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MILITARIZING OPERETTA, OR THEATRE CRITICISM AS WAR PROPAGANDA
ACTING
The critics of Free Wind evaluated acting according to its planned nature, the
progress of actors and the perceptibility of the difference between old and
new styles. In the year of the start of the first five-year plan, “the effectiveness
of socialist, planned work” was perceived not only in raising the choir and
the orchestra to a high standard, but also in transforming the company into
an ensemble, in uniting older and younger actors." In terms of individual
development, Kamill Feleki was mentioned first, whose progress was said to be
rooted not so much in his “undoubted talent” as in “his absorption in realistic
acting”.% In the role of the Prompter, inserted into the play specifically for
him, he was able to “make a real change in his career”'”” and set off for the
Kossuth Prize, given to him in 1953. He became an artist quasi-identified with
the Operetta Theatre soon. Although he did not get a song and his role enriched
only the humor of the play, it offered a good opportunity to overcome the buffo
role-type and show the actor’s versatility. Compared to Feleki’s previous comic
roles, all said to be rather flat, reviews highlighted the diversity of the character
he created now: that he could be “playfully kind and cheerful”, but “shockingly
human” as well, when he “behaved like a revolutionary, [...] a neglected and
oppressed man whose heart is burning with the fire of heroes”.’” In fact, it was
this behavior that was assessed to be the result of “deep human understanding”
instead of some manners, and the demonstration of “a considerable progress
towards representing living people”.”™
Critics also spoke in superlatives about Tivadar Bilicsi and László Keleti in
the roles of Filipp and Foma, the “merry and joyful sailors, showing solidarity
and revolutionary faith”. The two actors made spectators laugh from time to
time and formed a splendid duo from “roughly written roles, whose schematic
to “our keeping in touch with the Moscow Operetta Theatre and Comrade Tumanov, the
excellent Soviet director, whom we had often asked for advice on phone when preparing for
Free Wind and Trembita.” Margit Gaspar: Napl6é Miljutyin elvtárs látogatásáról, Színház- és
Filmmiivészet 4:4 (1953), 164.
Toth: Szabad szél, 7. — “Conductor Laszl6 Varady excellently bands the ensemble together.
Both young and old actors, the latter still unversed in music of higher demand [sic], are
admirable.” Ibid.
16 Fejér: Három tengerész, 26. — Feleki held a speech at the Conference of the Association
of Theatre and Film Arts on 13-14'" December, 1952, backing Stanislavsky’s system in the
actor’s work in operettas.
Banos: A színigazgató, 26.
Fejér: Három tengerész, 26.
Mátrai-Betegh: Szabad szél, 5.
Fejér: Három tengerész, 26.
L. J.: Szabad szél, 6.
Fejér: Három tengerész, 26.
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