Katalin Kürtösi
Leacock's tale was adapted for the stage in Hungary by an alternative theatre company in 1984. The show, based on an excellent translation, focused on central problems of human life (reality and imagination, power and art, honesty and pretence, etc.) and represented them in a parodic way. Music and dance were used to suggest the atmosphere and provide hints for interpretation. The presentation of this Canadian piece marks an important milestone in the history of alternative theatre in Hungary.
La nouvelle de Leacock a été adaptée à la scène en Hongrie en 1984 par une troupe de théâtre alternatif. Le spectacle, basé sur une traduction excellente, traite des problèmes centraux de la vie humaine, tels les rapports entre la réalité et l'imagination, le pouvoir et l'art, la sincérité et la mauvaise foi, en les présentant de manière parodique. Les motifs musicaux et la danse créent l'ambiance et suggèrent l'interprétation voulue. La représentation de cette pièce canadienne marqua un moment important dans l'histoire du théâtre alternatif en Hongrie.
Sorrows of a Super Soul: or, The Memoirs of Marie Mushenough (Translated, by Machinery, out of the Original Russian) was published as Chapter VI in Stephen Leacock's Nonsense Novels (1911). The subtitle reveals that this is a 'translation'; the Hungarian translation of this 'translation' appeared in the first collection of Leacock's short stories, published in Budapest in 1926.
The translator, Frigyes Karinthy, was one of the most popular writers of his age and the Hungarian translation truly reflects Leacock's special sense of humour and satirical wit. In Hungarian, Márie Mushenough becomes Rosszcsirkeff Maria, an obvious hint at Marie Bashkircheff, the heroine of a late nineteenth-century sentimental diary, so the translator makes it quite clear that we are facing a parody here. But Karinthy goes one step further, as theatre critic István Nánay points out on the occasion of the theatrical adaptation:
Sorrows of a Super Soul is basically a parody; Leacock wrote an almost absurd parody ... This was translated by Karinthy so that he made a parody of the parody. Director István Malgot adapted this literary parody of several transmissions to the stage.1
How and why did Mary Mushenough become
Rosszcsirkeff Mária in the Hungarian translation?
(rossz
means
'bad,' while csirke is the Hungarian word for 'chick'). This collection
of ten stories by Leacock was the first appearance of English Canadian
literature in Hungarian. The collection contained all but one of the stories
of Leacock's Nonsense Novels (instead of Hannah of the Highlands,
The Unknown was included as the tenth in Karinthy's
Humoreszkek).
The translator, Frigyes Karinthy (1887-1938) is considered the greatest
master of parody in Hungarian literature and was himself a writer of nonsense
stories and literary parodies at the beginning of the twentieth century
- almost at the same time as Leacock wrote his Nonsense Novels and
Literary Lapses. No direct influence of Leacock can be found, though:
Karinthy came to know Leacock's writings in the third decade of our century
when the Canadian writer was frequently quoted and highly appreciated among
men of letters in Budapest, as Ferenc Karinthy, the translator's son and
a writer himself revealed to me in a personal letter.
After having been reviewed by the most celebrated Hungarian writers, like poet Endre Ady in Budapesti Napló (18 December 1904), writers Zoltán Ambrus in his Vezetö elmék (1913) and Sándor Bródy in his Fehér könyv (vol 1, 1902), the journals of the ill-fated Russian-French painter, Mariya Bashkirtseva (Gavronci, 1860-Paris, 1884) were published in Éva Nyireö's Hungarian translation in 1926. The original French version, Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff, was published in 1887 and became immensely well-known and popular all over Europe by the end of the century. It contains the memories and ideas of a hypersensitive young woman, is full of melancholy and very often shallow, but also has interesting observations concerning the artists' colony in Paris and how difficult it was to be accepted among them. Its impact on European thought lasted for several decades and reached its height between the two world wars - besides being translated into Hungarian it was staged in Budapest in the 1930s in Jen Andai's adaptation, starring Gizi Bajor, the most celebrated actress of the time.
Since Marie Bashkirtseff's name was well-known for the Hungarian public, its distorted version in the title of Leacock's story rang a bell immediately and made it clear for the readers what was being satirized. This way the translation made a direct link with the object of parody and Leacock was put into context: no wonder that it became very popular (it had a second edition in 1930) and part of Hungarian culture and literature.
And now let us see how the translation of this 'translation,' this parody of a parody worked on the stage. The company - currently called 'The Theatre of the Moon' (A Hold Színháza) began to work, directed by István Malgot, originally a sculptor, in the late seventies, under the auspices of the Hungarian National Puppet Theatre. They have been independent since 1986. In their work they combine elements of pantomime and commedia dell'arte in a way that looks like improvisation; there is a lot of dance, and music has a very important role in the structure of their shows; all these help the performers accentuate the rhythm of the performance.
