Oldal 137 [137]
ON BEARING WITNESS TO A POETIC RITUAL.
ROBERT WILSON’S DEAFMAN GLANCE AS SEEN BY
JANOS PILINSZKY!
——~<~o»—___
ENIKO SEPSI
In various ways, France played an important part in sparking the aesthetic-poetic
change which took place in the 1970s in the work of the Hungarian poet Janos
Pilinszky. One of the main influences was a consequence of Pilinszky’s access to
Robert Wilson’s theater, especially the Paris performance of Deafman Glance in
1971. This ritualistic theater, which I define as “poetic,” inspired not only Conver¬
sations with Sheryl Sutton but also some poetic works of short “drama” and some
poems. This essay examines the poetic implications of this theatrical approach to
rituals in the poems and prose of Pilinszky, as well as his views on spectatorship
and witnessing at a time when liturgy and ritual overlapped in Wilson’s thinking
theater. My inquiry is based primarily on two letters that I discovered in the early
Robert Wilson Archives at Columbia University.
INTRODUCTION
In various ways, France played an important part in sparking the aesthetic¬
poetic change which took place in the 1970s in the work of the Hungarian
poet Janos Pilinszky (1921-1981). These influences lay initially in Pilinszky’s
discovery of the work of Simone Weil and in the liturgical renewal that served
as a model for his concept of theater, but they were prompted perhaps most im¬
portantly by his access to Robert Wilson’s theater, especially the Paris perfor¬
mance of Deafman Glance in 1971. This mute theater of images had switched
to an unfamiliar tempo on stage, a kind of immobility in movement which
inspired not only Conversations with Sheryl Sutton,” an imaginary dialogue
written by Pilinszky, but also some poetic pieces of short “drama” and some
poems. In this essay, I examine the poetic implications of this theatrical ap¬
proach to rituals in the poems and prose of Pilinszky, as well as his views on
spectatorship and bearing witness at a time when, in Wilson’s thinking theater,
liturgy and ritual overlapped.
1 "This text was first published in Jay Malarcher (ed.): Text & Presentation, 2017, The Compara¬
tive Drama Conference Series 14, Jefferson (N.C.), McFarland, 2018, 167-179.
? Robert Wilson’s main and only professional actress at the time.