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 crude goet’s skin with - an original touch - a peacock feather in her hair: Eve had „discovered” fashion. The opinion in Hungarian literary circles was that Paulay’s endeavor was doomed to failure. The first critics received the project with many misgivings and their writings offer a summary of the charges (from scenic unsuitability to exaggerated showiness) which even today’s directors may have to face. The public, however, was of a different opinion. The Tragedy proved to be a truly popular play — a play for the people — as well as a financial success. In 1894, after eleven years, it reached its one hundredth performance. Paulay’s version determined the theatrical career of the Tragedy for many decades to come. As a play it reached even those audiences who would never have read it in its written form. During the three calendar years following the first performance it was played in 50 towns in Hungary. This first epoch in the Tragedy’s career on the world stage was also determined by the characteristic features of the Meiningenist style. This was reinforced by the series of illustrations created by Mihály Zichy, a Hungarian painter and illustrator working in the court of the Russian Tsar. His 20 drawings, which later inspired many scenery designers, were first published in 1888 in the form of an album. Outside Hungary the Tragedy was first staged on February 15, 1892 by the Hamburg Stadttheater under the direction of Robert Buchholz. In the very same year the Hamburg Company performed the play sixteen times at the Vienna International Theatre Exhibition, where the Budapest National Theatre also gave one performance of the Tragedy. For this exhibition a Hungarian aristocrat, Count Miklós Esterházy, contributed 40,000 forints (twenty times the amount spent by Paulay) to the Hamburg Stadttheater to help cover the costs of the scenery which, based on Zichy’s drawings, were made in the famous Kautzky — Rottonara work-shop in Vienna. This scenery (13 backdrops painted to give a three-dimensional effect) contributed in many variations to the success of the Tragedy, both in Eastern Central Europe and in Hungary itself. Records show this scenery was used for the last time in the Hungarian town of Debrecen in the year 1911. This, 23
