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SHOES THAT ARE LEFT BEHIND:
GABOR TOMPA’S BECKETT HERITAGE
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ANITA RÁKÓCZY
ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Gdbor Tompa’s directorial approach to Samuel
Beckett through theatre productions, reviews, and interviews with him and
his permanent dramaturg András Visky. Gábor Tompa, internationally
acclaimed Romanian-Hungarian artist, general and artistic director of the
Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, has staged more Hungarian-language Beckett
productions than any other director. As a student he staged Samuel Beckett’s
Happy Days in 1979, and that, his first acknowledged production as a theatre
director, marks the beginning of his entire artistic career. Since then, he has
directed Waiting for Godot three times with a Hungarian-speaking cast, and
another four times as a guest director. His credits also include two Hungarian¬
language Endgame productions and a staging of Play. My research offers
a thorough analysis of a selection of Tompa’s Beckett directions: Happy Days
(1979), Waiting for Godot (2005), Play (2003), and Endgame (2016). Tompa’s
restless returns to his master reflect his firm belief that the Hungarian theatre
tradition lacks, and is therefore in great need of, Beckett productions.
G.B.: | Many say that the age of absurd dramas is over,
but you keep returning to them like a monomaniac. Why?
G:T.: | I wonder where those people live who claim that the age
of the absurd is past, in what time, and whether they are alive at all.
Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida falls into the category of absurd
just as well as Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard, and the
works of Ionesco, Beckett, Mrozek, Gombrowicz. The authors of those
apocalyptic times that we live in.’
! Bóta, Gábor: A magyarországi színjátszás elveszett lelke (Ihe Lost Soul of Hungarian
Dramatic Art], Magyar Hírlap, 1 February 2003, 24. English translation by Anita Rákóczy
(as are all translations in this chapter, unless otherwise indicated).
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