SEEP Vol.10 No.1 Spring1990

8/12/2019 SEEP Vol.10 No.1 Spring1990

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EDITORSDaniel Gerouldlma Law

ASSOCIATE EDITOREdward Dee

ADVISORY BO RDEdwin Wilson ChairmanMarvin CarlsonLeo HechtMartha W. Coigney

CASTA EDITORI L ASSISTANTRichard Brad Medoff

Copyright 1990 CASTAS P has a very liberal reprinting policy. Journals and newsletterswhich desire to reproduce articles reviews and other materials whichhave appeared in S P may do so as long as the following provisionsare met:a. Permission to reprint must be requested from S P in writing beforethe fact.b. Credit to S P must be given in the reprint.c. Two copies of the publication n which the reprinted material hasappeared must be furnished to the Editor of S P immediately uponpublication.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial Policy ................................................................................................ 4From the Editors ............................................................................................ .5Events........... .....................................................................................................6Address by Anik6 and Katalin Vajdaecember 31, 1989 .......................................................................................11

Interview with Katalin Vajda,Artistic Director of theJatekszin Theatre, BudapestZSu zsa erger ..................................... .............................................. .............13Impressions of Theatrein a Changing Political Climate:Warsaw, East Berlin and BudapestFelicia Hardison I..ondre ..............................................................................20Cinders in the U.S.S.R.Janusz Gibwacki ............................................................................................27The Gang of Crazy Youth

Alma Law ................................................................................... ....................30A Glimpse into the Life and Work ofAleksandr Galin: n InterviewRebecca Rovit ..... ...........................................................................................35

Reviews 'By and for Havel': A ReviewEdward ee ....................................................................................44Edmund Kean in Riga: A Review''

Ron Engle ........................ ...............................................................48Contributors ................................................................. ..................................52Playscripts in Translation Series . ................................................................53Subscription Policy ..................................................... ............... ..................55

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EDITORI L POLICYManuscripts n the following categories are solicited: articles of no more than

2 500 words; book reviews; performance and film reviews; and bibliographies. Pleasebear in mind that all of the above submissions must concern themselves either with contemporary materials on Soviet and East European theatre drama and film or with newapproaches to older materials in recently published works or new performances of olderplays. In other words we would welcome submissions reviewing innovative performances of Gogol or recently published books on Gogol for example but we could not useoriginal 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 lso gladly publish announcements of special events new bookreleases job opportunities and anything else which may be of interest to our discipline.All submissions re refereed.

All submissions must be typed double-spaced and carefully proofread. Submittwo copies of each manuscript nd attach a stamped self addressed envelope. TheChicago Manual of Style should be followed. Transliterations should follow the Libraryof Congress system. Submissions will be evaluated nd authors will be notified afterapproximately four weeks.

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FROM THE EDITORS

This first issue of 1990 offers a variety of reports on theatre inEastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The cultural context and the lan-guage spoken from the stage in each of these countries are uniquely if-ferent. But the concerns expressed by theatre practitioners whateverthe country and nationality are much the same: what is the mission oftheatre today now that censorship has been abolished and how cantheatre best survive the loss of state support and subsidies. Howeverthese challenges are resolved as theatres everywhere in the East adjustto new economic and political conditions one thing is clear: the mostimportant ingredients for making theatre remain the same: imagina-tion wit and energy.

We feel it is especially appropriate to lead off this issue withAnik6 and Katalin Vajda s New Year s Eve address calling forHungarian and Romanian actors to fmd unity in the common languageof theatre. Their reminder that theatre has the potential to serve as agreat unifying force is of particular importance for the crucial periodahead not only in Hungary and Romania but in every country.

We appreciate the response to our appeal for reports from youour readers on what is happening in the theatres of Eastern Europeand the Soviet Union. We hope you will continue to share your theatre-going experiences and conversations with directors actors and critics.Even very brief reports of two or three pages are most welcome.

Daniel Gerould and Alma Law

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EVENTS

THEATRE FESTIVALS

Throughout Spain this season there will be a remarkable number of productions of plays from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.n Madrid, the Anjana will e presenting Milan Kundera's Jacques andhis Master; the Aquelarre will present Mrozek's Out at ea as theOllantay presents his Tango. Also in Madrid, the Artea Teatro Estudiohas Gombrowicz's lvonna, Princess ofBurgundia, and the Camara deMadrid will present The Promise by Alexi Arbuzov.In Andalusia the Atalaya in Seville is offering VladimirMayakovsky's Vladimir Mayakovsky, A Tragedy; while the CentroAndaluz de Teatro presents Gombrowicz's Operetta, and the Taller deTeatro de mijas in Melaga will stage The Mother by Stanishlw IgnacyWitkiewicz.Witkiewicz's The Madman and the Nun will be part of a doublebill with R6i:ewicz's White Marriage at the Teato Estable de Navarrz.Finally, in Cataluna province the Teatro Estable de llieda willlso e presenting Kundera sJacques and his Master, and the Carasio inExtremadura will offer Mrorek's House on the Border.

CURRENT AND UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS

The John Houseman Studio Theatre in New York is presentinga pair of one-acts collectively titled By and For Havel that openedMarch 8. The plays are Vaclav Havel's Audience in a production thatwas staged in Prague in January and Catastrophe by Samuel Beckett,which was dedicated to Havel and inspired by his imprisonment. Theproduction is directed by Vasek Simek (note article in this issue).PBS has announced plans to broadcast a documentary built

around the premiere ofAudience in Prague. Also, PBS will e televising a production of Havel's Largo Desolato. See your local newspaperfor broadcast date.The Circle in the Square will e presenting Mikhail Bulgakov'sZoya s Apartment, directed by Boris A. Morozov, resident director of

the Maly Theatre in Moscow with previews beginning April 24 for a

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May 2 opening.Brecht s Caucasian Chalk Circle directed by SlobodanUnkovski opens May 11 at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also at ART, Andrei Serban will be directing

The King Stag by Carlo Gozzi n a translation by Albert Bermel. t willrun from May 15 to June 10From April16-May 6 the Vakhtangov Theatre Companywill bepresenting Mikhail Shatrov's docu-drama The Peace of Brest-Litovskdirected by Robert Sturua, at the Civic Center for Performing Arts inChicago.The State Youth Theatre of Lithuania will be presenting TheSquare a vivid tale of a love affair that is stronger than the jackboots ofa repressive society, and Chingiz Aitmatov'sA Day Lasting Longer Than

A Century both directed by Eimuntas Nekrosius at the InternationalTheatre Festival of Chicago. Performances are scheduled from June 28to July 1Also at the International Theatre Festival of Chicago will bethe Katona J6zsef Theatre from Hungary, making its U. S debut withNikolai Gogol's farce, The Government Inspector. The performancesare scheduled from June 18-26 at the Blackstone Theatre.As part of the Goodwill Games, the Sovremennik Theatre willbe performing two plays, Chekov's The Three Sisters (July 3-22) and TheSteep Route by Aleksandr Getman, based on Eugenia Ginsburg's Into

The Whirlwind (July 25-August 5). Both productions are directed byGalina Volchek and will be performed at the Intiman Theatre in Seattleas part of the Goodwill Arts Festival.

NOTES OF PAST PRODUCTIONS

Presented from January 7 to February 8 at the City CenterTheatre in New York City was the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theatre'srock musical Junon and Avos The Hope composed by Aleksei Rybnikov with libretto by Andrei Voznesensky. The production wasdirected by Mark Zakharov and choreographed by Vladimir Vasilyev ofthe Bolshoi Ballet.Rough Crossing by Tom Stoppard, freely adapted from a playby Ferenc Molnar, with music by Andre Previn and directed by SteveStettler, was presented at the New Theatre of Brooklyn during February

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and March.Romanian director, Andrei Belgrader, directed Shakespeare'sTroilus and Cressida at the Yale Repertory Theatre; it ran from February 20 to March 17.The Dallas Theater Center presented Temptation by VaclavHavel from February 6 to March 4. They also presented Monsieur deMoliere by Mikhail Bulgakov directed by Ken Bryant, performed fromFebruary 27 to March 25.The People's Playhouse in New York presented Gombrowicz'sPrincess Ivonna directed by Carolyn Kowalski during March and April.The Slavic Heritage Council ofAmerica presented a Slavic Festival consisting of singing and dancing from Byelorussia, Bul

garia Croatia Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and theUkraine on February 3 at Lincoln Center in New York.The Magic Theatre in San Francisco presented Jacques and hisMaster by Milan Kundera, directed by Harvey Seifter, from February 7to March 25.A Light From the East a workshop of poetry by Taras Shevchenko and Pavlo Tychyna, selections from Ukrainian director LesKurbas' diary and memoirs of his actors, was presented by La MamaETC and Yara Arts Group at the La Mama Workshop in New Yorkfrom March 9-11. The production was directed and translated by Vir

lana Tkacz.Recent developments in Czechoslovakia were celebrated at theSymphony Space in New York on March 18 with Prague Spring 1990,an evening of reflections by writers and diplomats, with Czechoslovakmusic and theatre. A scene from Havel's Audience was performed.Speakers included Rita Klimova, Czechoslovakia's new Ambassador tothe United States, and Edward Albee.The Columbia Players in New York City presented Fragments

of Eastern Europe composed of four one-acts: Evreinov's he heatreof the Soul Gatczynski's The Little Theatre of the Green GooseIonesco's The Bald Soprano and Mrozek'sAt Sea. Performances wereMarch 29 through April1.

