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ANDRÁS VISKY Construction of the production is heading in the direction of colossal clumsiness. I tell Purcarete Janos Pilinszky’s definition of theater that he discovered in Paris, under the influence of Deafman Glance:* “perfect clumsiness.” “Nice,” he says. Then he adds: “Brilliant.” A reading in the brand-new New Millennium Reformed Church Center, at the invitation of the writer Melinda Matyus. The concert hall is packed, with many standing in the two entryways, despite our inviting them to take seats at the front. This is my true return to Timisoara. Familiar faces look at me, but from such a distant past that I fail to recognize any of them. At one time I directed the Timisoara University student cultural circle called Latéhatar [Horizon], I scarcely remember what for, but both the official informers (leaders of the Church and the Student Union) and the reports collected under duress by the Securitate" made sure to preserve the memory. I decide not to return to the past, rejecting every temptation of nostalgia and opening up to every guestion in this exceptional now. Every now is an exception, without precursor and untouched: as this moment also is. I first met Melinda Mátyus in the early 90s in Cluj, when students in the hundreds would still come to our home, and in the long time since — to the extent that two and a half decades constitutes a long time — she disappeared from my view. She had sought me out in Cluj, she reminds me, to ask me for help on her thesis in theology: she was writing about Béla Hamvas" and her teachers directed her to me. I fortified myself for this public conversation: at such times, no matter where I might be, I’m seized by embarrassment: as soon as I can, I signal to her and the audience that I find it difficult to hold my own in such situations, since they did not invite any of my favorite authors, but me — and I’m not one of my favorites. Melinda, however, doesn’t let me off but poses her questions with gentle determination. I read father and mother poems from my Nevezd csak szeretetnek [Just Call It Love]. Many actors are in attendance, nearly every member of the Tragedy production team came. I yield to the compulsion to public penance (Stanislavsky?). It is a lovely evening in this brand-new, skyward-reaching architecture of Imre Makovecz,” an entirely unusual encounter for the audience that, I sense, is not to my credit but to Melinda and her leading of the conversation by which she tactfully draws me back to the subject when I wander too far afield. Afterwards, Istvan Gazda, the local pastor, leads me around the building: beautiful stones have been set on one another, many richly carved pieces of wooden furniture and organically arching wooden beams next to each other. All that’s ® Robert Wilson: Deafman Glance, music by Alan Lloyd, Igor Demjén et al., premiered in Iowa City, IA, 1970; subsequent performances included Paris, 1971. The communist secret police prior to 1989. Béla Hamvas (1897-1968): Hungarian philosopher, essayist, and social critic; forbidden to publish under communist rule, he was forced to earn his living as a manual laborer. Imre Makovecz (1935-2011): noted Hungarian architect, leader of the school of organic architecture. + 248 +
