American joint theatre project In Kiev. She was
especially pleased that we were doing a piece about an experimental
theatre director from Kiev, whose work had been banned here for so
long, and that we were doing it with local actors. She then Intro-
duced me, and the directors of the three theatres In Ukraine who
were taking part In the project, as well as all the participants In our
show. There was a lot of press, which surprised us. And on such a
momentous day, the day of the coup, the Kiev TV broadcast inter-
views with us.
In the Light opened August 23, 1991 at the Franko Theatre In
Kiev, the home of the National Theatre Company. We played on the
main stage, but changed the shape of the auditorium. We shut the
fire curtain and had the audience on stage with us sitting against the
back wall . This allowed us to use all the lighting equipment of the
theatre and stUI maintain the chamber atmosphere of our La Mama
production. The show played to sold out houses every night and the
audience reaction was overwhelming. Una Kostenko, Ukraine's
most prominent poet, called it "drama for the twenty-first century.
There was tremendous local support for the project, including mem-
bers of Par1iament, officials In the cultural institutions, the Society of
Ukrainian Scholars, the Student Brotherhood and numerous artists.
In Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine with a popula-
tion of almost two million, In the Light performed at the Shevchenko
National Theatre, formerly the Berezii--Les Kurbas's theatre from
1926-1933. Among the very special guests was Julia Fomina, a close
friend of Valentyna Chystiakova, one of the characters In our play.
After the performance there was a very emotional moment as she
met Yara's Amy Grappell, who played Chystiakova in the production.
In Lviv, In the Light played at the beautiful Kurbas Theatre.
The Lviv newspaper, Ratusha, wrote, "How fortunate that this multi-
cultural collective is engaged in such interesting and beneficial work.
The presentation of In the Light has impact on many people here
precisely because in it young Americans of East and West European,
Asian, and African heritages are seen to be interested in Ukrainian art
and engaged by it. Larysa Kadyrova, an actress at Zankovetska
Theatre in Lviv, was quoted as saying, "How wonderful it was to see
young people understand Kurbas' s work and respect him. To
respect the past and to understand it on your own terms, to recreate
it in your own voice, in your movement, i n your rhythms and
dynamics--perhaps in this lies the rebirth about which there' s been
so much talk these days." The Rivne paper wrote: "Kurbas's life was
cut short, but his theatrical dreams are being tested on the stage
before our eyes ... The past and the future find closure here. And
they find this closure within us, the audience ... ."
The project has created the basis for future exchanges. Yara
has been invited to come to Kharkiv with its new production, Explo-
sions, for the Berezillnternational Theatre Festival. We also hope to
create our next piece, Blind Sight, together with actors from Ukraine.
33
MEETING A DREAM ... MEETING YOURSELF
Dmytro Kotelenets
I first met New York director Vlrlana Tkacz by chance. She
was being Interviewed at an official meeting with young Ukranlan art-
ists at the Kiev Actor's Building. (I walked in with some friends.) The
Interview was laden with generalities until one of the young artists
asked: "What do you really do in New York, Vlrlana?" The Ice broke
as she started on her favorite topic--theatre. She told us about her
new troupe, about her last show, about La Mama Experimental
Theatre where she works. This was a woman obsessed. Her stories,
words and gestures, and the photographs she showed-enchanted
us. I remember thinking: how fascinating It would be to work with
her someday!
A half year later, my utopian winter dream came true.
Thanks to supporters In America and Ukraine, the Yara Arts Group-
directed by Virlana Tkacz--came to Ukraine. In July and August of
1991, members of Yara worked with local actors to create a bilingual
version of their New York show, A Light From the East (SEEP vol. 11,
no. 1, Spring 1991 ), about an avant-garde Ukranian director, Les
Kurbas. (I was one of the students from the Kiev Theatre Institute
permitted to observe rehearsals.)
The first work session revealed Virlana's principles and con-
victions. Casting the show, she sought out people interested in the
project and then demanded their total dedication. The project
became everyone's primary responsibility. This Is how she works
and this attitude is reflected In the production. In the Light, as the
Ukranlan version of the show was called, was created by the director
and was the reflection of the director's inner world, her personality,
her emotions, her flaws; a reflection of the complex labyrinth of her
soul. She strives toward the eternal--to unite the past, present, and
future. Many epochs, cultures and people come together in the
sophisticated polyphonic structure of the show.
Virlana's Inspiration has been Les Kurbas, a unique figure In
Ukranian theatre. In the Light organically weaves contemporary his-
torical events into the stories of the life and creative explorations of
Kurbas . . . Also included are fragments from the works of the great
Ukranian philosophers and poets Hryhori Skovoroda and Taras
Shevchenko, as well as the poetry of Pavlo Tychyna. In Tychyna's
poems we find the portrayal of various inner states and experiences.
Historical periods range from the times of the ancient Bacchae to the
events of the French Revolution; from the reign of Queen Semiramis
of Babylon to bloody contemporary events. Here we also find a
bridge between Kurbas' s time and ours: losyp Hirniak, an actor in
Kurbas' s Berezil Theatre in the 1920s who kept the memory of
34
Kurbas alive In far-away America, preserving It for us In his
"Memoirs." He also shared his memories with children as tales about
a mythical homeland that resembles summers on the Delaware. One
of those children was Vir1ana. We, ourselves, are also present In the
play, searching for our history in a New York coffee shop, and In
places dear to every Ukranian. In the show we also hear the taped
voice of Roman Cherkashyn, another actor from the Berezll Theatre,
one more link to Hirniak, Kurbas, and history. We reflect on the past,
give life to the dream, and project the dream Into the future.
All these layers of In the Light embody Vir1ana Tkacz's Image
of Kurbas, her experiences of theatre, history, time, and space. The
show Is a penetrating look at the essence of Kurbas's Ideas and
hopes. Director Virlana Tkacz has also captured the spirit and the
atmosphere of the times in which this prominent innovator and his
collaborators worked. All the audience members Interviewed after
the show confirmed that this was a major artistic achievement of the
production.
Another achievement Is the powerful result of Vlr1ana's col-
laboration with composer Roman Hurko from Canada. The emo-
tional and spiritual spectrum of the music enriches the show. The
musical imagery Is based on Kurbas's thoughts about poetry, as well
as Virlana's experimentations with poetry in performance. Poetry
and music, so essential to Les Kurbas, are infused Into the story of
his life and assume a crucial place In the show. The most emotional
and powerful moments of the show are the scenes In which historical
facts are Interwoven with poetic Images, and visuals are
accompanied by music.
The conceptual high points of the piece are the songs that
are essential to the action of the show. These Include the "didactic"
poetry of the philosopher Hryhori Skovoroda from the eighteenth
century and the imagistic poetry of Pavlo Tychyna from the early
twentieth century. Roman Hurko's musical Interpretation provides
these poems with universal significance. He uses a variety of musi-
cal styles. "In the Orchestra of the Cosmos Is sung In English by
Shona Tucker, an African American actress, as a spiritual.
Skovoroda's "Twenty-Eighth Song Is performed by all the actors in
two languages, Ukranian and English, as Is most of the show.