The Rustaveli Company from Soviet Georgia made itsAmerican debut with a highly theatricalized production of King Lear.The production, in Georgian with English translation, had five perform-

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ances April 2 through 8 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's MajesticTheatre.The CSC Repertory presented a new adaptation of MikhailBulgakov's Heart of a Dog by Deloss Brown from February 27 to April

8. The production was directed by Robert Lanchester.

FILM

The Museum of Modern Art Department of Film offered aseries of films entitled Unknown Soviet Cinema from January 26-30,1990. The nine films presented were: The Jew on the Land (Evrei nazemle) (1926) directed by Abram Room and written by VladimirMayakovsky and Viktor Shklovsky; Granitsa (Frontier) (1936) writtenand directed by Mikhail Dubsun; Pacific (1931), written and directed byMikhail Tsekanovsky using Honegger's piece Pacific 231 ; the survivingfive minute fragment of Sergei Eisenstein's 1945 film Ivan Groznyi III(Ivan the Terrible, part III); o svidanya, malchiki (Goodbye, Boys),(1966) directed by Mikhail Kalik; Organchik (The Little Organ) (1934)directed by Nikolai Khodataev; Znakomoye Litso (A Familiar Face)(1929), directed by Nikolai Shpikovskyi; also from 1929, Spring (Vesnoi),written, photographed and directed by Mikhail Kaufman, and DvaBuldi-Dva (The Two Buldis) directed by Lev Kuleshov and written byOsip Brik.

Also at the Museum of Modern Art as part of the New Directors New Films series from March 16-31 was Abai Karpikov's LittleFish n Love (1989) and Sergei Selyanov and Nikolai Makarov's Saint'sDay (1988) from the Soviet Union; from Hungary, My 20th Century,directed by Ildik6 Enyedi.

Playing in mainstream theatres in New York City are To entsof Spring written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski and based on thenovella by Ivan Turgenev, and Time of the Gypsies, a Serbo-Croatianlanguage film directed by Emir Kusturica. Lonely Woman Seeks Companion from Russia, directed by Vyacheslav Krishtofovich is also inlimited release. It features Irina Kupchenko who received a best actressaward from the Montreal Film Festival.

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CONFERENCES, LECfURES AND ORGANIZATIONS

The University of Ottawa Department of Modern Languagesand Literatures is sponsoring a symposium entitled, Slavic Drama: TheQuestion of Innovation from May 1-4 1991. Papers for the symposiumshould be submitted for consideration by July 1 1990. Contributors areasked to conform to the MLA style sheet. The proceedings of thesymposium will be published. For information write to ProfessorAndrew Donskov, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures,University of Ottawa, 550 Cumberland, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, lN6N5 (613) 564-6529.

New York University will hold an Eastern Comparative Literature Conference on May 5. The topic will be, Culture 'As If Literature and Politics n Central Europe.As part of the United States Institute of Theatre TechnologyOhio Section Spring Conference at Baldwin-Wallace College on April

21 there was a session entitled Theatre in the Soviet Union. Theguest speakers were Eugene Lysik, former Chief Designer at the GrandOpera and Ballet Theatre in Minsk, Vyacheslav Efimov, TechnicalDirector of the Moscow Art Theatre, and Sergei Gnedovsky, architecture analyst and contributor to Soviet Theatre Architecture.

The Romanian government has offered Andrei Serban, (in theUnited States since 1969) the directorship of either the NationalTheatre or the Romanian State Opera House in Bucharest.prepared by Edward Dee

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ADDRESS BY NIKOAND KATALIN VAJDAPLAYWRIGHT AND DIRECTORDECEMBER 31, 1989

translated by Zsuzsa BergerRead in Hungarian and Romanian theatres and broadcast on televi-sion in both countries.Dear Romanian Fellow Actors:

We should like to greet you warmly on this frrst free NewYear's Eve, which is not merely the beginning of a new year, but alsothe beginning of a new period in all of our lives: the beginning of aperiod that, we hope, will bring freedom for us all including freedom ofthe arts. At such a historical moment, theatre plays an especially important role, since drama, through the power of the human voice, is one ofthe greatest unifying forces that can create a community out of a diverseaudience every night.During the last few weeks we have witnessed a sad and cruel"live" performance. What it has brought together is not a theatreaudience but our two nations. I t is sad that only the great dramas of s-tory can bring nations together. But we hope that we will not be unitedonly in hardship, and that the often abused words about HungarianRomanian friendship will be given real meaning.

Our task is to preserve this unity by means of the arts. Let usswear that we actors shall never allow inner or outer forces to suppressart. Let art fmally be as free as thought Let us be the guarantors offriendship between our nations Let us end the divisive machinations ofmany years for the sake of art that knows no borders of country or language, that is universal and eternal, and that we faithfully serve.This is our mission: to translate the thoughts of Shake-speare,Moliere Caragiale and Orkeny. Fellow actors I speak to you,Romanians and Translyvanian-Hungarians, in one language--in the language of the theatre What is our common language after all? Therising curtain, the call by the stage manager, a prop that we 've kept, afaded set, the empty stage, a read-through, a smoke-filled green room, adressing table covered with make-up, a forgotten cue, the indescribableatmosphere of rehearsal, a friendly dresser, the ever-grumpy doorman,the stage door the feverish excitement before the premiere theapplause, the success, flop, the ever-present stage fright before stepping out in front of the audience.1990 marks the beginning of a new, difficult, but beautiful andchallenging performance. I wish you the strength, stamina, peace and


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faith that are needed. he stage manager s calling. Places All theactors on stage for the beginningof the performance Curtains up

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INTERVIEW WITH KATALIN VAJDA,ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THJA ftKSZIN THEATRE, BUDAPESTZsuzsa Berger

The J atekszin was founded in 1981 to serve as a chambertheatre for Hungarian drama. Gabor Berenyi, the director and KatalinVajda, the artistic director, enjoy greater freedom than at other theatresin Budapest. The Jatekszin is currently the only theatre where theactors are hired for individual productions, since the theatre does nothave a permanent company. Creating a new ensemble for each produc-tion allows actors from different theatres to work together. Since itsinception, the Jatekszin has attracted critical attention for its fresh,innovative approach to both old and new Hungarian plays. Several pro-ductions have been running for more than a year, and some of themhave also been broadcast on television.Katalin Vajda s most recent play, which she calls a parody ofthe last century of Hungarian drama, The Way e Play was staged withgreat success at the time of the interview. Our conversation was over-shadowed by the recent Romanian revolution, which inspired KatalinVajda and her sister Anik6 Vajda to write an address to both Hungarianand Romanian actors as an encouragement for peaceful reconciliationbetween the two nations. The speech was read in both Romanian andHungarian Theatres and was also broadcast on television on NewYear s Eve in both countries.Berger: n exceptionally close relationship between the stage and itsaudience has always been characteristic of the Hungarian theatre. Dur-ing the last thirty years for political reasons this relationship becameeven more intense. Topics forbidden elsewhere could be discussed byallusion on the stage, and the audience was more than eager to take partin the game. Now, ll of a sudden as the result of political liberalization,the mass media can deal directly with the daily, breathtaking events.How does this new freedom influence the role of the theatre in Hungaryand what steps are the theatres taking to adapt to these changes andhold their audiences?Vajda: The reaction of the Hungarian theatre at present recalls thesituation I found myself in as one of the writers of the monthly radiopolitical cabaret. A year ago, after Karoly Gr6sz became the First Sec-retary of the Party, we were all at a loss when it came to choosing atopic for the next cabaret. We realized that since the nature of goodcabaret is to reflect the current situation, our job had in a real sense

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Hippolit the ButlerJatekszin Theatre Budapest

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been taken from us by all the new magazines and newspapers that wereattracting attention. We simply could not compete; the papers becamemore exciting than any cabaret could possibly be.Now I sense the same kind of impasse in the theatre. Two extremesexist side by side. One is a continuation of the Kadar system (JanosKadar was the First Secretary of the Party from 1956 to 1988). According to its advocates, theatre should react to current events, concentrating on the emergence of the new Hungary. The second approach is tosatisfy the audience's need for comedy and entertainment. The theatresthat have chosen to follow the first course--the political path--are nowfailing, one after the other. While I personally feel sorry for the artistsinvolved, I believe that this kind of theatre is doomed to failure. I donot question the artistic value of some of the productions during theKadar years, but I always found it artistically self-destructive to have thesuccess and popularity of the best theatres depend upon the daringpolitical applicability of their productions. t works against art.Berger: The best artists worked in those theatres, but were ~ u g h t up ina vicious circle as they had to provide audiences with what the publicwanted to see.Vajda: Yes, at the time it was bound to happen, and it was also bound tofail. Without a doubt those theatres did produce the outstanding productions and had the best artists, but they put the other theatres at a disadvantage.

n the present situation, our theatres are without direction. Nobodyreally knows what to do While current productions n the politicaltradition may fail, the advocates of a theatre of entertainment are alsoin a difficult situation. During the past few years, the level of entertainment has become debased. Artists of the highest caliber no longer workin the field. The socialist ideal of a collective theatre destroyed the starsystem that is at the basis of the entertainment industry.A few years must pass before theatres will know what they shouldpresent and how they should play it. I think the political changes nowtaking place w ll help the theatres realize that above all they should produce art. Regardless of the genre of the play, what matters is that theproduction have artistic value.Berger: As the only theatre in Budapest that functions without apermanent company, does the Jatekszin have a special position?Vajda: There are advantages and disadvantages to our position. Artistically, I see only the advantages, since w have the privilege of choosing and working with the best actors. But, of course, these actors arethe most in demand in their own theatres, which makes coordinatingborrowing them from different companies very complex.

