Bereczky Erzsébet (szerk.): Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man. Essays about the ideas and the directing of the Drama (Budapest, 1985)
dr. Antal Németh: A Generation under the Spell of the Tragedy of Man
ANTAL NÉMETH A GENERATION UNDER THE SPELL OF THE TRAGEDY OF MAN (Excerptsx) I cannot think of a more exciting and stimulating task for a stage director than directing theatrical productions of works which the Poet did not write with a stage performance in mind. Such great verse dramas as Faust, Peer Gynt and The Tragedy of Man are a challenge for any theatre, and their performances should be redletter days on the theatre calendar. When I was young, it was for me a red-letter day when I was able to see one of these works on the stage. I would carefully read the text in preparation for the evening in the theatre and I soon learned to compare the actual stage productions with the images that my reading of the work projected in my mind. This comparison was bound to cause disappointment as soon as, thanks to maturing ability to draw generalizations from a number of theatrical experiences, I was able to form concrete theatrical images of each dramatic poem. I could not escape the feeling that the procrustean bed of the stage into which such a work was forced left only a headless and footless torso. How could this be avoided? what / could be done to educate and enpower theatrical expression to fill such large-scale works? This problem animated and stimulated me, and thus I can say that I grew up as a director in contemplation of it. In the course of my continual contemplation of the Tragedy I came to a clearer understanding of the internal structure of Madách’s work. Suggesting this in scenography, I was certain, would take audiences closer to instinctively better understanding of the spectacle, would enable them to gain instinctive insight into structure and develop empathy with the work. It was with this in xThe writer of the article directed (from 1937-1942) eight different productions of Madách’s great work. 37