Polyphonic singing In the original high style is blended with a "recita-
tive" In the colloquial. Lyrics both sung and recited echo each other,
and seem to pour Into the souls of the audience as If from the
heavens . ..
The variety of genre, style, and the Intonations of the music
testifies to Roman Hurko's skill and his poetic spirit. The complex
texture of the theatre piece created by Vlrlana Tkacz stimulated the
composer's creativity in a collaborative display of artistic talent.
35
One other feature of the Ukranian production should be
mentioned. Virlana had conducted theatre workshops to select
participants for the "Ukrainian half" of the show. One of the actors
cast from these workshops was Maryanna Sadovska of the Lviv
Young Theatre. In the show this young woman became the embodi-
ment of the director's lyrical "self." She absorbed Vir1ana's thoughts,
experiencing them as her own. As a result she was able to "recreate"
Vir1ana's first childhood memory of meeting a wonderful gray-haired
old man, who asked: "Have you ever heard a cuckoo bird, child?" It
was this meeting with losyp Himlak which influenced Vir1ana's future.
It became the reason why she, in her life, and Maryanna, in this
show, "glanced into time's telescope .. ."
"Time, measure, space and number .. ." that's how Virlana
ends her poem. Her spirit is inseparably tied to her work, her theatre
play-poem. The final words of the show are: "I had this dream. I
saw us in the future." The past is inseparably bound to the future.
Special thanks to Cathy Zadoretzky for assistance with translation.
THEATRE'S VELVET REVOLUTION
Melinda Jo Guttman
In August 1992, I met with Ladlslava Petlskova, the director
of the International Theatre Institute In Prague, Czechoslovakia. The
ITIIn Prague has offices which border on the Old Town Square, the
most magical array of buildings in one of the most beautiful cities In
Europe. The eighteenth-century National Theatre, the oldest theatre
building in Prague, has re-opened and was perfonning Mozart's The
Magic Flute. Nearby, In a small theatre, movingly near the Jewish
Ghetto, a group of students produced a play about Kafka, a short
walk from his family home. In response to the freedom brought
about by the Velvet Revolution, theatres have been re-opened, new
plays are being produced, and foreign writers like Durrenmatt, Stop-
pard, and lonesco, whose work had been banned, have returned to
the Czech stages. The ITI now publishes an Impressive quarterly
journal, Theatre, about both Czech and Slovak theatre in Czech,
French, and English. The following are excerpts from an Interview
with Ladislava Petlskova, a theatre historian specializing In mime and
nonverbal theatre, who previously worked as a theatrical researcher
In the Theatre Institute of the Academy of Science.
Guttman: What was the function of nonverbal and mime theatre dur-
ing the years of Soviet domination?
Petiskova: Nonverbal theatre has a continuous history f rom the
1920s. It became particularly Important In the last twenty years when
two hundred writers were banned. It was a dissident theatre which
dared to theatricalize universal problems which were forbidden sub-
jects for playwright s. Not only was political protest censored, but
even topics like madness, solitude, and emigration. Among the
important nonverbal artists were Boleslav Polfvka, Ctibor Turba, and
Boris Hubnyr.
Guttman: Why were Czech artists and writers banned, Imprisoned,
sent to the provinces, and forbidden to travel, while famous Polish
artists remained free?
Petlskova: There was a big difference. The Polish politicians had
better relations with Polish culture than here. In Poland, artists could
travel and meet with foreigners. Here, it was Impossible.
Guttman: Did any of the artists die In prison?
37
Petiskova: No. However, during the time of Stalinism, people were
executed for their Ideology, and several very lrl)portant theatre artists
committed suicide. The choreographer, Sacha Machov, In 1951,
and the director of the National Theatre, Frejka, In 1951 , both com-
mitted suicide. The Soviet occupation was very cruel.
Guttman: What has happened In the theatre since the Velvet Revolu-
tion?
Petlskova: Progressive directors who had been exiled from the
major cities to the provinces have returned. Many artists who had
been living abroad have come back. There Is a reconstruction of a
network of artists.
Guttman: The art of dissent, political theatre seemed to be the pri-
mary source of keeping hope alive. What Is Its function now?
Petlskova: There Is a crisis of audience. Historically, the role of the
theatre was strong and important. The fringe theatres were particu-
larly Important. Now, however, people have so many troubles, they
have turned their attention to the political and economic problems.
People who have lived almost half a century under the Communists
are concerned with their own mental and psychological problems of
adjusting to the new freedom. There was a similar crisis of audience
support shortly after World War II for a short time. In the present
situation, many groups have financial troubles. Some theatres have
won new audiences, many have not.
Guttman: Among the younger artists are their plays about the Velvet
Revolution?
Petlskova: We don't believe in having plays about the revolution. it
was something too fascinating, something so deep, something so
magical to be free, that the theatre could not mirror those feelings.
Guttman: Then life experience now has primacy over art, rather than
the reverse which was historically true?
Petiskova: Exactly. The plays by Havel in the recent past are still
very much alive and being produced. The younger dramatists are
angry and poetic. Some of the younger artists are Karl Steigerwald,
Egon Tobias, and Daniella They are trying to create on a
high professional level theatre pieces which synthesize progressive
and traditional acting methods.
Guttman: Was the theatre previously dominated by Soviet Realism?
Yes. In the past twelve years, the level of acting dropped
on the official stages because the best people were Imprisoned or
banished from the large stages. Now, there Is a change In training.
We have new Influences coming from Peter Brook and Grotowskl.
The Important Idea Is to educate human creativity, not only the tech-
nical quality. This work was on the fringes before, but not It Is In the
academy. Some of the teachers are coming from the fringes. The
father of Czech small groups, Ivan Is Head of the Depart-
ment of Acting at the Academy of Performing Arts In Prague. He Is a
very famous writer educated In both acting and psychology.
Guttman: Now that the Czech states will be separated from Slovakia,
wHI the theatre artists be separated as well?
This Is a very difficult problem. The theatre Is one. We
know each other very well, and the relationship between Czech and
Slovak artists will not be Interrupted. In the past, we helped each
other, sometimes very cleverly. When, for example, a director was
banned In Prague, the Slovaks would Invite him to work. We typed
copies of banned texts and circulated them. The Czech Culture
Society helped Slovak writers. We have had a federation since 1968,
and It was possible to help someone from another republic.
39
GHELDERODE COllOQUIUM AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF CLUJ, ROMANIA
David Willinger
Between October 22 and 24th, the Faculty of Letters, Depart-
ment of Romance Languages of the University of Cluj-Napoca In
Romania sponsored a colloquium on the twentieth century Belgian
playwright, Michel de Ghelderode. Under the auspices of the newly
inaugurated Center for French-Language Belgian Studies, and
organized by Professor Rodlca Pop, the conference attracted
participants from Italy, Israel, the U.S., as well as a number of promi-
nent Ghelderode scholars from Belgium. Only one other such con-
ference has been organized, and that was over then years ago In
Genoa.