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I think that soon all the theatres will function this way because therewill not be enough money to support the large companies. It is also difficult for a big company to keep so many actors fully employed.Freelancing for actors is a fairly new phenomenon that started abouttwo years ago. By now some of the best actors freelance.Berger: The new system of subsidies for theatres has not yet been fmalized. What would you consider to be an ideal situation?Vajda: A new normative subsidy system is being discussed, where support would be based on the number of spectators. hat will kill thesmall theatres first, and will do away with the big theatres next, sincethey have to support a larger company.I believe that the government should fmance the arts, but to whatextent is a delicate question. Up until now the socialist government fullysubsidized the arts and therefore was in a position to determine whatshould be put on stage.

Without some kind of support system, the theatre will die. Eitherthe government should provide some support, or we should return tothe system of patronage, where a theatre lover would sponsor the arts.That, of course, presupposes a certain amount of private wealth whichwe do not yet have.Nobody knows what will happen, except that we shall probably havea more democratic government. his is a long term project: it will takeat least ten or fifteen years until a financial base can be built. Untilthen, the fate of the theatre is very insecure. Theatres will close, andthere will be many unemployed actors. It sounds r u e ~ because we arenot used to it, but it is natural. I believe that the most talented actorswill always fmd work.Berger: How does the Jatekszfu operate fmancially?Vajda: he government gives us a fixed amount. f we play to fullhouses, the extra income from the tickets belongs to the theatre. Also,recently we have been able to advertise other in our flyers, and thisbrings in additional income. While our actors are expensive, we are asmall company and so it all balances out.Berger: n your repertory there is a mixture o pre-war light comediesand new experimental plays. How do you decide what to produce?Vajda: Because we have a limited number of paying spectators, andmust hire expensive actors, we try to put on plays that will attract an

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audience. Because of current economic difficulties, our potentialaudience is more hesitant to spend its money. The successes financeour more experimental work, such as Istvan EOrsi's play, Jo/an nd theMen which we staged for the intelligentsia and expected to run for onlytwenty to thirty performances.Berger: You try to satisfy both functions?Vajda: Yes, although I do not consider entertainment and satisfyingintellectual needs to be two different functions. n ideal theatre shouldsatisfy both at the same time. I think it's a bad habit left over from thesocialist era to see the two functions as incompatible. Since 1945, wehave always had to separate serious politically conscious or politicallyapplicable art from other theatre. I think that in the process we lost ahealthy sense of what art is f entertainment can exist at a high artisticlevel as in the case of Chaplin, we can no longer talk about pureentertainment.Berger: How has the position of the Hungarian playwright changed?Vajda: There are some young writers who are associated with the fewelite theatres Those playwrights who were in their prime ten ortwenty years ago, such as Csurka, Szakonyi, Gorgey, Fejes, Karinthy,expressed their political concerns on a fairly primary level. By now, theyare no longer creative and have for the most part stopped writing. Thenew generation of playwrights is really in trouble. They write one first-rate play, like Spir6's Chickenhead or Kornis's Hal/e/uja and then theyare unable to break new ground. Often they give us journalism ratherthan art.Berger: On what did you base your theatre parody, The Way We Playand what inspired you to write it?Vajda: My sister and I wanted to trace the development of Hungariandrama over the last century. We started with Madach's The Tragedy ofMan and used plays by Molnar, M6ricz and Orkeny and ended withSpir6's Chickenhead. The entire action is set in a house in today's Pest,where Lucifer arrives to discover what has happened over the last hun-dred years. The scenes are comic, but their style, both in the acting andthe writing, reflects the time and the style of the writers themselves . Ina sense we wanted to show the development of our language from therich, poetic iambics of Madach to the highly debased, impoverishedcursing in Chickenhead. Language reflects our mentality and reacts toit. The play works on several levels. Those who are not familiar withthe writers in question still get a good laugh at the expense of several ofthe contemporary characters and enjoy the comedy on a primary level.

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Those who know the writers have an added enjoyment, since they canrelate to the stylistic changes reflected in the words. Usually theirlaughter s bitter in that it raises the question of where we are going.For me each of these reactions s valid. What matters s that everybody get something out of the production. I believe that good theatrecreates a true community out of a heterogeneous audience. By the way,at the end of the play Lucifer looks around and concludes that man hasbecome worse than the devil, and he goes back to hell.Berger: How did you become involved in the Romanian Revolution?Vajda: I just could not help being outraged by the fact that in our dayand age such a mindless dictatorship could exist. On the second day ofthe Revolution we took the actors salaries along with the moneywe collected from the audience bought food and took it to differentRomanian theatres. I also remembered the uplifting feeling I experienced as the interpreter for a Hungarian-Romanian orchestra. Evenduring the harshest years when it came to music, it no longer matteredwhat the player s nationality was--they became swept up in each other smusic. In the Romanian address, Anik6 and I wanted to remind the artists that they have the power to overcome the hostility betweenHungarians and Romanians.

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IMPRESSIONS OF THEATREIN A CHANGING POLITICAL CLIMATE:WARSAW, EAST BERLIN AND BUDAPESTIN JANUARY 1990

Felicia Hardison LondreDuring my sixteen-day visit to Eastern Europe in January 1990,1

it was still too early for recent events in Poland, the German Demo-cratic Republic, and Hungary to be widely reflected on the stage inthose countries, but there was much talk among theatre people aboutthe potential effects of those political changes on the theatre itself. Theprevailing attitude was one of general uncertainty about the future andspecific apprehension about current economic difficulties that are sureto mean reduced government subsidies for theatres and higher ticketprices for consumers who can barely afford to feed their families.

The week I was in Poland, the new Ministry of Cultureannounced A, B and C lists of theatres. Reportedly, theatres on the Alist will continue to receive their full subsidies. Those seven or eighttheatres, chosen strictly for the quality of their productions, include theStary Theatre in Cracow, a theatre in Gdansk, and the five or six leadingtheatres in Warsaw among them, the Studio, Ateneum, Polski andWsp6f czesny). The B list will receive reduced subsidies, and thetheatres and the C list are invited to apply for support. There is somespeculation that all theatres will eventually be forced to operate on acommercial basis. It is interesting that the Nowy Theatre in Poznantheatre, formerly directed by the new Minister of Culture, IzabellaCywiD.ska did not make the A list. Cywiflska has been careful to includerepresentatives from the full political spectrum in her ministry, includingsome of the old guard; thus the directorshiy of the theatre section wentto a Communist, the affable Andrzej Zi;binski.Although there is a concerted effort to reduce bureaucratic redtape, play texts and theatrical productions are still subject to approval bya central office. n practice, Poland never suffered censorship as seriousas that in the U.S.S.R. The main restriction was to prohibit showingSoviets in a bad light. Perhaps the most telling example of the new freedom from that restriction occurred in a production that had entered therepertoire only a month before: Tadeusz Konwicki s Mala ApokalipsaA Minor Apocalypse) at the Ateneum. Set in the period of martial law,the action follows a novelist through the day on which he deCides to

immolate himself in front of the Communist Party headquarters as aprotest. At one point, two actors made up and costumed as grotesquecaricatures of Brezhnev and Andropov entered upstage to a blast ofmusic and recorded applause. The audience laughed uproariously.

The obsession with World War II that has character ized much

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of modern Polish drama persists. There s a fascination with the Jewishexperience, as exemplified by two of the six productions I saw. Sfuchaj,Izraelu (Listen Israel ) by Jerzy S. Sito at Cracow's Stary Theatre coversmuch the same subject as Joshua Sobol's far superior Ghetto. While theproduction became quite monotonous in the second act after the noveltyof the staging had been exhausted, it affected its Polish audienceprofoundly. Much more moving to me was the unpretentiously stagedBurzliwe zycie Lejzorka (The Stonny Life of Lejzorka) by Ilya Ehrenburgin the Ateneum's Scena 61. This episodic tale was communicated withperfect clarity through the emotion of the folk melodi.es that interspersed the action, as well as through the expressive acting of a ninemember cast headed by Artur Bareis n the title role. Of all the eighteen productions I saw on my trip, this s the one I would most like to seetoured to the United States.Waldemar t b r o w s k ~ general director of the Studio Art Center in Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science, quipped that the theatrehad progressed from one kind of restriction (government censorship) toanother (inadequate funding). Asked if he thought that Polish theatremight lose its vitality without a political adversary to tackle supratextually, ~ b r o w s k i acknowledged that both artists and audiences hadbeen greatly stimulated by the challenge of conveying political ideas bymeans of the scenery, a musical score or an actor's gestures. Thetheatre is metaphor, he said. Recognizing that and building upon itmakes the theatre more alive.Irony probably outweighed metaphor in the politically pointedproduction, Sweet Fifties (the English title was used), a musical commentary on the Stalinist period in Poland in the early 1950s. t wasdevised by the young performers of the Rampa company at the Teatr naTargowku, under the direction of Andrzej Strzelecki.The Rampa originated in the 1984 graduation production of ZleZachowanie (Bad Behavior) based on Fats Waller's Ain t Misbehavin' atthe Warsaw Drama School. Recognized as the theatrical event of theyear and awarded several prizes, it launched the group on four years oftouring in Europe. In 1988 they settled into their present facility on thewrong side of the tracks and began producing a series of musicals.

