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ENDRE MARTON: CHAPTERS ON LENIN, 1970
ideologically coloured intent of experiencing the idea, and carrying it on as
equally essential. Most reviewers did not even mention specific actors, but
praised the ensemble, both for their consistently clear and intelligible speech
and for their ability to become “the echo of words”.°*®
STAGE DESIGN AND SOUND
Endre Marton stated that space was of the utmost importance, since — as
he explained to his actors on the first read-through — “we have talked a
lot about oratorios and documentary dramas before, and there were some
interesting experiments. Most problems surfaced when these modern
elements were placed in a conventional theatrical space. Our task is to create
the place this new content needs on the stage.”” Therefore, he worked on
an empty stage, “covered with graphite-grey felt”,° and in the back, Mátyás
Varga set an enormous white semi-circular curtain that sometimes served
as a projection screen,® with various numbers and shapes of flat surfaces
descending in front of it from above. Mostly still images and Ilona Keserti’s
drawings were projected in the background (in the central chapters), and
moving images were projected on the suspended screens (in the first and
third chapters), not unrelated to the spoken text. One of Lenin’s lesser¬
known, smiling (!) photographs was also projected at the beginning and the
end of the performance. Other than this, the projection did not rely on visual
documents or on contemporary newsreels, but on “images of nature with a
lyrical effect” (in the first chapter) and an almost incomprehensible group
image (in the third). It did not illustrate, but created an atmosphere, helped
the audience associate, and rendered the mostly static visuals, based on the
actors’ bodies, more dynamic. The lights served the same purpose, both when
they were scanning the “stage lit in the style of Rembrandt”, and when ¬
after the second chapter, as an intermission, to Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite,
— they were playing across the front curtain. The short and majestic musical
pieces, providing an emotional addition, such as Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and
Apassionata served primarily as a dividing element, but sometimes a quiet
chord during the chapters “had the effect similar to cursive letters in print”.
To match the simplicity of the backdrop, Judit Schäffer did not dress the
actors in costumes, only in identical formalwear: the women in floor-length,
648 Sas: Fejezetek Leninről — Döntés, 5.
649 Ouoted in (bernáth): Gondolatok drámája, 2.
650 Molnár Gál: Rendelkezőpróba, 213.
651 György Sas considered this screen to be “symbolic in its bareness”, as it “directs our
imagination to the film-like history of the century”. Sas: Fejezetek Leninröl - Döntés, 5.
Almási: A demokrácia gyakorlása, 42.
653 Molnár Gál: Rendelkezőpróba, 219.
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