The conference was significant In that It was high time It was
undertaken, and that it was Romanian scholars who seized the
opportunity to do so. Western academicians recognized the Impor-
tance of the event and made the necessary sacrifices to travel to a
relatively remote location In mid-semester. Further, the Romanian
hosts made great sacrifices to stage the colloquium. Granted that a
large part of the expense was shouldered by the Belgian Government
and the Belgian Academy of Letters, still the amount of energy and
money necessary to provide a respectable forum strained every
resource of this struggling community. But Professor Pop and her
colleagues came through with flying colors. The participants at the
coll oquium were received extremely graciously with regard to
accommodations, elaborate repasts, and warm contacts with the
faculty and students of the university, who took us very much under
their solicitous wings.
This is a crucial point in history for the Romanians and con-
tacts with the world-at-large are extremely important symbolically, as
they represent a new openness and possibility for exchanges of all
sorts. The intellectual freeze that prevailed under the deposed dic-
tator did not mean that the Romanian intelligentsia came to a stand-
still in the quantity or quality of information they received about up-
to-date scholarship from the West. But their new-found ability to
invite westerners to participate in an open dialogue, such as this one,
represents a decided step forward. The conference was attended
from beginning to end by Valeriu Stancu, head of Cluj radio and
television stations. An afficianado of Belgian culture himself, his
presence was symptomatic of the degree to which the life of the
community is enriched and taken seriously by an event of this nature.
Compare, for example, the press coverage an analogous academic
colloquium would normally receive if it were held in New York. It
would never have as much as a sentence or image in the local press
40 Slavic and East European Performance Vol . 12, Noa. 2 & 3
or media. By contrast, Stancu was conducting extensive radio Inter-
views with many of the participants throughout, and a final round
table is to be broadcast over the local television station.
One had the sense that Ghelderode, who Is a relatively
marginal author, was merely an excuse, and that whatever might
have been offered in terms of actual research and theory was sec-
ondary to the fact that there was a dialogue of any kind and that
scholars from abroad were present to share in it.
In addition to such initiatives as the Belgian Center, the
University Is sponsoring a monthly theatre journal, Thalia, under the
editorship of Tudor Runcanu and Maria Voda Capusan. Now In its
second year, the journal's most recent Issue Is on "Theatre and
Therapy," and Includes theoretical articles as well as reviews of
recent productions in Cluj.
Participation In the colloquium precluded very much outside
activity, but even a casual look at the life of Cluj (capitol of the
province of Transylvania) reveals that there Is a flourishing state
theatre boasting a large, permanent repertory company. It has an
extensive and varied season featuring both Romanian and foreign
authors, and offers tickets at prices that are hard to imagine from our
own context: the most expensive ticket runs to 30 cents! However,
when one considers that the average Romanian professional earns
about $100 a month, perhaps these prices are not so low after all.
There is also an active Hungarian theatre and opera company, which
plays to the largest minority of the region.
Once I was back in Bucharest (extremely briefly), I was able
to glean a fleeting impression of the theatre life in the capital. Apart
from the National Theatre, whose Artistic Director, though often
absent, is at least nominally Andrej Serban, the city is peppered with
smaller theatres, all of which offer a continuous and varied selection
of plays. One has the sense that Romania Is trying to catch up with
trends that have long since passed by In the West (David Storey's
Home Is an example of the more adventurous of selections) , but
nevertheless the Romanians are making a concerted effort to fill In
the gaps.
Without question, Romanian theatres are struggling, as are
those of most other nations of Eastern Europe, to compensate for
the reduced government funding which has accompanied the politi-
cal transition. But people are evidently still flocking to the theatres;
and the theatres are still open and producing.
41
METRO
EDWIN WILSON
The spring of 1992 saw more openings in the Broadway
theatre than had occurred in a comparable period of time for many
years. Offerings ranged from revivals of classic plays and musicals-
A Streetcar Named Desire and Guys and Dolls, for example-to new
plays, musicals, and revues. It was a time marked also by the
appearance on the New York stage of numerous film stars. By far
the most unusual event of the spring season, however, was Metro,
the musical originated In Warsaw, Poland.
The production that opened at the Mlnskoff Theatre on April
16, 1992, began its odyssey to Broadway nearly two years ago.
That's when Wiktor Kubiak, enthusiastic about the work of
actor /choreographer Janusz Jozefowicz, decided to back Mr.
Jozefowicz In an undertaking he envisioned: a Polish musical based
on American models but featuring native talent. Mr. Jozefowicz
recruited young performers from various parts of Poland and trained
them for months in singing and dancing.
The Polish version of Metro opened a year ago in Warsaw
and has been a huge hit there ever since. Meantime, the original
cast spent months more learning English so that the show, which
features a cast of forty-six, could be brought to Broadway while a
replacement cast took over at home. To produce the work In New
York cost Mr. Kubiak $5 million.
The show itself was one of the oddest mixtures to appear in
New York theatre for some time, combining as it did the most
sophisticated, advanced lighting effects with a naive, outdated story.
The spectacular lighting was the result of laser beams of light that
sparkled and gleamed not only over the entire stage area but In the
audience. At times they were breathtaking In their sweep and corus-
cation: a huge wheel of laser beams encircled a woman on a plat-
form singing a solo; ribbons of light played over a stage filled with
performers in motion.
The story Itself was another matter. Briefly, it concerned a
group of young people who want to be In the theatre, and when they
are turned down by an establishment organization, they decide to
mount a show in the subway (even though Warsaw has no subway).
When they are a success, they must decide whether to perform in
the establishment theatre or not. The story and the music exhibit
strong echoes of Hair and A Chorus Line, both shows that Broadway
now looks on as musicals from the past.
The young performers were incredibly energetic and many
of them quite talented; they danced and sang their hearts out. But
neither their enthusiasm nor the novelty of the lighting effects could
overcome the all-too-familiar story. As a result, Metro was forced to
close on April 26, 1992 after a run of thirteen performances and
twenty-four previews.
43
THE SUICIDE COMES "FULL CIRCLE" IN CLEVELAND
Scott T. Cummings
This past June while Bori s Yeltsin was wooing Congress,
Otar Djangisherashvill and twenty-nine members of the New Experi-
mental Theatre (NET) of Volgograd were wowing Oeveland with their
production of Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide. The company's month-
long Ohio residency was part of a continuing International theatre
exchange between NET and the Cleveland Play House. In addition
to The Suicide, NET presented A Streetcar Named Desire as
directed In Volgograd In 1991 by Oeveland Play House Artistic Direc-
tor Josephine R. Abady. That production marked the f irst ever re-
presentation In t he United States of a major Russian production
directed by an American, hence the exchange program's title: Full
Circle.
The title might just as well refer to the all-Russian Erdman
production and the pattern of recent history. According to
Djanglsherashvill, the NET production marked the first professional
staging of the play in Russia since competing productions by Stanis-
lavsky and Meyerhold were banned by Stalin's Central Licensing
Board in 1932. The sweet Irony of re-appropriating and mounting the
Soviet satire In the city known as Stallngrad from 1925 to 1961 could
not have been lost on the enterprising Djangisherashvili. He founded
NET In 1988 and took over the former home of the Volgograd Drama
Theatre, which was closed by the Ministry of Culture that same year.