In Sweet Fifties, the cast of twenty-two performers evokedthrough song a period they were too young to have known exceptthrough parental reports and old movies. The large open stage wasbare except for enormous block letters about one and a half timeshuman height, which spelled out FIFTIES. In the course of the showthese letters were moved into dozens of different configurations tocreate walls, labyrinths, cubicles, platforms, sepulchers, jungle gyms,and ultimately a hopeless jumble. Although the music wasundistinguished, the lyrics must have carried a great deal of emotionalweight, judging by the audience's response.The long finale to Sweet Fifties begins with the sudden collapse

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of a huge section of the upstage wall. Through the gap streamed brilliant light and a great tide of pale blue-green balloons that filled theentire center stage. After a sequence in which the performers' portraitswere set like tombstones among the balloons, the action segued into a1950s fashion show in garish colors. Following all the glamorousmodels came a man wearing a red scarf like a Russian babushka, as thecommentator observed that "some fashions never change--if that's thesort of thing you want." Finally, a young woman in Polish folk costumespoke a long, moving letter to her parents. Although she elicitedsporadic laughter, the ultimate import of her text w s pessimistic aboutthe future. A final medley of songs included "America," which wasclearly a love-song to a symbol of hope.

f a single recurring theme could be discerned in East Berlintheatre, it s anti-militarism. This was reflected as much in the selectionof erman classics on that theme as in the conceptual approach tothem. In Lessing's Minna von Bamhelm, directed by Siegfried Hochstat the Maxim Gorki Theater , Major von Tellheim was portrayed ashaving lost an arm. Carl Zuckmayer's satire on Prussian reverence forthe military uniform, Der Hauptmann von Kopenick The Captain fromKopenick), directed by Christoph Bruck at the Berliner Ensemble,ridiculed the military. The intrinsic anti-militarism in the text ofGoethe's Egmont at the Deutsches Theater w s underscored by the useof martial music and by the ominous appearance of the soldiers whoarrest Egmont. Hermann Sudermann's Der Sturmgeselle Sokrates TheStonn Companion Socrates), exquisitely produced at the Kammerspiele,approaches the subject comedically. In the dentist's office setting, theframed portraits of soldiers were draped in red, black and gold bunting;the act curtain bore the words of a patriotic song: "Pulver istschwarz,/Blut is rot,/Golden flackert die Flamme " (Powder s black,blood is red, golden flickers the flame )Although the performances in East Berlin generally appearedto be sold out, audiences seemed unresponsive by our standards.Laughter w s rare, even when the comedy w s wonderful. Peter Claussen theorized that such restraint stems not from lack of interest, butfrom excessive politeness; audiences simply do not wish to interrupt theflow of the performance. n analogy might be made with the events oflast November, which some have called a "revolution after workinghours." Of East Germany's eighty or so professional theatres, fourteenare located in Berlin, and these boast the highest attendance, whileprovincial theatres typically play to only about sixty-five percent capacity. It can be argued, however, that the most interesting theatre hasbeen offered in the second-class theatres of towns like Weimar andDresden, which are entrusted to young, imaginative directors fresh outof school. Over the years, those directors have learned to accommodatetheir art to the prevailing politics in order to work their w y up to the

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first-class theatres. In East Germany, therefore, unlike other EasternEuropean countries, artists have not been in the forefront of recentevents. They have tended toward conservatism because they enjoyedsuch privileges as the ability to travel abroad and to obtain hard currency. This has caused deep resentment, even outright hostility, amongworkers toward artists and intellectuals.Among intellectuals, the most respected East Germanplaywrights are those who boast the most productions in the West, andHeiner Muller is the leader of the pack. Some playwrights even try towrite specifically for the West European market. Playwrights who areaffiliated with a particular company--Heiner Muller with the DeutschesTheater, Volker Braun with the Berliner Ensemble or Ulrich Plenzdorfwith the Maxim Gorki Theater--draw their monthly salary from thattheatre whether the theatre produces their new plays or not, and theyare allowed to keep all of their earnings from foreign royalty payments.

Recent American plays are little known in East Germany,primarily because audiences have demanded plays that reflected therealities of their own life. Of course, Tennessee Williams and ArthurMiller have long been produced in the GDR, as everywhere in EasternEurope, because their plays are socially correct. But there has beenonly one (unremarkable) production of a Sam Shepard play, and DavidMamet is entirely unknown. It might be noted in passing that NeilSimon's The ast of the Red-Hot Lovers was playing at the Volksbtihnethe week I was in Berlin.) Wolfgang Schuch, head of the drama sectionof Henschelverlag, believes that a market is opening up for Americanplays with broad themes, and he was eager for names of playwrights ofthe post-Shepard/Mamet generation.On the whole, the productions in East Berlin were the mostdazzling n their artistry and technical polish. Sudermann's Der Stunngeselle Sokrates was so lucidly communicated nonverbally that one feltafterwards as if one had understood the language. Its beautifullynuanced realistic ensemble acting, its subtly stylized and evocative ele ments of design, and the deft touches giving evidence of a strong directorial vision all corroborated the general opinion that the DeutschesTheater (along with its studio, the Kammerspiele) is the leading company of East Berlin. t was directed by Thomas Langhoff with setsdesigned by Pieter Hein and costumes by Ursula Wolf

In a completely different vein, the Maxim Gorki Theater's postmodern production of Plenzdorrs Ein Tag Ianger als ein Leben A ayas ong as a Lifetime) was a symphony of compelling images, its strikingsets designed by Dieter Berge with highly stylized costumes by MarieLuise Strandt. Hans-Jtirgen Nikulka, set designer for Egmont, alsomerits special mention for the brilliant theatrical metaphors he carriedthrough the play's multiple settings. The ticket prices for such theatricalrichesse ranged from the equivalent of five cents to five dollars. In atime of economic crisis, it is easy to understand the fears we heard

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expressed that some theatres may be force to close. More optimistically, some saw the fmancial crunch as the impetus for a healthy restructuring that could lead to the adoption of Western tactics such as seekingcorporate support for the theatre.The same story was heard again in Budapest: theatres have

traditionally received sixty to seventy percent of their income fromgovernment subsidies, with no more than forty percent coming from thebox office. As Hungary shifts to a privatized economy, ticket pricesmust increase and audiences will be more particular about what theychoose to see. During the years of Communist Party rule, Hungariansattended the theatre with the idea of gleaning some political commentary that they could not get in the newspapers or on the radio. Theywanted plays about Hungarian life with all its problems. But a shift inaudience demand has already become evident; the trend is now towardlight comedy and operetta. Indeed, the Budapest theatre guide for theweek I was there listed two Bernard Slade plays, two Noel Coward, twoBarillet and Gredy, George Axelrod's Goodbye, Charlie , Woody Allen'sPlay ItAgain, Sam Kesselring's Arsenic and Old Lace, and Neil Simon'sThe Odd Couple, as well as a number of musicals, including Me and MyGirl.

There is also a strong alternative or unofficial theatre inHungary. These studio productions or readings of new plays are notlisted in the published sources, but announced to aficionados largely byword of mouth. Because there are so many unemployed theatre artists,these will surely be the basis for some private theatres in the future. Atthe moment, however, things are generally in a state of suspendedanimation until the March 1990 elections. In contrast to the Warsawand East Berlin theatre, Soviet plays are conspicuously absent fromBudapest repertoires. The only plays translated from the Russian to befound in the weekly guide were Evgeny Shvarts's The Snow Queen andChekhov's Three Sisters.

