Bereczky Erzsébet (szerk.): Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man. Essays about the ideas and the directing of the Drama (Budapest, 1985)
dr. Ferenc Kerényi: A Dramatic Poem from Hungary to the Theaters of the World
a gradually aging Adam in the successive historical scenes, a central figure turning step by step into a mere spectator. To comply with this demand has never been easy; it has posed difficulties in the acting, in the costumes and in the make-up. Twelve years after the Estonian production, the casting of young actors seems to have become as general an interpretation as the mystery play one used to be. Just one example to point out the many possibliities offered by this new approach! It is not irrevelant whether the director casts young actors only in the roles of Adam and Eve, or in that of Lucifer as well. In the former case, the middle-aged or aging Lucifer can direct the young and inexperienced couple as director, teacher and as an irrevocably embittered man. If, however, Lucifer is a contemporary of Adam and Eve (and nothing in the text precludes this interpretation), then the three leading actors can fight together against an established hierarchy of power and gain, with the somewhat wiser Lucifer’s help, concrete experience. If the director opts in favour of this „youth’s groping-for-the-path” interpretation, then his role in leading the actors is rendered much more difficult, as the young actors can neither draw on their own real-life experience or professionalism to help them. They might even run into difficulties in reciting the metrical verse in which Madách composed. In the last decade Madách’s popularity has been increasing throughout the world. Audiences in Bratislava, Kosice, Poznan, Gdansk, Grozny, Minneapolis and Minsk, to name only a few, have had the opportunity to watch and listen to contemporary interpretations of Madách’s dramatic poem in Slovakian, German, Polish, Russian and English translations and in many other languages. (A complete list of all stagings of The Tragedy of Man can be found in Part II of the Appendix.) On September 21, 1983 the Hungarian theatre commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of the premiere of The Tragedy of Man in the most suitable way: with performances. In June 1983 it was performed in the open-air theatre of Szeged and in this jubilee year two Budapest theatres included Madách’s timeless masterpiece in their programs. In the last one and a half years the Tragedy, directed by György Lengyel, has been performed more than 150 32