Sorrows of a Super Soul is in the form of a diary, a genre in which personal observation and feelings can be most directly shown, but Leacock makes a parody of diaries here: while in diaries we have the exact date as dividing unit, in this story the first entry is 'Next Day,' then comes 'Another Day,' later on 'Next Day but One,' 'A Week Later,' 'Today,' 'Next Day,' 'This Morning,' etc. The most important questions raised by the story are one's mirror-image and how far it is oneself, the reason for our existence ('Why was I born? I do not know ),2 suicide, love and freedom. Marie Mushenough is seventeen and tries to find out the meaning of life. In her diary, the existential problems of life are side by side with trivial experiences ('On the way home I passed an onion. It lay upon the road. Someone had stepped upon its stem and crushed it. How it must have suffered. I placed it in my bosom' ),3and the lack of balance in the proportions results in a nonsensical effect.
The performance works out all the main problems that Leacock's story presents. It begins with a tableau in which Marie is looking at her mirror-image. The other members of the family are astonished by it. Then, to the accompaniment of lively music, the tableau comes alive and from behind the mirror Marie 2 steps forward. With Marie 2, who represents real Marie's wishes and imagination, the director provides us with an alter ego of the heroine, and this way Marie who writes the diary, and Marie who is in the diary are both present on stage. Besides creating Marie's mirror-image the director puts one more element into the show: this is a doll, functioning both as a toy for Marie, to show how childish some of her dreams are, and as a prop in representing her dreams in which she marries Otto, the painter, and gives birth to a baby (all these represent a sort of play within the play). Ultimately the doll is confiscated from Marie by her father, and becomes the object of the father's ambiguous desires. The father, by humiliating the doll, smashes his daughter's desires.
Marie is very isolated. Her parents do not even try to understand her; they have arranged a marriage with Alex, the guard of the tzar, but she has nothing in common with him. In her desperation she falls in love with Otto the painter, who is attached only to her family jewels. The basic conflict for Marie is the choice between, on the one hand, force - represented by the guard, who always has a sword in hand as a symbol of masculine power and, to underline the grotesque nature of Malgot's approach, is played by an actress; and on the other, art. Marie is really attached to art - keeping a diary is one proof of it. Also the object of her love is an 'artist,' but in line with Leacock's satirical approach, a false one. In the performance other forms of art, like music and singing, play a very significant role not only by providing its rhythm but by reminding the spectators of the aim of this satire. The basic musical motifs are distorted versions of Russian estrade tunes: a rather brave deed in pre-glasnost Central Europe. To this accompaniment Feró Nagy, the best-known non-conformist rock singer of Hungary, sang nonsense lines in Russian ('very white, very black, very red, very beautiful'). The songs Marie sings are either very childish (e.g. the one about the small fir-tree), or in sharp contrast with her action: when she wants to commit suicide, she sings - again in Russian - 'I love you life.'
Leacock, under the guise of translation, made a parody of sentimental 19th-century Russian stories. In its stage adaptation the parodic nature of the original story is realized through non-realistic acting and speech. Each character has a way of movement of his or her own: Marie walks as if she did not touch the ground, her eyes looking up in admiration to Otto, who is a very common figure (and moreover a coward). The mother is always in a hurry, rushing across the stage, pretending to be efficient. The father is authoritative, while Alex the guard never fails to swing his sword. The movements of the actors combine several acrobatic, dance, marionette-like and pantomime elements. Except for Marie they speak only a few times (since this is Marie's diary, come alive); Marie (played by Judit Koltai) has a distorted voice and a very affected way of speech.
Costumes (designed by Krisztina Berzsenyi, who also plays the role of the Mother) are a vital part of the show: Marie has a pink qnd white lace dress, her mother is dressed in black. Actress-designer Krisztina Berzsenyi revealed in an interview that the company had the costumes on all through their rehearsing process (while in traditional theatre rehearsals go on in everyday clothing) because the movements, gestures, and the voice of the characters is greatly influenced by the colours and the shape of the costume they are wearing. The harmony of the total outfit is necessary to achieve the desired effect on stage. The make-up is white, mask-like (in the first run of the show they used real masks as well) with harsh colours around the eyes and bright red lipstick. All these were reminiscent of silent films.
They are only a few props: an oval mirror with a carved frame, a pram with large wheels and lace cover. Both the costumes and the props suggest a true fin de siècle atmosphere. The pram serves not only as the vehicle for the baby, but also as for carrying out Otto's dead body after his fight with Alex.