A product of perestroika and a pioneer In the privatization of Russian
theat re, NET receives only partial state-subsidy and depends on
packed houses for its survival.
Fast-paced and boisterous, the NET production of The
Suicide has the grit and gloss of Threepenny Opera or Guys and
Dolls and falls somewhere between the deep and cynical Ironies of
the former and the sentimentality and pizzazz of the latter.
Djanglsherashvili is true to the text, but he dresses up Erdman's
satire with accessories pulled from the wardrobe of musical theatre.
Touches of Broadway, cabaret, variety show, and even the circus
give the play a decidedly upbeat and, at moments, American feel.
Incongruity is at the heart of Erdman's comic conceit .
Semyon Semyonovich Podsekalnikov (Senya), an unemployed man,
wakes up hungry in the middle of the night and asks his wife, whose
employment supports them, for a liverwurst sandwich. A domestic
spat develops and Senya storms off without his pants. His wife, fear-
Ing that he will kill himself out of shameful despair at his unemploy-
ment, rouses the neighbors to rescue him. As rumor spreads of
Senya's allegedly suicidal intentions, various disenchanted members
of society step forward to lend their own particular motives and
45
grievances to explain an act which Senya blames on no one. The
Ineffectual intellectual, the spurned lover, the starving artist, the
struggling businessman, the clergy, and the homeless all compete so
presumptuously for Senya's endorsement that he finds himself
backed Into an ambivalent martyrdom. This triggers, In tum, a genu-
Ine existential crisis. In the end, Podsekalnlkov chooses life, step-
ping out of his own coffin at his own funeral to the chagrin of his self-
righteous sponsors. "Our achievements, our success, our
reconstructed society, our desire to set the wortd ablaze, you can
keep it," he says. "I want a quiet life and a living wage.
The simple and direct plea from an ordinary everyman to be
excused from the Revolution so that he can tend his own garden
must have had a multivalent effect on Russian audiences In the earty
1990s. Is Djanglsherashvill aiming Erdman's 1932 Soviet satire at
post-Soviet Russia, whose citizens face prolonged hardship and
sacrifice during a difficult period of economic reform or at the Soviet
Union before and during Gorbachev? If it Is the latter case, the pro-
duction becomes something of a wry celebration of the collapse of
state socialism. Out of context at Cleveland, It Is difficult for most
American viewers to be sure, but the burden of the production values
suggests a cautiously benign view toward the current situation. The
NET production--presented In Russian with simultaneous translation
via wireless headset--Is first, last, and always, a good show.
Djangisherashvlli, who doubles as director and designer,
places The Suicide on a slightly raked open stage which stretches all
the way to a blank rear wall and is flanked by two tall brick sidewalls
which do little more than frame the stage space. A dozen or so
wooden chairs are scattered about the large playing area and
through portions of the play the cast lounges there and watches the
action, almost all of which is presented vaudeville style, right down
on the apron of the stage. At the beginning of the play, Podsekal-
nikov and his wife kneel side by side, holding a sheet up to their
chins, and this (along with the lighting effects) Is sufficient to convey
that they are In bed together. There are no doors or walls, and even
when two characters are locked in heated conversation, their focus is
straight out front to the audience, heightening the comic effects.
Throughout the play, a bright red circle of light is projected
on the rear wall. This big red sun shining over all below is both so
obviously and so obscurely symbolic that it loses meaning and
becomes little more than an abstract visual element. Harder to
ignore is a tall narrow scaffolding unit upstage center which looms
monolithically over the stage like a guard tower or a circus diving
platform (or the remaining piece of a long-abandoned constructivist
set). There are carpets or blankets piled and draped at the bottom of
the scaffold and a ladder leads to the top. Through much of the play
a shadowy and unidentified figure in black lurks there gazing down at
the action with little comment or Involvement. At first he seems to be
In a position of command-over a microphone he reads "the latest
decree from on high--but as the play proceeds he becomes
peripheral and forgettable, and his eventual disappearance goes
unnoticed. Perhaps the audience Is to Infer that a central and
ultimate authority which dominates or controls events is fast becom-
ing a chimera. an unnecessary Nlusion or fleeting memory.
The red sun and the man in the tower are not the only direc-
torial parentheses Djangisherashvili places around Erdman's comic
action. He interpolates songs and dances-contemporary sounding
Russian rock ballads--by way of prologue, intertude, and epUogue.
The first one is sung by the actors as they wander out onstage at the
beginning of the show and finish putting on their costumes. With a
menacing lilt, Its refrain tells us: "Without music death's not pretty I
Without music no one wants to die. As if to honor this sentiment at
seemingly random moments during the performance, a burst of
gunshots Interrupts the action. Ughts and music bump up bright and
full and colorful. and the ensemble dances frenetically about the
stage until another gunshot signals an equally abrupt return to the
action. These brief theatrical explosions accelerate what is already a
helter skelter rhythm as character after character besieges Podsekal-
nikov In an effort first to win his endorsement and second to hurry
him down the path to self-destruction.
Podsekalnikov's hesitations along the way are what make
The Suicide full-bodied comedy, and Valery Guriev as Podsekalnikov
rises to the occasion masterfully. The irony of Podsekalnikov's sur-
rogate martyrdom is enriched by a more profound comic Inversion.
If Podsekalnikov, out of work and down on his luck, starts the play as
a living dead man, in the run-up to the big bang (which never comes)
he discovers an invigorating life-in-death. This renewed sense of self
peaks at the drunken banquet held in his honor when Podsekalnikov
picks up the phone and defiantly calls the Kremlin to say, "I have
read Marx and Marx sucks." At moments when the prescribed task is
at hand, Podsekalnikov grows less courageous and more con-
templative.
Aptly and ably, Guriev portrays Podsekalnikov as a clown
with a soul. The funniest moments in the play come early when
Senya seeks economic salvation by trying to master the tuba with the
help of a do-it-yourself manual. As he sits in a chair and fumbles to
turn the pages, Senya is dwarfed by the brass leviathan on his lap,
which seems to play him more than he plays it. When he does
manage to coax a halfway musical sound from it, he jumps up on the
chair and exults In his artistry. By the end of the act, Guriev shifts
from athletic buffoonery to a comic (but no less sincere) version of
Hamlet's most famous soliloquy. Gun In hand, Podsekalnikov
ponders the afterlife ("Me, without myself?") and the split second
47
between life and death ("Tick tock. But between the tick and the tock
there's a wall . . .. Tick Is everything. But tock Is nothing.") Locked
In a tight spotlight, Gurlev movingly expresses Senya's blend of
curiosity and fear, the sting of mortality he feels, and the sense of the
thin tissue of life which holds back the unknown.
This conclusion to the second act of Erdman's flvEHct play
might well have lead to the Intermission. But before releasing the
audience to the lobby and lavatories, an
anachronistic song promoting the purification from Industrial waste
of ,he great Russian river, the Volga," which runs through and lends
Its name to the New Experimental Theatre's home town. The entire
cast of twenty-one spreads out along the apron to sing the hymn of
praise and protest, which In Cleveland was easily applied by the
locals to the nearby Cuyahoga, Infamous for pollution so rank that It
once caught fire.