The Vigszinhaz s recently opened production of Brecht sThreepenny Opera is a generally poor production, undermined mainly bya heavy-handed and elaborately-realized scenic concept that seemedawkwardly forced upon the text. The two-story revolving unit included-as Mack the Knife's hideaway--the main floor and balcony of a movietheatre, complete with a dozen or so rows of theatre seats. The show'sdirector, Peter Gothar, s a film director, who had ventured for the firsttime into stage directing. Despite the production's flaws, its interpretation served as an interesting index to Hungarian concerns. temphasized the conflict between generations, as Mackie, Polly, Lucyand the gang were all rebellious teen-agers. Mack, charismaticallyportrayed by Attila Kaszas, wore a pastel unstructured jacket andsported a single diamond earring. In the end, just as Mack was about tohang, instead of a Mounted Messenger, an American envoy fromWashington, D. C. arrived. The Star-Spangled Banner accompanied

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his entrance down a long curving staircase. The actor read the messagefrom Washington in phonetically-learned English, then waved to thecrowd and added: God bless you all, and God bless your greatcountry. The audience responded with a mix of laughter and applause.During the final anthem, Peachum passed out a white blindman's caneto each of the fifty or so cast members who then tapped their w y outthrough the audience as the stage lights dimmed. The set revolved tothe movie theatre; the light beamed toward the audience from the projection booth in that setting added an unmistakable religious overtone.Productions in Budapest include an element of bawdiness thatis not seen in Warsaw or East Berlin. The costumes in the brothelscene of Threepenny Opera might well be considered indecent by thestandards of American commercial theatre. In a hilarious production ofPlautus' Braggart Soldier at the Radnoti Miklos Szinpad, an interpolatedsexual encounter between Palaestrio and Milphidippa becomesdownright raunchy. Bela Bartok's ballet The Miraculous Mandarin is anenergetic--in fact, enormously athletic--and gripping study n sex andviolence. Certainly, sexual tensions ran high between Johanne LuiseHeiberg and Hans Christian Andersen in Per Olav Enquist's From theLife of he Earthwonn at the Pesti Szinhaz.Two Budapest productions were truly outstanding: the Nemzeti Szinhaz s Caucasian halk Circle, directed by Imre Csiszar,designed by Tamas Vayer, and composed by Istvan Martha; and GyorgySpiro's Csirkefej Chickenhead), directed by Gabor Zsambeki at theKatona Jozsef Szinhaz. The Nemzeti's dramaturg, Erzsebet Bereczky,and playrnaster Eszter Tatar, worried that The Caucasian Chalk irclemight tax its audience's endurance with its two and a half hours runningtime. But rarely in my theatregoing experience have two and a halfhours passed so quickly. A few highlights of the brilliantly conceivedstaging include Grusha s crossing of the rope bridge (a genuineacrobatic feat), her marriage to the Peasant in a tiny cottage tightlypacked with at least two dozen wedding guests, Azdak's f ll from powerin a steady downpour of rain that covered the entire depth of the stage,and the celebration dance that turned into a stomping dance of death atthe end. Chickenhead, a sordid, naturalistic look at today's alienatedyouth, was beautifully acted by its cast of twelve to achieve a seamlessblend of humor and dramatic intensity, with a sudden eruption of revolting violence, after which the father's apathy carries a powerful emotional impact.Clearly, I was impressed by the quality of the theatre I s w inall three countries. At the same time, I saw just cause for serious concern on the part of theatre people everywhere about what m y happento those theatres n the difficult time ahead.

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NOTE

1My trip was arranged by the International Theatre Institute-USA Center under a grant from The Trust for Mutual Understandingt was designed to pave the way for future cultural exchanges as well asany other links that might e established between theatre artists of thosecountries and professional theatres in the United States

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INDERSIN THE U.S.S.R..Janusz Gtowacki

translated byJadwiga Kosicka

A little over eight years ago--on December 4, 1981 to be exact- took a plane from Warsaw to London to attend the opening night ofmy play inders at the Royal Court Theatre. Nine days later GeneralJaruzelski imposed martial law. At that point I decided to stay abroad;instead of returning to Poland, I went to New York. In making thatchoice, I was aware that the future might bring quite unforeseen developments in my career. But what never occurred to me was a) that inDecember, 1989 my play inders (about a girls reformatory--a metaphor for totalitarianism--where the teen-age inmates stage inderella inthe prison theatre) would open almost simultaneously in sixteentheatres throughout the Soviet Union; b) that I d be invited to theU.S.S.R. as a member of the official delegation at the Festival of Contemporary Polish Plays; c that I d actually be able to make the trip andreceive a standing ovation in Moscow and Leningrad for the attack onpolitical repression contained in my play.

As luck would have it, my stay in the Soviet Union coincidedwith the spectacular events unfolding almost every day: the BalticRepublics, Azerbaijan, and--most fascinating of all--the Party Congressproceedings which were transmitted live on TV for the first time. t wason TV that I saw and heard Andrei Sakharov s final speech calling forthe abolition of the Party s monopoly on power. Two days later I wasstanding in an interminable line of people waiting patiently to pay theirlast respects to Sakharov. Snow was falling and the temperature haddropped to minus twenty-four degrees centigrade. All around me werehordes of exhausted people, shivering in the cold and whispering thatSakharov had probably been poisoned, or telling how a few days agosome lucky friends had actually been able to buy a bar of soap or a pairof shoes, complaining that perestroika was much too slow and voicingdoubts that anything would ever change. After several hours, I gave upand left the line. Winter, which until the present has proved deadly forRussia s enemies, now may prove to be the moment of crisis for Russiaitself. Given the situation the country is in, it is astonishing thatanyone in the Soviet Union still goes to the theatre, and yet that isexactly what happens. At least for the Polish plays I saw,theauditoriums were packed.Besides Russian productions of contemporary Polish plays, theFestival included a guest appearance by one of Poland s leading companies at the Taganka Theatre, whose former director Yuri Lyubimov

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had just returned from abroad. Cracow s Teatr Stary presented AndrzejWajda s famous production of Dostoevsky s Crime and Punishment andJerzy Jarocki s staging of Sfawomir Mrozek s Portrait (a dissection of theStalinist years). Mroiek is at present the most widely performed Polishplaywright in the Soviet Union. His Tango Emigres and short one-actsare in the repertory of many theatres. Ireneusz Iredyiiski s FarewellJudas is currently being staged in four or five different productions, andone or two of Tadeusz R6zewicz s plays are also being shown.As for my play Cinders I saw it twice in Moscow at the PushkinTheatre and once in Leningrad at the Lenin Komsomol Theatre. Iwrote the play as a Kafkaesque comedy, intended to be ridiculous aswell as frightening, whereas both the Soviet stagings--especially theMoscow production--were decidedly tragic in tone. I think that thesentimental tradition in Russian theatre has something to do with it, but

that s not the whole story. Thanks to glasnost and perestroika, it sfinally possible to show prisons on stage in Soviet theatres and putinnocent people in them. But apparently it s still too early to laugh atthem.

In the Leningrad production, which by the way is much moreinteresting than the Moscow one and at times quite wonderful, there isan iron grating that separates the stage from the audience, but it alsounites them. The presence of a grating on stage continues to have considerable force in the Soviet Union.During the production the girls try to pull down the grating, allthe while singing a touching song about their desperate and unreasoninglove for the U.S.A. and their dreams of escaping there . Everyone wasmoved to tears. Except me. I didn t write the song; it was especiallywritten for the production by a well-known Soviet poet. But I donthave to dream about escaping to America; I did escape. And I evenwrote a play about the experience--Hunting Cockroaches. t tells thestory of a pair of young Polish emigres during one of their many sleepless nights in their run-down, cockroach infested apartment on Manhattan s Lower East Side. Hunting Cockroaches is now in the process ofbeing translated into Russian and will soon be staged, and I wonder howit will be understood by Soviet audiences.

These and other thoughts crossed my mind as I sat in myelegant hotel in Leningrad. From the window of my room I could seethe Neva River and the cruiser Aurora permanently anchored there.TheAurora which seventy-five years ago opened the grand Bolshevikshow now about to close, is today only a rusted prop.

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Peter Weiss' ow Mr. Mockinpott Was Cured of His SufferingNarodny Youth Theatre BUM, Kuznetsk, 1987

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THE G NG OF CR ZY YOUTHlma Law

They call themselves BUM Banda umalishennoi molodezhi)-The Gang of Crazy Youth. Based in Kuznetsk, an industrial and miningcenter in Southeast Siberia, this narodny (or people's) youth theatre wasfounded about ten years ago by Aleksandr Kalashnikov. Now thirtytwo, Kalashnikov is one of that new breed of young Soviet theatreenthusiasts who is trying to revive the best traditions of folk theatre inRussia. After graduation from the Institute of Culture in Kubyshevwhere he studied direction, Kalashnikov moved to Moscow to gain experience by working for a time under Boris Golubovsky at the GogolTheatre. Ten years ago he moved to Kuznetsk where he began thearduous task of putting together the group that would ultimatelybecome the Gang of Crazy Youth.

Their very ftrst production, We Have a Fair n Kuznetsk, was anagit-prop production like those from the early 192 s against drunkenness, theft, and poor workmanship. As with all of their productions, thecollective wrote the scenario themselves, basing it on material from thelegal department at the Kuznetsk Shoe Factory and the local police.Although the people named in the production had long since beenpunished, as one critic noted, When they saw themselves on the stageas part of a grotesque farce they understood what real shame was. Notonly did it provoke a scandal, but it also turned out to be a bloody affair,when after the first performance some of the actors were beaten up byoutraged audience members.Over the past five years, Kalashnikov's Gang has evolved into atraveling troupe, much like the balagan of eighteenth and nineteenthcentury Russia which gave performances at fairs and street celebrations.

The balagan has antecedents in the much earlier folk tradition of theskomorokhi or wandering minstrels, and many of the new travelinggroups have adopted that name.

