Kovács Ferenc: Olvasópróba előtt (Skenotheke 1. Budapest, 1996)

Felhasznált irodalom

been the target of a never-ending debate because its conceptual and formal rereadings destagings) have uncovered additional values and new dramatic conflicts. The Hungarian premiere took place two years after the play was written and it has already been staged three times in this century. The contemporary Hungarian reviews take issue with three features of the play: its "dustiness," theatricality, and epic nature. Surprisingly enough, the "dustiness" of the play was already remarked upon in 1923 when it was staged at Vígszínház, and this is the very feature that foreign critiques also explicitly call into question. With regard to the theatrical performance of the actors, it is both praised and criticised, by and large to the same degree. Experts have pointed out some fundamental dramatic shortcomings. Tamás Bécsy considers it to be outright undramatic, much closer to the epic. "Moving away from classical dramaturgy toward an epic dramaturgy, toward a new approach to theatrical representation: From time immemorial, Norwegian culture has held that Norwegian identity is hidden deep inside, somewhere behind the roles played, enveloped in mysticism, in the shadow of metaphors, sheltered by the false supernatural. Fear, self-deception, loss of vitality and its consequences are merely a play-within-a-play role play. However, when the veil is finally lifted, when the hero is confronted with his own life, when his uselessness is revealed, the whole thing turns out to have been only another play. The drama of revelation is itself the drama. The COLD is its beginning and its end." (Kamilla Aslaksen, Agora, 1993) The majority of these critiques have been based on analyses of Ibsen's literary work during the past few years. It is the interpretation of both content and form which can prove or refute the spatial and temporal unity of the play. However, in his introduction written to the English edition, Ibsen himself claims that John Gabriel Borkman is one of his most homogeneous and consistent plays. There are several issues which provoke thought. For example, who is the true protagonist? is it Borkman, or rather the twins? Even the timing of the conclusion, the dramatic climax, is ambiguous. Does the play end with the son's rejection of the wishes voiced by his aunt, mother and father, choosing instead his own happiness with a woman? Naturally, in the conflict of generations, it is the young who can lay claim to the future. But perhaps the dramatic climax lies at the point when Borkman, having returned from his self-inflicted 40