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THEATRICAL APPROACHES TO MYSTERY:
“KENOSIS” IN VALERE NOVARINA’S WORKS
——~o » —_—_
ENIKO SEPSI
ABSTRACT
Organic theatre (Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski’s term) tries to reach
the via negativa, the state at which the actor is a vehicle, an empty vessel ready
to take in and carry transcendence. The debates on sacrality in Europe and
America and the increasing interest in rituals outside Europe have compelled
twentieth-century artists to abandon traditional theatre and the classical
dramatic text (Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor, Ariane Mnouchkine, etc.). Valére
Novarina’s writerly practice, for example, is like a linguistic sink. His theatrical
practice and the theatre revealed in his essays draw on the act of the creative
word burnt and revived by the actor lending him- or herself to action, the hidden
liturgy of the word in space. Not denying the relevance to this subject of other
Far Eastern sources of inspiration, I would like to offer an analysis of Valere
Novarina’s theatre in which self-emptying becomes an important element in the
direction of actors (i.e. the work done with the actors) and in which the Christian
theological term kenosis is relevant in the context of rituals taking place on
stage. For references to “mystery” and “self-emptying,” I will rely on some
excerpts from Talking with Angels as transcribed by Gitta Mallasz.
INTRODUCTION
In this essay, I offer a short overview of theatre forms in which, through
the work with the actors (i.e. directing), self-emptying becomes the basis of
a new approach, “imitatio Christi,” and not simply in a theological or ethical
sense, but also as an aesthetic application of kenosis to theatre. Not denying
the relevance to this topic of other Far Eastern sources of inspiration, I offer
an analysis of Valére Novarina’s theatre, in which self-emptying becomes
an important element in directing the actors (i.e. the work done with the actors)
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