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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) * 305 ° Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 305 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:25
