Page 257 [257]
THE TRAGEDY OF MAN AS THEATRUM THEOLOGICUM (A DRAMATURG’S DIARY)
FEBRUARY 21, 2020
Rehearsal is canceled, but because of the heavy rain and the lack of suitable
light, so is our joint plan to go to Resita to photograph the surrealist indus¬
trial ruins in changing light conditions. I used to go there in my student days;
at that time the furnaces still operated, and the famous machine works that
the Monarchy bequeathed to Romania and where they manufactured steam,
later diesel, locomotives and gigantic drive motors. Following ’89 everything
there collapsed as if a whirlwind had sucked the life out of it, leaving behind
nightmare-tormented ruins. I go there, nonetheless, to see my son Andrej’s
Marivaux production in the Resita Theater.®° An enormous funicular arcs over
the town, standing on giant concrete columns: an immobile, evil, primordial
beast dominates the entire area. Now it’s still sleeping peacefully, but it could
awaken at any moment to devour the town’s unsuspecting citizens. Tubes
hover overhead, congealing into the densely clouded sky: they, too, await some
sign. On the other side of the river Barzava, parallel to the river channel, a gray
diesel locomotive rolls through the town’s old center. I cannot decide whether
I’m actually seeing it or just imagining it. It’s a movie-set town.
I relate the whole thing to Silviu and he listens, his face glowing. It’s certain
that we’ve run out of time for the photography: we must use every moment for
rehearsals. Will we ever return?
FEBRUARY 22, 2020
The dramatic crux of The Tragedy of Man is posed solely on the question of
whether or not Lucifer will succeed in convincing Adam to reject history. One
might say that this, of course, is not negligible as the inner motive force of
the production, if we handle it well: it can propel the Lucifer project onward
through an entire performance, but by the end, nevertheless, it proves to be
a skeleton of glass bones that cannot bear the sharper twists and turns and,
thus, quickly fractures. For example: Adam finally rebels not against Lucifer
but against the Lord (this, as a matter of fact, would be the dramaturgical turn¬
ing point), without, however, causing Lucifer’s downfall or, at least, change of
status. The dramaturgical triad of Adam & Eve — the Lord — Lucifer is not
built upon the conflict but rests on the allegorical undoing of modern ideals.
Lucifer’s identification — the one onstage character who doesn’t sing —
reminds me of the character in Purcarete’s masterly Cumnata lui Pantagruel
6% Resicabanya in Hungarian.
66 Pierre de Marivaux: Le Jeux de l'amour et du hasard [The Game of Love and Chance, per¬
formed in Romanian as Jocul dragostei si al intämplärii]. Teatrul de Vest, Resita. Premiere:
21 February 2020.