Oldal 108 [108]
THE DRAMA OF INCOMPLETENESS DECLARED TO BE COMPLETE
as the opening at the National. Both the genre and Martons mise-en-scéne
were approached from the issue of novelty, discussing The Death of Marat
(its long title was shortened and the production was usually referred to this
way) together with the Budapest premieres of The Investigation, a dramatic
oratorio by Peter Weiss and The Deputy by Rolf Hochhuth.*” At the time of a
boom of documentary dramas (and let us not forget that Marat’s utterances
in the play are also based on writings of the historical Marat), these seemed
to be “exciting political plays”,**! even if they focused on a “strong ideological
message” too. But they were certainly more exciting than previous stage works
on industrial and agricultural production, full of stereotypes of all sorts. Their
structure differed from realist dramaturgy and required a new way of staging,
with which official theatres began to experiment (rather moderately, of course)
in the first half of the 1960s, mostly under the auspices of epic theatre.
However, since Hungarian theatre could not really assimilate avant¬
garde traditions, Brecht, usually understood rather superficially, only
caused confusion among theatre people and spectators for some time and
provided no methodological alternative to the domestic version of a way of
performance coming from Stanislavsky.*” The Death of Marat was born
during a combat between Endre Marton and Tamas Major, which was gifting
the atmosphere at the National for twenty years. The previous premiere of
the theatre was Coriolanus in an adaptation by Brecht, staged by Major and
Eszter Tatar, but Marton tried to be more Brechtian than his colleagues, and
his production of Weiss’ play was indeed the first to make “mental theatre”?
widely understandable. Although this was not analyzed at the time, it was
490 The Investigation was first performed by the Art Ensemble of the Hungarian People’s Army,
directed by Tamás Török, and The Deputy was staged by Karoly Kazimir at Thalia Theatre.
The Investigation, which Endre Marton regarded as the “logical continuation” of The Death of
Marat, the second part of a “gigantic trilogy” (G.P.: Szamvetés és eléretekintés, Film Szinhaz
Muzsika, Vol. 10, No. 51, 23“ December, 1966, 9.), was also set on stage by Tamas Major at
the National Theatre on 27" January, 1967. However, the German writer’s trilogy was never
produced and The Death of Marat was not part of it. Weiss was working on a contemporary
version of The Divine Comedy from 1964 to 1969 and The Investigation was intended to be
its third part. The first part, Inferno was written in 1964, found in his heritage and published
in 2003, eleven years after his death. Its world premiere was in 2008. The second part of
The Divine Comedy remained only a plan.
191 F.L: Két közéleti dc-áma bemutatója Budapesten, Keletmagyarország, Vol. 23, No. 55, 6 March,
1966, 9.
192 The unstable foundations on which the comprehension of so-called “modern theatre” was
S
based, and all that was mingling in it, are exemplified by Läszlö Kery’s claim that in the
first half of the 1965-1966 season, shortly before the opening of The Death of Marat, “the
best productions came from grotesqueness, new satire, alienation and attempts to adapt
epic theatre in general”. Läszlö Kery: „Tanuljatok lätni”, Élet és Irodalom, Vol. 10, No. 7, 128
February, 1966, 8.
193 Imre Sinkovits’s expression. Cf. Gyérgy Sas: Tisztázni az ember rendeltetését. De Sade és
Marat párbeszéde — a Fészekben, Film Színház Muzsika, Vol. 10, No. 11, 18* March, 1966, 7.
+ 106 +