Director István Malgot, when asked why he prefers to stage adaptations rather than existing dramatic texts, explained that plays are not suitable for their needs: his primary interest in preparing a show lies in the free interpretation of situations. He has a special taste for the grotesque approach, but wants to point out the human features of his characters, as well. Leacock's parody, his wit and the abundance of nonsense elements in his writing fascinated Malgot, whose perspective has a lot in common with that of Leacock. Sorrows of a Super Soul contained issues which this alternative theatre company found to be of interest for the people of the mid-eighties: the desire for freedom, which very often takes the shape of a wish for death (this has had a long tradition in Central Europe); the problem of ideal, perfect love and how far it can be realized; and - last but not least - the question of power and force, be it within family bonds ('only' forcing a young girl to marry the person she does not want to), or on a larger scale. Behind these issues hides the question of the relationship between reality and imagination: the sharp contrast between these two is quite obvious in the diary, and gets special emphasis in the show.
The Theatre of the Moon - its title clearly hints at Ariane Mnouchkine's 'Théâtre du Soleil' - has been working independently under this name since 1986. But the company's history goes back much further than that: some of its present members and director Istvan Malgot began as members of 'Orfeo,' a puppet-group in Budapest in the early seventies. A few years later they began to use actors and words together with their huge puppets; by this time they formed a unit of 'Népszínház' (People's Theatre), a touring company based in the capital. From 1983 to 1986 the group worked as an independent theatre company which formally belonged to Katona József Theatre in Kecskemét, central Hungary. Since 1986, thanks to the New York based Soros Foundation, the Theatre of the Moon can devote all its energy to theatrical experimentation. Besides the Leacock adaptation they staged a 'local' version of Hamlet - entitled Dromlet - which concentrated on the use and abuse of power; in it the two courtiers, called Rozengild and Gildenróz, are perfectly interchangeable and function as puppets of Draudius, the king. (Dromlet is a clown, dressed up as a prince and heir to the throne, but he begins to believe that he really can inherit the throne, and this misbelief leads to his death.)
The company very often stages children's shows, which always offer a lot of dance and music (in the country of Bartók and Kodály certain musical motives and melodies have privileged meaning to every layer of the population). In 1988, within the framework of an international movement theatre festival in Budapest, adaptations of Genet's plays were shown, and in 1989 The Theatre of the Moon played Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat ('à réciter, jouer et danser').
Sorrows of a Super Soul was the first part of a double-bill shown at an annual theatre festival in Budapest, and the reviews prove that it marked an important stage in the history of Hungarian alternative theatres:
The history of Sorrows cannot be told - the important thing is how it is performed. The sight, the thoughts, the rhythm and the music are fascinating. The choreography ... has been carried out perfectly and precisely, together with innumerable ideas ... What the members of this movement theatre company do ... is perfect, sparkling theatre, full of ideas.4
During the preparation period for the show Malgot said in an interview,
'I realized that man is most important on the stage. The word, the light,
the music - all these serve the moving person ... It's going to be a show
trying to achieve a balance between melancholy and humour.'5
Hungarian cultural policy favoured strict realism in the theatre for about four decades, claiming that it makes art - and thus theatre - easily accessible for the great masses, for the workers. At the same time, experimental theatre companies were given no grants (or very small ones) and they were not numerous. This is why, in contrast with tendencies in Western Europe, some of the experimental or alternative theatre companies in Hungary deliberately aimed at intellectuals as their audience, and this is what happens in the case of The Theatre of the Moon. At the same time, with the help of their shows for children, they wish to popularize their unconventional (though highly traditional) way of acting and the new concept of the theatre.
The company kept working on the show for four years, every now and then making slight alterations. They also showed an English-language version at theatre festivals in Italy and Yugoslavia, and were awarded prizes.
Notes
Forum - THE ALTERNATIVE THEATRE ADAPTATION OF LEACOCK'S SORROWS OF A SUPER SOUL IN HUNGARY
Katalin Kürtösi
a An earlier version of this essay was read to a combined
meeting of the Association for Canadian Theatre History/Association de
l'histoire du théâtre au Canada and the Société
d'histoire du théâtre du Québec at the Learned Society
Meetings in Quebec, May 1989.
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1 NÁNAY ISTVÁN 'Színházi
mühelyek' Színház 1984/8, p 34-35
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2 STEPHEN LEACOCK Nonsense Novels (Toronto:McClelland
and Stewart 1969) p 80
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3 lbid, p 82
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4 GALKÓ BALÁZS 'Rosszcsirkeff Mária'
Pesti Müsor 1984 május 16-23 p 75
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5 HELTAI NÁNDOR 'A képzömüvészettöl
a mozgó emberig' Petöfi Népe 1984 február
16
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