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
best actors — sticking all the time to the interpretation of the Tragedy as a mystery play. Németh not only wanted to eliminate the last vestiges of the traditional casting of leading man, prima donna and villain but also with the more recent practice of allowing leading artists to retain their roles indefinitely — unregardless of their ages. Already as a young director Németh endeavored to make use of his cultural relations with Germany and Italy for the popularization of Hungarian classies. In this way he was able to experiment abroad with his own approach to casting in radio broadcasts as well as with his ideas concerning scenery as guest director in Hamburg in 1937 and in Frankfurt-am-Main, Goethe’s native town, in 1940. Antal Németh had a passionate interest in putting on the Tragedy on the most varied types of stages. In 1939 he adapted the Tragedy for performances on a small stage the size of a room with and open-panel tryptich in the background. In the right- and lefthand piches of the tryptich he placed statues of Adam and Eve; the 3x4 meter painted backdrop was changed twice in every scene. The actors performed in front of these in costumes and masks. This version of the Tragedy heavily emphasized the text and could easily be put on anywhere. An 1936 open-air version of the Tragedy was another extreme in the Antal Németh’s chain of scenic experiments, which, for financial reasons, never materialized. Antal Németh intended to use - as in the mediaeval passion plays - the complex of buildings around the Szeged Cathedral as the basic scenery. He also had in mind a revolving auditorium, moving in a full circle around the stage. At last, after the 1937 and 1940 big-stage version, Németh completed work on the so-called mediumstage version. A raised platform system and suspended stylized scenery and props made this version weel within the reach of provincial theatres as well. One interesting feature of this version is that the scenery designer was the very same Zoltán Fábri who later became a world-famous film director. Antal Németh’s interpretation of the Tragedy as a mystery play was best expressed in his small-stage version. In this version the actors were, in the words of Németh „expected to conduct a regular service” before the tryptich. Németh saw Eve as the symbol of eternal feminity and insisted on choosing actresses suitable in 29
