Bereczky Erzsébet (szerk.): Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man. Essays about the ideas and the directing of the Drama (Budapest, 1985)
Tamás Major: An Up-to-Date Tragedy of Man
historical „show” is also clear from Imre Madách’s instructions, which we have perhaps made the first genuine attempt to follow. For instance, hid own written suggestions about the transformation from Prague to Paris say: „The acene changes suddenly to the Place de Grfeve, Paris. The balcony becomes a scaffold, and Kepler’s desk is replaced by the guillotine.” Therefore, we have no intention to depict historical scenes in a naturalistic style. We are not ashamed to admit that we have staged The Tragedy of Man, without any ambition to present each scene in a way minutely faithful to history. This is a stage, with its horizons of sacking cloth, and simple space-filling or stagedividing devices, which the characters of each period transform in keeping with the dramatic message of the next scene right in view of the audience. To characterize each period it will from now on suffice to portray the relationship of the individual characters to each other, their conduct and their attitudes and, of course, to appeal to the imagination of the audience. We ask audiences to accompany us and participate in this battle of thoughts the same way as the Shakespearean chorus divides the empty stage into two, England and France, and entices the audience to enter the spirit of the travel game. This kind of a production demands more active participation from audiences and a more modem, a more up-to-date style of playing from the actors. In a performance put on in such an interpretation we should not look for „the eternally human”, and even less for the symbol of the „eternal woman”. The relationship between Adam and Eve is one which is entirely alien from Lucifer’s cynicism and in fact is the main dramatic obstacle in the way of his achieving his goals; in our view it is love discovered and rediscovered again and again. The Tragedy’s Eve is perhaps the most exciting, most colourful and varied role of world literature, for the very reason that she does not represent an abstraction of beauty. She is well-played if on leaving the theatre, every member of the audience reshapes the Eve of the Tragedy for himself or herself from her many faces and figures throughout the scenes on the stage. In our production we did not look for „universal beauty”, 55