The moment Is stirring enough In Its own right; It gives the
play a topical twist, and no one can argue with the environmental
message. But the song, as a rousing and In-your-face collective
action, overshadows the Impression of Podsekalnikov as a regular
Joe In the midst of discovering and Insisting on his Individuality. It
exemplifies how Djanglsherashvlli's theatrical handling of the play
threatens both the sharpness of Erdman's satire and the polgnanc'l
of his comedy. Just as the play, In its comic mode, pits the needs ot
society (to protest without sacrifice) against those of the Individual
(to cling to life), the New Experimental Theatre of Volgograd produc-
tion juggles the needs of the box office (to entertain) with those of
the art form (to tell the truth) . Like Podsekalnikov, The Suicide sur-
vives and Its truth Is told; Djangisherashvili simply provides a spoon-
ful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
EOVARO RAOZJNSKY'S
Nl OLD ACTRESS IN THE ROLE OF DOS10EVSIO"'S WIFE
AT THE JEAN COCTEAU REPERTORY
Patrick Hennedy
If Edvard Radzinsky is the second most-staged Russian
playwright after Chekhov, with nine plays currently running in Mos-
cow and one In rehearsal, then why is he virtually unknown In the
United States? Although his plays have been performed In many
European countries, New York's Jean Cocteau Repertory Is the only
theatre in America producing Radzinsky' s work. He has gained
much more American attention for his best-selling book on the
Romanoffs, The Last Tsar, than for any of his plays. Certainly this
question does not discourage the members of the Cocteau Rep.,
who have succeeded in presenting an entertaining and thought-
provoking production of An Old Actress In the Role of Dostoevsky's
Wife.
The play Is not about Dostoevsky' s life, but rather the dif-
ferent realities that two people assume in their heads and in their
acting roles. The Old Actress claims to be a former star of the stage
who has now checked into an institution for the aged. She claims
her stay is temporary in order to allow her children to go on vacation,
but It is obvious from the beginning that she is not there on a visiting
basis. Fedya, on the other hand, is not in the Institution because of
old age. He lives under a couch, the central item on stage, and
believes he is actually Fyodor Dostoevsky. When the Old Actress
discovers and confronts Fedya under the couch, Fedya soon con-
vinces himself that the Old Actress must be Dostoevsky's/his wife.
The action of the play consists of the switching back and
forth of identities between Fedya and Dostoevsky, and the Old
Actress and Anya, Dostoevsky's wife. Fedya's obsession has
inspired him to learn everything about Dostoevsky. The Old Actress
reads from Anya's diaries and letters in order to assume her role. At
first the Old Actress believes she is passing the time by acting out a
part for Fedya, but as they work together they alternate between
episodes in Anya's life and explorations of their own identities. As a
result, reality blurs and Fedya tries to persuade the Old Actress Into
believing that she really is Anya, just as he really is Dostoevsky.
A twist enters Into this exchange when the Old Actress
reveals that she, like Fedya, has beenassuming someone else's
identity all along. She Is actually the faithful costumer for the real
"Old Actress. The has-been star to whom she devoted her life had
recently died, so she has taken over that identity. The interplay of the
different realities of the two characters becomes all the more
49
50
Art Old Actress in the Role of Dostoevsky's Wife,
Jean Cocteau Repertory, New York
complex once It Is revealed that the Old Actress Is much more like
Fedya than was previously shown.
Fedya believes that destiny has provided him with his Anya
and Is Intent on marrying the Old Actress. Because of the Old
Actress' refusal and her revelation about her true Identity, the realities
of the characters go through yet another transformation. Fedya
claims that he has been a director all along, and that he has been
tricking the Old Actress Into making a film about the life of
Dostoevsky. He relates to the Old Actress as If she really were the
once-famous and accomplished star and claims that he was getting
a great performance out of her.
This last transformation seems a bit desperate, though, since
Fedya must soon leave the Old Actress for some unexplained
reason. The Old Actress plays along with Fedya even though she
has admitted who she really is. In addition, Fedya has to reconcile
his new Identity to the circumstances by claiming that he Is making a
new kind of movie, one without cameras or film. This final arrange-
ment of realities seems to be the only one that will allow them to deal
with their separation.
Certain elements of the staging add to the confusion over
identity In a way that neatly connects the psychological and theatri-
cal role-playing aspects of the play. The first lines of the play are
spoken by the Old Actress In the dark and refers to a time when she
was backstage as a child, being transformed by theatre make-up. At
this point, the audience cannot connect the voice with anything. For
the entire first scene, Fedya is only a voice from under the couch,
raising the question of whether he Is real at all or just a part of the
Old Actress' Imagination. Before Fedya transforms into the director,
he exits through the audience to the back of the auditorium and, after
a moment of silence, begins to applaud. This false ending serves to
put the audience In somewhat the same situation as the Old Actress,
having to decide what is the reality of the situation and what is the fiC-
tion.
A very Interesting point about the structure of this play Is that
Radzlnsky Is said to purposely write far more than he Intends to see
staged. He expects that a good production of his work will be cut
appropriately. Accordingly, the production at the Cocteau Rep. Is
about half of the original written text. Director Eve Adamson, In coor-
dination with translator Alma Law, has left the revelation that the Old
Actress Is actually the seamstress until late in the play. More empha-
sis is given to the relationship that develops between the two charac-
ters through their acting out the roles of Dostoevsky and Anya. Con-
sequently the play, which already emphasizes character study over
action, has a very different pace at the end than it did during most of
the performance.
A final note needs to be made about the quality of the acting.
51
Adamson has obviously worked hard with the two performers to
explore every facet of the relationships involved. Jere Jacob as the
Old Actress grows more and more compelling as she reveals more
layers of her character's personality. Acting to a disembodied voice
for the entire first scene Is a very difficult task In which Ms. Jacob
succeeds. Craig Smith plays Fedya with the confidence and energy
required of his character. Fedya really propels the action, and the
presence and unforced power of Smith's acting serve the part
extremely well.
AUDIENCE DISCUSSION WITH EVE ADAMSON AND ALMA LAW
FOLLOWING A PERFORMANCE OF
AN OLD ACTRESS IN THE ROLE OF IJOSTOEVSJ<Y"S WIFE
Edited by Patrick Hennedy
Q: Is the material all accurate? Are what we're getting in the play the
actual writings of Dostoevsky?
Law: Yes, Radzinsky used the actual letters. We made cuts, but we
haven't rearranged them at all or t he other facts In the play--with
some artistic license.
Q: Do you see any similarity between No Exit, which you did several
years ago, and this play?
Adamson: Interesting question. There is no exit from t his situation.
There's a sense of the characters being in a hermetically sealed
environment, Interacting with and on each other. That's an Interest-
Ing parallel.
Q: But they do escape Into Dostoevsky's translations. They jump out
of that character for a while and go in another direction and then
rejoin that first character again. The audience gets a terrific mental
exercise.
Adamson: Yes. That's what's fun about it for me. I think for the
actors too.
Q: It resembles Pirandello in that way.
Adamson: A lot of people have said that.
law: When it was done in Paris, in fact, some of the critics hailed
Radzinsky as a "new Pirandello," specifically because of this play.
