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ENDRE MARTON: KING LEAR, 1964.
the recording today, it is a basic recognition — and it makes us aware of the
fairly rapid obsolescence of metacommunication signals — that our present¬
day theatre bares hardly any resemblance to the performance recorded more
than five decades ago. Acting presents us with a multitude of meaningless
ingredients. For instance, diction freguently flows over Írom one sentence to
the other; there is a strange mannerism of a momentary pause inserted after
the first few words of a sentence; or the regular lack of reactions, that would be
expected as a sign of psychological realism, following substantial utterances.?
But the classic punchline-based timing,“ the stereotypes of gestures, mimics,
and intonation are also revulsive,*“® just like the equally strong makeup on
male and female actors, too many wigs and false beards, and the huge false
eyebrows on Major and Basti. Apart from a few moments of Basti, the actors’
work seems downright “leisurely”,*” it is so devoid of any performative force.
However, the “nice and clean articulation”,*“” that was inclusive of the “builders
of the less important roles” too, was very resounding and made the show viable
in a reading-performance version.*” The contemporary description of Péter
Nadas shows that it is not only our present perspective that is inclined to
understand the actors’ work as an interplay of stunning speaking voices, or a
kind of live radio theatre:
As if a conscious ear would pair the actors’ voices with each other: hysterical and
prim altos to hoarse and velvety basses; amidst the beautiful company of low¬
lying sounds an adolescent and a smart tenor provide the higher tones. There’s no
other stylistic cohesion to speak about except for the classical quality of the voices.
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Such as Gloster’s statement that Edmund “hath been out nine years, and away he shall
again”, or Cordelia’s question, “Why have my sisters husbands, if they say, / They love you
all?” Shakespeare: King Lear, 5. and 9.
As Lear picks up a sword, for example, and wants to stab Kent, who has dropped to his
knees before him. As Gloster falls on Edmund’s shoulder, or Lear on the shoulder of Kentin
disguise. As Kent stretches out his left arm to protect and to cover Lear, and his robe hangs
from it. Cf. the photo on the front cover of this book.
For example, despite all the strength and masculinity quoted above, Lajos Basti’s clenched
fists raised to the sky, his bulging eyes and disheveled grey hair are clear signs of a centuries¬
old tradition that we see not only in photographs of Artur Somlay’s 1948 Lear, but also
in early-20" century and even 19‘*-century pictures about Lear. Tamás Koltai was right to
claim that “the faulty start made King Lear the hero of a prosaic opera, who performed a
mad scene with a burr stuck in his beard”. Koltai: Lear kirdly, 7. (My italics — A.K.K.)
Cf. “The inner vibrancy of Shakespeare’s plays, the rapid pace of the plot, is in stark contrast
to the ‘dignified slowness’ of our usual style of acting; in other words, to our actors’
comfortable approach to Shakespeare.” Taxner: Shakespeare 1964, 29.
Gyarfas: Épülő színház, 8.
Cf. Ferenc Radó: Megérdemlik a vastapsot, Kisalföld, Vol. 22, No. 32, 8'* February, 1966, 5.
(On the performance of the National Iheatre in Ady Endre Cultural Center in Sopron.)
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