Oldal 131 [131]
ENDRE MARTON: CHAPTERS ON LENIN, 1970
“richness” that could depict “the human polyphony ringing from the clarity
and certainty of Lenin’s thinking”.** That is why multiple actors recited texts
which were attributed to one name in the script. Additionally, musicality and
choreography became key elements of the mise-en-scéne, the former mostly
based on the much-touted vocal talent of the National’s actors, the latter as the
dynamics of formalized movement“ and the visuals (composed of projected
images). This dynamics also “underlined and emphasized the point of the text
almost musically, and gave a subconscious meaning to sets of problems that
were otherwise too complex to react to”.”
The staging of the first chapter built on a low-key, slightly stylized
depiction of the things mentioned in the letters from exile. Leafless branches,
running brooks, rails in motion, etc, turned up on differently sized screens,
together with the play of light and shadow on stage, while larger groups of
people appeared in well-lit circles, or just a single actor, separated from the
darkness by a headlight. In the second chapter, the actors were placed in
front of “graphically elaborate, but unidentifiable images”®** of the backdrop,
sitting on bentwood chairs. They read excerpts of the meeting minutes from
bound volumes, sometimes standing up or stepping forward, structuring the
flow of the argument with each empathetic movement. The third chapter
did not use background images (apart from the video of water springing up
between exploded blocks of ice), in order to “compose the space solely with
actors and light, to structure the empty stage with them”, strongly basing
the composition on counterpoints.$* The fourth chapter also declined to use
projection, it extinguished even movement, sat the actors back down on the
chairs to cite the words of the two friends almost motionlessly, with the bare
backdrop brightly lit in light blue and the projection screens still hanging
low. Using tools in this variation, from a slight hint to full abstraction, the
mise-en-scene made an attempt at “forming intellectual contact with its
audience”. In other words, having a distance from Socialist Realism, but
following a Marxist ideal, the production created the possibility of “communal
635 Sas: Fejezetek Leninről — Döntés, 4.
636 The critic of Pest Megyei Hírlap thought that it contradicted the teleology of the text. He
stated that Gyurkós goal was to avoid "heroic appearances stiffening into sculpture. This is
contrary to the performance team moving with rigid body in geometric shapes, the empty
stage space with the projected images and some actors’ declamatory style. The production
as a whole is like a heroic gesture.” Kriszt: Fejezetek Leninrôl, 4.
Almási: Viták a köznapisäggal, 1329.
Molnar Gal: Rendelkezéproba, 216-217.
Ibid., 218.
Cf. “On one pole, a choir of women bursting into arioso voices are telling the military history
of the siege of the fortifications in Kronstadt. On the other pole, Lenin [Tamas Major] is
speaking about something very different, and yet the same: the relationship of the working
class and the peasantry.” M.B.B.: Fejezetek Leninrôl, 5.
641 Sas: Fejezetek Leninrél — Döntés, 5.
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