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SHOES THAT ARE LEFT BEHIND: GABOR TOMPA’S BECKETT HERITAGE —to> 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 Hungarianlanguage 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). + 87 +