At frrst the Gang performed only in the vicinity of Kuznetsk.But after acquiring a couple of horses, they began traveling muchgreater distances in the summer in an attempt to reach more remoteregions where many of the inhabitants have never before seen a live performance, much less a performance in a regular theatre Today,Kalashnikov's Gang is likely to turn up almost anywhere in any weather,using skis and sleds in wintertime, and in summer, resorting to rafts inorder to reach settlements accessible only by riverboat. The rafts notonly serve as transportation, but their stage as well, using long ropes tosecure them to the shore. At each stop, whether by raft, wagon, or skis,the performers then dash about stopping passersby and knocking ondoors, inviting everyone to come and see

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their performance. As befits a traveling theatre, props are at a minimum, the group's main expressive means being the performers eccentriccostumes and their energetic clownery. Their stage is a tarp spread onthe ground, trees and shrubbery become their backdrop, and the wagonsserve as dressing rooms.Perhaps the most surprising thing about this folk theatre, is themake-up of its repertory, which includes everything from Vasily Shukshin's delightful tale, Before the Cock Crows Thrice or How Ivan-thefool went to the ends of the earth to acquire intelligence (staged as afolk balagan), to Peter Weiss' ow Mr. Mockinpott Was Cured of HisSuffering (done in the style of commedia dell'arte). Also included in therepertory are Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 45 ; Aleksandr Volodin's LittleLizard, a parable about how war arises between peoples, and variousworks by other Russian writers including Samuel Marshak and VladimirTendryakov.No matter that many in the audience have never heard of these

writers, and that, especially in remote settlements, inhabitants may notunderstand the complex language of the productions. Kalashnikovbelieves--and audiences have proven him correct--that this kind oftheatre transcends all barriers. He still recalls with satisfaction how agroup of Tartars giggled in delight at the antics in Mockinpott . Theymay not have savored the nuances that a Moscow audience might catch,but there is no question nKalashnikov's mind that the performance hadmade a hit with the Tartars.Not satisfied with the success of his present performing group,Kalashnikov now envisions founding a Theatre-city, a kind of outdoorperformance center. Each year the civilization of this city would changeso that one year it would become a fairy tale city, the next a fantasycity, a city of fools, or a city of craftsmen. In winter, the group wouldmove indoors to become a regular balagan theatre. Kalashnikov hasalready found a sponsor for his grandiose project--the Kuznetsk ShoeFactory--and has managed to wrest control of a former sporting goodsstore in a building in the center of Kuznetsk that is scheduled to be torndown. Here Kalashnikov hopes to establish a permanent locationwhich in addition to offices and rehearsal space will also include achamber theatre seating 100. f only they can win permission, Kalashnikov says, they are willing to obtain all the materials and do all thework themselves.

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Vasilii Shukshin's Before the Cock Crows ThriceNarodny Youth heatre BUM, Kuznetsk, 1987


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A GLIMPSE INTO THE LIFE AND WORK OFALEKSANDR GALIN: AN INTERVIEWRebecca Rovit

withHelen Buzyna, interpreterleksandr Galin belongs to the new wave of Sovietpla}rwrights who began writing in the 1970s. Not only has Galin's popularity in the Soviet Union increased, but his plays have been producedall over Europe and recently in the United States as well. His plays,imbued with a sense of tragi-comedy, focus on average people and theirspiritual and material problems. American audiences are perhaps mostfamiliar with his play, Stars in the Morning Sky about the temporaryremoval of Moscow prostitutes during the 1980 Olympic games. t was

performed in New York by Leningrad's Maly Dramatic Theatre underthe direction of Lev Dodin during the 1988 International Festival of theArts. In December 1988, the Los Angeles Repertory Company performed the English-language premiere of the same play. Galin's semiautobiographical play of college life in the early '70s, The Roof wasrecently performed in English at Florida State University. I had theopportunity to meet Galin in March while he was in residence at FSU asa Hoffman Eminent Scholar. In the following interview Galin talksabout his development as a playwright and his views on theatre underglasnost.Rovit: How did you begin your career in the theatre?Galin: I began by working in the puppet theatre because for a long timeI couldn't get into the theatre institute. I wanted to become a directoror an actor, but I guess they figured I wasn't talented.1 Every time Iwasn't accepted in a production, I'd go home to Kursk. I had to worksomewhere. Because from a very early age I worked. I started workingin the puppet theatre because they needed male voices. Real men didn'tgo into the puppet theatre. Only crazy people like me who have dreamsabout working n the theatre. I didn't want to be an actor n the puppettheatre at all but I still remember this time with great warmth.Rovit: What kind of puppet theatre was it?Galin: A theatre for children. I played animals--the wolf, a goat. It wasjust for a few years. But I met many people who had unfortunatedestinies, people who for various reasons couldn't work where theywanted to, or even live where they wanted. I was a very young fellowthen, and I learned a lot from these people.

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Rovit: Do you think that your experiences in the puppet theatre have insome way affected your career as a writer?Galin: I can t say. I became more fond of the theatre as a result of theseexperiences. In fact, my first play The Wall was about the theatre. Butmy creative influences didn t really have anything to do with my experience in the puppet theatre. During this time I was watching Fellinifilms: Amarcord a Dolce Vita. I was reading many books. Thesewere the 60s, after the 20th Party Congress--the frrst wave of democratic feelings. This was when the frrst books were published that hadbeen previously banned. I read Bulgakov and he influenced me greatly.And Platonov ..Rovit: That was my next question. Of all the writers closest to you,which ones have been the most important? Bulgakov?Galin: Yes, and also the nineteenth century Russian writers-Dostoevsky, Gogol. Gogol was my frrst love. The Inspector General is afavorite of mine. Dead Souls is my Bible.Rovit: You ve mentioned Russian writers. Were you also influenced byEuropean or American models?Galin: Yes, Williams and Miller, and maybe later, Albee. I m also veryfond of classical plays and playwrights like Moliere. In the Soviettheatre I saw major productions of Moliere including one directed byAnatoly Efros. I also say Yuri Lyubimov s Hamlet at the Taganka withDavid Borovsky as scenographer. I remember all the mises-en-sceneand they influenced me n my work.Rovit: How would you characterize the development of your career as awriter?Galin: That s a very difficult question. It s hard to look at myself fromthe outside. This may have to do with the success that I have at thispoint. Many of my plays are being staged now. Some of them are onesthat I wrote many years ago which weren t allowed until recently2. Butthe success doesn t mean that I ve become a better writer. I just finished a new play. It s called The Group and it was very difficult for meto write. I became very nervous. I don t want to mystify you, but I hadthe feeling the events of the play were taking place far away. I wrote thefirst act, and for about a year, I couldn t write the second act. Successwas interfering. During that year (1988) I was in many differentcountries. I kept leaving my desk and my work--my people; there wereseveral characters. I left them there; I kept changing them. But when I

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knew I had to come here to Florida, I told myself that if I didn't complete this play in one month, then I just wouldn't write it. I forcedmyself to write and in four days I fmished it.Rovit: What is the play about?Galin: Several women meet in Venice during Carnival. Three of themlive in the Soviet Union and three of them in the U.S., but they're allRussian. And in this neutral territory, they try to determine who theyare and what Russia is. We have a lot of people coming to the SovietUnion from abroad. I think Americans would be amused to fmd outhow Americans react to life in the Soviet Union. You see, there aredeeper relationships that we're talking about here. I believe theatre isan international event. When I saw [Peter Brook's] The Mahabarata Irecognized the Universality of its themes. It's a celebration of theatre.People from all over the world can come together and grasp one idea.Only the genius of Brook could create this. I don't know if I have thestrength and energy to do something like this, but I do have the desire.Rovit: Where would you like to see an international project of this kindtake place?Galin: This play should be shown where there are Russians living.Maybe in Munich, maybe in Rome, maybe in New York, or maybe inMoscow.Rovit: Would it be fair to say that your work divides into two phases, aLeningrad phase including such plays as Retro and Janna and a laterMuscovite phase with plays about people dislocated within the newSoviet world--Stars in the Morning Sky 7ze Librarian The Group?Galin: No. I wrote and now write regardless of themes and places. Mywork often depends on a production and also very much on my life.You can divide my life and work into two periods, yes, but these areBefore Gorbachev'' and After. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say thatGorbachev has made a great difference in my life--personally. But Ican't say yet whether his rise to power has influenced y writing. WhenI wrote before Gorbachev, I had to understand everything that happened in society before him.Rovit: But do you feel a greater artistic freedom under Gorbachev?Galin: I have to say that I do. I d like to do a play like The Group withAmerican and Soviet actors together. Before Gorbachev it was totallyunthinkable. Of course that's going to influence my writing because itoffers me possibilities. The most prominent directors are coming to