Q: The basic concept in this play is fairly clear, but I had t rouble
understanding the basic thrust of what the author was saying. I
could picture, of course, the era in which he was writing it. The politi-
cal background is obvious against which this was written. But what
would you say was the basic thrust of the play?
Law: Well, let me answer your question indirectly. This is one of the
plays that Radzinsky calls "theatre within theatre. I think his fascina-
tion was with creating this independent world on the stage in which
you play a kind of game. So I don't think he was trying to make a
53
political commentary on what was occurring in Russia at the time.
Radzinsky has a series of plays he calls "theatre within theatre, and
it's a conundrum in the end. There is no answer: who are these
people? He says he doesn't know himself.
0: Yet there Is the feeling that there's no escape from our environ-
ment; the feeling that all of our actions are so limited. I find It hard to
accept that it had no influence on the writing of this play. You get a
powerful feeling of being enclosed.
Law: Yes, but don't we all feel that way, aside from the political con-
text?
0: The confusion as to the age of the person talking was Interesting.
She seems to be a cross between a very young and a hopelessly old
woman.
Adamson: Of course, Anya Dostoevsky was a very young girt In the
play. I like to think that the Old Actress was able to get in touch with
that part of herself and bring that out to play Anya.
0; I'd like to see more of Radzinsky's plays. Is there any thought that
you might tackle some of the others that have been as successful?
Adamson: Well, this is the fourth Radzinsky play that Jean Cocteau
Repertory has done. We did the historical-philosophical trilogy, all in
Alma's translations, over the last decade. Now that Radzinsky has a
book on the bestseller list people know who he is a little better than
they did when we did the first play.
0: Is the Pirandello approach typical of the playwright? Does he use
this aspect of characters changing identities in his other plays?
Law: To a greater or lesser degree, yes. He does it in many of his
plays. But I think he does it more in this one than in the others. You
get a little of that In Lunin.
0: I have a couple of questions to you as a director. I'm wondering if
the very spare, almost presentational staging is the way is was
staged in Moscow. And the other part of the question is that one has
the feeling of watching these people as if you were watching through
a two-way mirror, that you're looking in on these people. As a direc-
tor, did you play the game of watching from without, or did you find
that you were Inside that room with them and working with the prob-
lems and choices that way?
54
Adamson: The director always has to be on the outside. Because as
much fun as we might have Inside the room, the play is for the spec-
tators. But with this play, In particular, there Is a kind of truth that has
to be there, or the play won't work. I'm used to doing more present-
ational work where you don't have to have that inner truth that these
characters must have.
As for the first part of your question, the script, of course, calls for
a much more realistic setting. It describes a room, with a stage and
various things. We are using the kind of set I always like, which Is a
single, hopefully bold image that makes a statement, rather than a lot
of realistic stuff which you can see on television.
Law: My guess Is that In Moscow it was done In a similar way. Not
very many theatres are using old fashioned, realistic settings any
more.
Q: Why haven't we heard of this play before? Why hasn't It been
around untH now?
Law: I was always telling Radzinsky that he had no name recognition
in this country at all. It's only now that his book on the last Russian
Tsar has been published that people have begun to realize that there
Is somebody named Radzinsky, and that he's also a playwright. So
there's suddenly a great deal of interest In his work.
Q: The ending of the play is very ambiguous about both of these
characters, and whether the Fedya character actually exists. Does
the playwright have a definite idea one way or another?
Law: He said in an Interview I did with him right after he wrote the
play that he doesn't know himself.
0: As a director, did you have to make a decision, or did you encour-
age the actors to decide for themselves one way or another?
Adamson: Well, when the actors read this Interview with Radzlnsky
that Alma had translated and saw in one of his opening statements
that he doesn't have a clue as to what this play is about, that rather
sent them into a state of despair. I absolutely adore ambiguity in the
theatre. And I would not make a statement or lead the audience to
say, "This is what It's really about. Because, to me, the audience
should be going out asking questions rather than having easy ans-
wers.
Now that's all very nice and good, but actors can't play ambiguity
too well. I don't think we ever came to an absolute solid decision
about who either of them really is, but In getting there we had to
55
explore all of the possibilities of what each of them might be and then
put those together. In the process of getting there, they were getting
more and more secure in what they were doing. I don't think any of
us would say exactly what the play is about or who these people are.
It's just a matter of getting there, which Is not as easy In this play as It
might be In some other plays.
0 : In the program It says that the playwright Is a professionally
trained historian. Does the translator see any sort of Interrelationship
between the two hats that he wears as an artist-dramatist and as a
professional historian?
Law: I think he does wear more than one hat. His historical trilogy is
very much tied In with his being a professional historian. But I think
In this play he really does have a very strong feeling for theatre and
for actresses.
Adamson: He's married several of them.
Law: In fact, he's written a series of plays which he calls "benefits,
which are for various actresses. This one was written with a certain
actress in mind, a very famous Russian actress, Marla Babanova.
Unfortunately, she died before the play was completed. But some of
the details the character tells about herself as an actress In the play,
when she speaks about the twenties and thirties, are taken from
Babanova's life. One of the reasons Radzinsky has been so popular
In Russia Is because he provides such juicy roles for actresses In
particular.
0: I know it's ambiguous at the end, but I really see the end as true
tragedy. She seems to be caving in with disappointment. What has
happened? Has she suddenly found that reality has conquered
everything? Why Is she so upset at the end?
0 : Imagination does not let us escape. There is no exit. Imagination
keeps drawing us back to what reality is. That's why she caves ln.
Adamson: Fedya really jerks her around a lot, you know. Who is he?
And then he does that whole director act.
0 : I think that the ambiguity is the fun and the frustration of this play.
One Is left with all sorts of questions, non-resolutions. And it leads
one on to more and more thoughts about the meaning.
Adamson: We're all looking for happily-ever-after In theatre and In
life, and I truly believe it doesn't exist.
56
0 : The fact that the heroine is an actress gives a clue to some of the
questions that have been raised In the play. It's true that one doesn't
have limitless opportunity to assume many roles. And while a person
may not succeed in one or another role, there Is always another.
There is always hope; there's always the possibility that she will
succeed in one of the roles. That's in the spirit of the play. It's also, I
think, a lesson for life.
Adamson: That was just beautifully said. I wish I'd had you at all my
rehearsals.
57
HAVEL'S VANEK PLAYS AT THE JEAN COCTEAU REPERTORY
Christine A. Pinkowicz
Despite their simple dramatic form, The Vanek Plays have
surprising resonance for a Western audience. The late Joseph Papp
produced the three together in 1983 under the title A Private View,
but last season's production at the Jean Cocteau Repertory, directed
by David Fishelson, is the first in New York in nearly ten years and
the first worldwide since Havel was named President of Czechos-
lovakia in 1989. There's a fresh sense of fascination in watching
these plays in the wake of democracy's victory world-wide, a sober-
ing view of dally battles faced In winning a torturous war. That these
plays are comic in tone and utilize the three-dimensionality of theatre
makes them, if not profound, at least quite entertaining and Uluml-
nating. As Tom Stoppard said in 1980: ... here one relishes the
joyous freedom of Havel's Imagination."
Wtclav Havel began his Vanek trilogy in 1975 with the short
piece Audience, which he wrote to entertain a group of dissident
writers visiting his summer cottage. This comic piece, a dialogue
between a Havel-iike figure named Vanek and his supervisor in a new
brewery job, was immediately outlawed by the Czech Communist
government but became immensely popular after being widely dis-
seminated In photocopied form. The popularity of its portrait of
repression prompted Havel to write two more seldom-produced
Vanek plays--Unveiling, also in 1975, and Protest, in 1979. While
Audience has received productions both abroad and in New York
City, the most recent in By and For Havel in 1990 (SEEP vol. 10, no.
1, Spring 1990), both its political power and the self-portrait of its
author /protagonist are served more fully by the juxtaposition of all
three.
Havel's alter ego, Vanek, is a quiet cornerstone for the three
plays. He is the invisible glue holding the more loquacious and con-
spicuous characters together--in much the same way the real-life dis-
sidents held their countries together as they fervently pushed for an
end to totalitarian rule. We see the toll this takes on Vanek himself--
before being relegated to working in a brewery and being sent to
prison. But Havel's focus is directed more toward the four other
characters in these works--those citizens who symbolize the pres-
sures and problems of the system. The result is a double portrait:
HaveljVanek (and other dissidents who remain true to their beliefs)
and those in Czech society who vainly try to "buy into" the system. In
1975, Havel asked, "Why are people behaving the way they do? Why
do all these things, taken together, form the impressive Image of a
totally united society giving total support to Its government? They
are driven to it by fear."
59
The beer-guzzling Brewmaster In Audience embodies many
aspects of this statement: As a supervisor, the only tasks he
engages in are sleeping, drinking, and relieving himself, thus
highlighting waste and corruption in the workplace. But Havel makes
him eminently likeable. He knows of Vanek's writings and seems to
feel more distress at Vanek's demotion to day laborer than Vanek
himself feels. He's perplexed by the system and unsure how to cope
with the news that government spies have come around seeking
reports on Vanek's activities. He can't afford to make enemies In the
government, yet he genuinely likes his new employee; after what
seems like considerable mental wrangling, he offers Vanek a promo-
tion to an easier, more comfortable position If Vanek himself will write
the reports. As the beer bottles accumulate on the table and the
Brewmaster gradually reveals his envy and vents his anger at
Vanek's ability to follow his "self-serving principles," we see a
troubled human being caught between a moral rock and hard place.
Unlike Vanek, his job Is all the Brewmaster has--and we can see just
how grimly unsatisfying it Is. By the time the Brewmaster has
exhausted himself from this outpouring, he is sobbing In Vanek's
arms. But before we can be too moved, the Brewmaster's sobs
segue Into snores--and we realize that he Is right back where he was
when Vanek entered the scene. Vanek returns seconds after going
out the door; this time, though, he grabs a beer and emphatically
echoes the Brewmaster's proclamation that "everything's all tucked
up."
The second work focuses on a fashionable couple intent on
reaping all the extrinsic reward the system promises. Unveiling
(originally called A Private View) finds Michael and Vera proudly
ushering Vanek into their newly-decorated apartment. They are
dressed perfectly, have a perfect baby, and have designed their own
perfect abode. Vanek and the audience gaze at the statue of Elvis
Presley, the leopard rug complete with gaping head, an Orthodox
shrine, and various zebra prints--and silently gag. It's all so "per-
fectly" frightful that within two minutes we have concluded that
Michael and Vera are snotty Yuppies with absolute confidence in
what the government accomplishes. They repeat 'We like you a lot"
and "You're our best friend," but they scorn Vanek's demotion to the
brewery, deride Vanek's marriage, and even Initiate lovemaking to
instruct their friend "how far you can take these things!" In fact, the
couple gets so wrapped up In this exercise that Vanek watches them
rubbing noses in amazement and prepares to leave; when they see
him with coat and scarf, they're crushed and outraged, whining like
children. So Vanek remains.
Protest depicts Vanek's meeting with a successful television
writer named Stanek who was once a dissident friend of Vanek's.
The writer has summoned his old friend upon hearing that he has
60
been released from prison. Stanek asks Vanek's help In writing a
petition to have his pop-singer son-in-law released from jail. In the
course of the play, we learn that the singer has been freed through
the efforts of others, but not before Stanek vents his frustration (In
splendid rhetoric) at giving up the cause and defending his need to
be successful, if not "right. We see Stanek's hatred of anyone who
can't understand how important his place in society has become to
him, as well as his intense guilt over abandoning the dissident move-
ment. As Havel wrote, "(Even] if they never speak of It, people have
a very acute appreciation of the price they have paid for outward
peace and quiet--the permanent humiliation of their human dignity."
Havel achieves with Stanek a portrait of the Intense confl ict between
self-glorification and remorse.
Such fascinating inner personal conflict goes a long way
toward compensating for the lack of dramatic tension in all three
plays. So do Absurdist elements in the first two: Unveiling mirrors
lonesco's The Bald Soprano with Its hostjvisitor relationship,
seemingly Incongruous visual and verbal moments, and most
obviously, the sporadic and uncontrollable explosions of an irritating
cuckoo clock. Audience presents an Inhospitable work environment
In which even the Brewmaster's Office is spartan and uncomfortable;
Vanek himself is said to work strenuously in the cold. The Brew-
master in his Inebriated state repeats questions again and again, just
as his sleeping, drinking, and urinating all re-occur. Ultimately too
the entire play concludes in the same way it began--with the Brew-
master asleep at his table when Vanek knocks at the door--
suggesting the circularity and lack of progress in this State. Havel's
use of elements, however, is different from the Absurdist playwrights
of two decades ear1ier; here, we see only the touches of the Absurd
amidst what is clearly meant to be realistic depictions of typical
Czech scenes.
Although the plays are easily accessible and user-friendly,
the challenge Is to stage them together as a powerful whole, rather
than as three funny, unrelated playlets. Director David Fishelson
achieves varying degrees of success with the Individual plays and
special impact with Protest, the most realistic of them. Craig Smith,
who throughout gives a steady, impressive portrayal of a quiet,
accommodating Intellectual, shows us a Vanek who grows stronger
in standing up to the demands of friends. In Audience, Vanek
returns immediately to the sleeping supervisor's office, almost as if to
reassure the Brewmaster that he can sympathize and agree that the
world Is lacking and that he will toss down a beer with him out of
sheer appreciation of him as a human being. I especially liked this,
for It suggests an introverted intellectual who learns something about
the importance of relating to his fellow human beings. When, in
Unveiling, Vanek remains at Michael's and Vera's after ail, he's still
61
feeling his way with people--this time erring In the opposite direction,
being kind when he should perhaps be less tolerant. In Protest,
Smith's Vanek seems calmer, more sure of himself, and more aware
of the balance between the theory In which he believes so strongly
and the people whom It affects so greatly. Robert Ierardi comple-
ments Smith here with a subdued, yet powerful portrayal of Stanek;
the extremes of guilt and self-righteousness would be less moving If
Ierardi were not so subtle. He crafts his character around the tiniest
details in movement and voice at the beginning, then builds carefully,
mining the angst that lies within a man a good deal older than the
actor himself.