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Moscow from ll over the world and I see and meet them there. Thisinfluences me without a doubt.3Rovit: Many of your plays have already been produced internationallyand to great acclaim. To what degree do you see theatre as universal-to what degree is it language and culture-bound?Galin: Theatre is a universal tongue. t doesn t speak in English, Russian or German. t speaks the creative-artistic language of feelings. I ma writer and I write words, but I m deeply convinced that even thoughwe express ourselves in different languages we still have the same feelings. We have a similar situation in front of God, before people, andbefore ourselves.Rovit: When he oofpremieres here at F.S.U. in a few weeks, will theAmerican audience need to know anything about the conditions of theSoviet Union to better understand the play?Galin: I don t know. Judging from the different meetings I ve had withAmericans, I can say that they only know the Soviet Union throughtelevision. t might be difficult for them to see my characters as peoplewho love and suffer, doubt and think. My goal is for the audience tounderstand my characters and suffer along with them. t is throughlaughing and crying that the audience can understand the play. Ofcourse, when I wrote this play I had no idea that it would be produced inthe United States.Rovit: You mention that our students are very much a part of a TV cui- ture. How can theatre thrive in such a culture?Galin: Theatre should offer people something else. Theatre is a liveart; it s something that happens at the moment. TV, in spite of its technological sophistication, often can t get across the simplest points. Nomatter how much money you put into TV, a live human being can ttouch the other person on screen. Their eyes never meet. But, on theother hand, TV is an incredible cultural entity of its own People in ourcountry can also benefit from this. I refuse to work in television becauseI like theatre.Rovit: o you have a particular philosophy about performance training?Galin: I love and understand psychological theatre. I think the actortrained in psychological theatre, if well-educated, can do anything. Withenough energy and understanding, he can even do a musical. But if hehasn t studied any human psychology, he won t be able to create charac-

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ters who resemble real people. Today s actor with his extensive professionalism must have a very high level of cultural training, because thegreatest enemy of theatre is commercialism.Rovit: Have you noticed any striking differences in your work withSoviet and American actors?Galin: Yes, American theatre students show a great deal of discipline inworking closely with directors. They attain a certain level of professionalism through the knowledge that they have a chance to perform. Ingeneral, I ve worked very little with students; but I fmd it enjoyable.They re not actors just yet. They don t have quite the dedication thatactors have; they don t have quite the accountability. Their futures willall be different. I think there will e very few productions like this one ofThe Roof This is a special opportunity for me to work on my own playwith students . While I was at Disney World, I met some actors-excellent actors--who perform for children and have a worthwhilecareer. But that s not theatre.Rovit: That s commercialism?Galin: Yes. But the actors studying here at the university are studyingtheatre. This impresses me greatly.Rovit: nd this is different from what you see at the Moscow rtTheatre School Studio, for example?Galin: Yes. In the U.S. the student pays for his education with his ownmoney and family funds. We have very good students in the SovietUnion. They re very dedicated to their work as actors. But I think ourstudents could gain even more if they had to pay for their education too.The Soviet government pays for everything. The students get stipendsand scholarships. Here I see a student from he oof making her owncostume. t home, our actors expect someone else to make thecostumes. I must say though, that we do have excellent professors inour acting schools.Rovit: Do you often get the chance to direct?Galin: Only once, although people often ask me to direct. Right nowSoviet directors stage my plays better than I do: Kama Ginkas, GenrikhChernyakhovsky, Oleg Tabakov, Lev Dodin. Working and communicating with them is very valuable to me. Maybe I will put on a play byLyudmila Petrushevskaya.5 She s my favorite contemporary playwright.f she were to write a role for me to act, then I d like to put on the playand act in it. But that s just a dream.

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Rovit: When you write a play, how do you see the role of the audience?What do you want to happen to the reader or viewer of your plays?Galin: I want im to believe the actors as they present themselves. Heshould feel something. I don t need anything from the viewer--only hislaughter and his tears. Nothing else.Rovit: You want to bring the audience in emotionally.Galin: Yes, like Chekhov.Rovit: How do the theatre repertories differ across the Soviet Union?Will a theatre in Leningrad stage the same play as a major city in Latviafor example?Galin: There are not many differences: Moliere, Shakespeare, Chekov,Bulgakov, Galin--all these authors are performed. But they might betranslated into the language of the Republic.6Rovit: We don t hear much about the theatre in the non-RussianRepublics.Galin: Eimuntas N e k r o ~ i u s a Lithuanian, is in y mind an excellentdirector. One of the best in the world. Then, there s the GeorgianRobert Sturua. In every Republic, from Armenia to Byelorussia and theUkraine there are excellent directors who work all over the SovietUnion.Rovit: What kind of influence do non-Russian directors such as Nekrosius and Sturua have on the Russian theatre?Galin: That s a very interesting question. There s a great deal ofinfluence from one theatre to another. In fact, many plays directed by

N e k r o ~ i u s and Sturua influence directors both within the Republics andelsewhere. Russian theatre has benefited from the Georgian traditionof theatricality and the intellectual tradition of the Baltic States.

Rovit: We hear in the media about the struggle for greater independence by the Republics. Is this struggle being brought into the theatres,onstage?Galin: Yes, it s a big problem. We shouldn t have people killing oneanother just because they re of different national backgrounds. I thinkthat theatre should be used to bring people together rather than fragmenting them. You have to talk about brotherhood. In this respect, I

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love the United States because here there are people of many nationalities. The whole history of the U.S. is the story of immigrants. In theproduction of The oof here, the actors are all Americans, but theirbackgrounds are quite diverse.Rovit: Isn t it idealistic to say that the theatre can actually unite groupsof people?Galin: Theatre can t really solve all these problems, especially economic problems. But the theatre can do a lot. I admit, so far it hasn tdone very much in bringing the nationalities together.Rovit: Do you see yourself doing more work in the U.S.?Galin: Without a doubt. I fmd it interesting to work with Americans.Rovit: Mr. Galin, I d like to thank you for taking the time to speak withme today.

NOTES

Galin also implied that his being Jewish might have contributed to isfailure to be accepted.2Galin s first play, The Wall although written in 1972, was not givenpublic performance until 1988. The oof was also suppressed for nineyears.3See the interview conducted last January with Galin in Theater HeuteJune 989: 19. Galin suggests that The Group should be performed onan international scale using Russian artists from the West as well asfrom the East. By March (during my interview) Galin decided toexpand his plan to include artists from other countries as well. Galinimplies in the interview with Theater Heute that the women of TheGroup meet in Venice at an international conference in honor of theWomen s Movement.4Galin refers to the student actors he worked with on the production ofThe oofat Florida State University.5Lyudmila Petrushevskaya is a leading playwright in the Soviet Unionwhose plays are currently being translated into English. Her one-act

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Cinzano Italian Vennouth Without Intennission was recently performedby the Moscow rt Theatre Studio Chelovek at the Actors Theatre nLouisville, Kentucky as part of the Classics in Context festival. SeeTheater (Fall1989): 52-64 for Elsie Thorn's translation of the play6There is a debate going on among artists and intellectuals of nonRussian republics to produce their own authors in their national languages. See Galin's interview with Peter von Becker, Theater HeuteJune 1989: 20

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English-language Bibliography on GalinBrodskaya, Galina. The Theatre of Aleksandr Galin. Soviet Theatre

Vol. 4 (1983): pp. 14-18.Galin, Aleksandr. Janna. In Soviet Theatre. Trans. Bruce Hamilton.Vol. 3 (1986): pp.16-31. Retro. In Soviet Theatre. Trans. Robert Daglish. Vol. 4 (1983): p.- 62+ .. Stars in the Morning Sky. In Stars n the Morning Sky: ew Soviet- Plays. Ed. and Trans. Michael Glenny. London: Nick Hern, 1989.pp. 65-122. Interview by Viktor Novatsky. In Culture and Life. Vol. 1 (1987): p.35

. Interview by Peter von Becker and Barbara Lehrmann. In Theater- Heute. (June 1989): p. 19-23.Krutinskaya, Sofia. The Wall. Culture and Life Vol. 7 (1987): p. 27.Myagkova, Irina. Stars and Extras: Birds ofPassage and Toastmaster byAleksandr Galin at the Mayakovsky and the Moscow Art Theatre.Soviet Theatre Vol4 (1987): pp. 12-15.

Galin's plays, The Librarian (translated n 1989) and The Roof(translated in 1989), although translated, have not yet been published.The Wall translated in 1988, is available from Theatre Research Associates, C 0 M. Smith, Stonegate Apts., Bldg. 1 Apt B8, Peekskill, NY10566.

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BYAND FOR HAVELREVIEW

Edward eet was only last year that there.was an insert in the program ofthe New York Shakespeare Festival's production of Vaclav Havel'sTemptation (see review SEEP vol. 9, no. 1 pp. 49-51) requesting members of the audience to write to the Czechoslovak government demanding the release of Havel from prison. This must certainly have added adramatic undercurrent to the production. But things have changed sorapidly in Czechoslovakia that whereas last year any Havel play wouldcertainly have been tinged with tragedy, this year a production of one of

Havel s plays must be tinged with triumph. So it is at the JohnHouseman Studio Theatre's evening of one-acts, By and for Havel.The piece By Havel is his playAudience; the play For Havelis a controversial production of Samuel Beckett'sCatastrophe, which hasbeen dedicated to Havel during his frrst imprisonment. The production at the Houseman, directed by Czech emigre Vasek C. Simekchanges the ending of Catastrophe from a defeated protagonist beingdisplayed before a crowd to the playing of the Czechoslovakian nationalanthem allowing the protagonist to unfurl himself to full height, victorious. In a letter to the New York Times (March 23,1990 A34),Samuel Beckett's publisher and lawyer in the United States, MartinGarbus and Barney Rosset, say that Beckett would have been appalledby the changes and demanded that the original ending be restored orthat the author's name be withdrawn. Catastrophe had special meaningfor Beckett and Mr. Havel which makes the distortion more egregious.Audience was frrst presented last fall at the Actor's Studio; andin January 1990, the play was performed in Prague as part or a fourperformance premiere (two in English and two in Czech with localactor). t was the first time that Havel had seen his play performed.The Prague production was filmed for broadcast by PBS.

Havel s two-character play tells the story of an encounterbetween Vanek, a playwright forced out of the theatre who has gone towork in a brewery (as Havel did) and the brewmaster, the local representative of authority. The brewmaster apparently went to some troubleto hire Vanek; now he needs a favor from him but he cannot bring him-self to ask it until he has consumed an enormous quantity of beer.Every week, the secret police ask the brewmaster for somethingincriminating about Vanek, but the latter has kept such a spotlessrecord that there is nothing more to say. So in a solution that makesperfect sense in this crazy totalitarian society, the brewmaster wantsVanek to write up the report on himself, since after all, Vanek mustknow better than anyone else what the secret police want.To make this more palatable to Vanek, the brewmaster offers

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to move him from drudge labor in the cellars to a soft job running thewarehouse. Vanek is tempted, but cannot bring himself to violate hisprinciples. At this point, the play takes a more serious turn as the brewmaster goes into a drunken tirade on Vanek's principles, pointing outthat Vanek can keep his principles because they pay. In a nice moment,the brewmaster says that They are asking about Vanek, with theemphasized They'' referring to the secret police. But with his hands hegestures toward the audience, making us aware that the reason thesecret police ask about Vanek is that the greater They'' of the world arestill asking about him. The secret police are afraid of Vanek--why elsebother to check up on him--but They are not afraid of the brewmaster.The world cares about what happens to Vanek, but the brewmasterknows that i the secret police crush him like a bug no one will notice.The brewmaster believes that Vanek, being a world-famous dissident,has a certain amount of protection. This point is driven home by theinclusion of the Beckett play. The play was written to remind the worldof Havel's imprisonment, but how many other political prisoners havedisappeared without anyone noticing?

The brewmaster eventually falls into a drunken sleep, andVanek nobly leaves the stage echoing one of the brewmaster's lines,Don't let it get you down. The play seems perfectly symmetrical at thispoint, framed at the opening and closing with the brewmaster asleep.

And in lesser hands, the play would end here. But Havel undercuts thissappy, Romantic ending with a short scene set at some indeterminatetime in the future, with Vanek now as slovenly s the brewmaster anddrinking beer even faster, thus reminding us the reason the totalitarianstate tries to break Vanek by this means is because it works.

One of the themes in this production is, as the brewmaster says,the paradoxes of life. The major paradox is of course, having Vanekinform on himself to the secret police. But the entire production isladen with paradoxes. The brewmaster tells Vanek to trust no one, andthen proceeds to trust Vanek about the secret police. Across the set(designed by E . F. Morrill) are signs proclaiming Work is Truth. Butin the world inhabited by Vanek and the brewmaster work is a lie. Atthe beginning and end of the first scene the brewmaster is asleep, andthroughout the play, whenever Vanek tries to get back to work, thebrewmaster stops him and offers him another beer. He attempts tobribe Vanek by offering him a warehouse job, the greatest advantage ofwhich, is that there is no work to do. Vanek's work ethic is completelyeroded by the end of the play. Another irony on the set is a poster ofStalin pointing toward the shining future, but the poster is sideways sothat it points toward the toilet.

The most surprising paradox is that the brewmaster is jealousof Vanek. He envies the life of the playwright and of the theatre, knowing that his own life will never e the stuff of plays. He has even cut theface of his favorite actress from a newspaper photo and pasted it over a

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layboycenterfold. The brewmaster is overwhelmed when he discoversthat Vanek is her friend, and throughout the rest of the play he tries topersuade Vanek to invite he to the brewery. Even after Vanek destroysthese illusions by pointing out how precarious the life of a playwright isfmancially and that the brewmaster's favorite actress is over forty, thebrewmaster still envies him because of the position he believes Vanekto be in. As the brewmaster sees it, being so oppressed, Vanek has nomore practical concerns and doesn 't have to deal with the real world;while the brewmaster has to deal with the world of secret police andshattered dreams. He tells Vanek he lives in the manure that Vanek'sprinciples grow out of Of course, the brewmaster is wrong, since at theend of the play Vanek is no longer the noble dissident facing down thesecret police, but is instead, a sodden brewery bum, just like the brewmaster.

The main theme of the production is waste. The totalitariansociety cannot seem to use anything to its potential. Vanek's wastingaway from the frrst scene to the last is the most obvious, but the brewmaster is also wasting away, albeit a bit more slowly. The brewmastermentions repeatedly that Vanek should have been there five years agowhen life at the brewery was exciting. Nothing gets done in the societyof the brewery and by extension in Czechoslovakia as well. The brewmaster consumes countless bottles of beer during the course of the performance, and has to go relieve himself on numerous occasions. Thebeer is wasted. Vanek, who is being plied with beer also wastes thebeer in fine low comedy style by pouring it into the garbage can. Nextto the brewmaster is a case to hold empty beer bottles for recycling, butinstead he smashes the bottles into the garbage can.

Nothing is made more worthless than time itself. Havel continually uses repetition during the play, not only for its humorous effect,but also as a means of pointing up the tedium of existence in thebrewery. There is not one line in the short final scene that has not beensaid previously. Vanek asks the same questions again and again. Gestures by the brewmaster are repeated over and over: filling and emptying the beer steins, which have never been washed, continually pullingout and putting back his lunch.

The performing space in the basement of the Housemantheatre is a difficult one to act in, and the set, a dingy foreman's officewas crammed into one corner of the room with the audience on twosides. The play is essentially static so that the placement of the brewmaster's desk becomes vital. While placing it on a diagonal was quiteeffective when the brewmaster chases Vanek around the room with akeg of beer, for the most part the choices seem too theatrical for a production being played realistically.

Vanek as the reticent playwright more concerned with observing than being part of the action, is here performed by Lou Brockway.However, Havel seems more interested in the character of the brew-

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master, and Kevin O Connor must play a wide variety of emotions,making him seem at times ingratiating, then threatening; comically overblown, then pitiful. Ultimately the brewmaster is more a pastiche of different character types than a single individual. In the end, wesympathize with the brewmaster and perhaps through him with ll thepeople of Czechoslovakia, as we come to realize that he is just astrapped as Vanek, and he doesn t even have any principles left to comfort him. In the Beckett play, Brockway performed the Havel role,while O Connor again played the bureaucratic role, though inCatastrophe it is a much less subtle symbol of the totalitarian societythan in Audience.It is difficult not to have a sense of historical double-visionwhile watching Audience. Havel has written a tragi-comedy with theprotagonist fmally beaten down by the totalitarian state. We should beleft with a feeling of sadness or outrage at the waste of human souls inthat society. Instead, we are unable to summon up the correct emotions, since we know that in the end Vanek (as Havel) is going to win.The pain we see on stage is sweetened by our knowledge that his suffering was not in vain. Indeed, Havel s time among the lower members ofhis society bodes well for his presidency, since he can identify with themasses in a way no politician who has had a normal career can hope toachieve. What happened to me on viewing Audience, was in many waysidentical to my reaction to pre-World War II anti-Nazi plays such asWatch on the Rhine or t Can t Happen Here the pleasant feeling ofbeing able to agree with the protagonist s cause, but also a feeling ofdistance because the struggle that was so important to them is over. Itappears that the only way for Audience to resonate the way Havelintended is for the Czechoslovakian experiment in democracy to fail.Perhaps the success of Havel the dissident will mark the end of Havel srelevance as a dissident writer.

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EDMUND KE N IN RIGA: A REVIEWRon Engle

There seems to be a consensus among theatre critics in Moscow that during the 1970s the art istic level of theatrical product ion washigher than it is today in the era of glasnost. Speaking to audiencesthrough imagery, metaphor and silent action requires a more challenging and creative directorial concept than does direct revelation of ideasthat might be censored. Or so it would seem. t is exactly this problemthat the Riga Youth Theatre confronts head on in Adolf Shapiro's newproduction of dmund Kean In fact, no sooner do the lights go downthan the manager of the company about to perform the play calls thecast together on stage and says, Listen, now that we can say anythingwe want in the theatre ..what are we going to say? By evening's end, itis quite clear that what the theatre wants to say with its production is nits own peculiar way truth in performance.

Adolf Shapiro who has served as the artistic director of theRiga Youth Theatre since 1964, has gained a reputation as an inventivedirector who blends both realistic and agit-prop techniques of staging.For this production, Shapiro has directed the theatre s Russian-speakingtroupe (it also has a Latvian-speaking troupe) with the distinguishedLeningrad actor, Vladimir Retsepter, playing the title role.

The Youth Theatre s production combines Dumas pere s Kean;or Disorder and Genius w

SEEP Vol.10 No.1 Spring1990

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