Fishelson, however, seems less comfortable with the stylistic
differences of the first two plays-and In the dynamic of the trio as a
whole. The director seems to interpret Audience in a most
understated manner. William Charles Mitchell brings compassion
and humanity to the Brewmaster, a role that could easily-and I think
mistakenly-take on a jaded and flippant edge; unfortunately, Mitchell
simply doesn't have the vibrancy needed for the role, or the range of
emotion required for the character's gentle but drunken moods. In
Unveiling, Fishelson errs In the direction of overstatement, despite
having excellent actors in Grant Neale and Elise Stone. Stone has a
well-enunciated contralto voice that often veers toward the strident,
but she offers a consistent Interpretation of the submissive, "perfect"
little wife. It Is Neale, though, who gives this play Its most effective
sense of movement. As Michael, he starts modestly, building ever so
slowly to an arrogant braggart--a progression necessary to explain
how Havel could have liked the couple in the first place and yet yearn
to leave them by the end. While the play does Invite schtick and a
degree of farce, Fishelson pushes beyond that until Stone and Neale
resemble cartoon characters in their exaggerated emotional pitch.
Flshelson's idea to conclude the evening with a tableau of Vanek
leaving the stage to the accompaniment of a volceover announcing
Havel's election as President of Czechoslovakia is amateurish, both
In its stating of the obvious and for the lack of a similar framing
device at the beginning.
Fortunately, however, both actor Smith and author Havel
bring the focus back to Vanek, the true backbone of the evening.
These plays are eminently worth producing together, and I
appreciate the opportunity to see them together at the Jean Cocteau
Repertory. Vaclav Havel is an important dramatist and statesman
whose plays enable us to understand what his country went through
In it years of totalitarian regime. In 1986, Pavel Kohout said of Havel,
"To [the masses] he is an inconvenience [because) he proves them
guilty of a life-sized lie--guilty in front of the world, their families, and
even ourselves. [Vaclav] Havel is a very real danger--because the
future threatens to prove him right." As, of course, It has.
CONTRIBUTORS
SCOTT T. CUMMINGS lives in Pittsburgh, PA, where he is cur-
rently at work on a study of the theatre work of Maria Irene
Fornes.
JOHN FREEDMAN is the author of Silence's Roar: The Life and
Drama of Nikolai Erdman (Mosaic Press). He writes about
theatre for the Moscow Times and is the co-editor of Gordon
and Breach Science Publisher's new series, Twentieth-
Century Russian Avant-garde Drama.
MEUNDA JO GUTTMAN is professor of theatre at John Jay Col-
lege of Criminal Justice. She is an actress as well as a critic
and writer on theatre. She has edited L 'imaginaire du
nucleaire for Les Cahiers du Grit (1989).
PATRICK HENNEDY Is associate editor of SEEP and a theatre
doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of the City
University of New York.
DMYTRO KOTELENETS is a student of theatre history and
criticism at the Karpenko-Kary Theatre Institute in Kiev. Dur-
ing the summer of 1991 he observed the rehearsals for the
Yara Arts Group's production of In the Light In Kiev and
traveled with the show to Kharkiv and Lviv.
CHRISTINE A. PINKOWICZ is an adjunct in the Hunter College
Theatre Department and the Brooklyn College Continuing
Education Program. She is a doctoral candidate in the City
University of New York. She is author of Real Estate Crisis in
the New York City Not-For-Profit Theatre.
VIRLANA TKACZ heads the Yara Arts Group which is a resident
company at La Mama ETC. With Yara she has created A
Light from the East and Explosions. She is currently working
on Blind Sight about Vasyt Yeroshenko, a blind poet who
traveled throughout Asia at the beginning of the century.
Her articles on theatre director Les Kurbas have been pub-
lished in Theatre History Studies and in several Slavic
journals.
63
DAVID WIWNGER has edited An Anthology of Contemporary Bel-
gian Plays, 1970-1982 and Theatrical Gestures from the Bel-
gian Avant-Garde, has published widely on the Belgian
theatre and has translated six plays by Hugo Claus. He Is
Associate Professor of Theatre at The City College and The
Graduate School and University Center of the City University
of New York.
EDWIN WILSON Is the director of CASTA (Center for the Advanced
Study of Theatre Arts) at the Graduate Center of the City
University of New York. A member of the faculty at Hunter
College and the CUNY Graduate School, he Is also theatre
critic for The Wall Street Journal.
Photo Credits
Salome, The Alia Sigalova Independent Company
Sergei Petrukhin
May 32/City of Mice, The Shchukin Theatre Institute
Matvei Chernov
The Bald Brunette, The Stanislavsky Theatre
N. Zvyagintsev
The Gamblers-21st Century, The Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre
Anna Berdichevskaya
King Lear, The New Theatre
Mariusz Stachowak
In the Light, Franko Theatre
Viktor Marustschenko
The Suicide, The Cleveland Play House
The New Experimental Theatre of Volgograd, Russia
An Old Actress . .. and The Vanek Plays, Jean Cocteau Repertory
Jonathan Slaff
64
PLAYSCRIPTS IN TRANSLATION SERIES
The following Is a list of publications available through the Center for
Advanced Study In Theatre Arts (CASTA):
No. 1 Never Part From Your Loved Ones, by Alexander Volodln.
Translated by Alma H. Law. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
No. 2 I, Mikhail Sergeevich Lunin, by Edvard Radzlnsky. Translated
by Alma H. Law. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
No. 3 An Altar to Himself, by lreneusz lredynskl. Translated by
Mlchaf Kobiaf1<a. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
No. 4 Conversation with the Executioner, by Kazlmlerz Moczarski.
Stage adaptation by Zygmunt HObner; English version by
Ear1 Ostroff and Daniel Gerould. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
No. 5 The Outsider, by lgnatii Dvoretsky. Translated by C. Peter
Goslett. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
No. 6 The Ambassador, by srawomir Mrozek. Translated by
srawomlr Mroiek and Ralph Manheim. $5.00 ($6.00
foreign)
No. 7 Four by Liudmila Petrushevskaya (Love, Come into the
Kitchen, Nets and Traps, and The Violin). Translated by
Alma H. Law. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
No. 8 The Trap, by Tadeusz R6zewicz. Translated by Adam
Czernlawski. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
Soviet Plays in Translation. An annotated Bibliography. Compiled
and edited by Alma H. Law and C. Peter Goslett. $5.00
($6.00 foreign)
Polish Plays in Translation. An annotated Bibliography. Compiled
and edited by Daniel C. Gerould, Bofesiaw Taborskl, Mlchaf
Kobiaf1<a, and Steven Hart. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
Polish and Soviet Theatre Posters. Introduction and Catalog by
Daniel C. Gerould and Alma H. Law. $5.00 ($6.00 foreign)
65
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SEEP - Vol.12 - Nos.2&3 - Fall 1992

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SEEP - Vol.12 - Nos.2&3 - Fall 1992

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volume twelve, nos.

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