A challenge to American pragmatism: staging O’Neill’s Hughie by Alexa Visarion

Author(s): Adriana Carolina Bulz / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2019

“Hughie or the Tale of a Memory” is the working title of the first play that the experienced artist Alexa Visarion has directed for the independent theater (a production released in 2017). The purpose of my paper, which is an investigation of several drama reviews that discuss the play’s first night, is to prove that – despite difficulties with cultural reception and public taste (given a text by O’Neill that is 80 years old, as well as the director’s first time with an informal theater production) - this performance was a succesful attempt at communicating and debating the conflicted values of American pragmatism and equally a crowning of the Romanian director’s effort to stage O’Neill’s plays in our country. Relying on insights from the Amercan doctrine of Pragmatism, I will try to show how O’Neill’s text challenges philosophical premises that are inbred in the American status-quo, thereby making his plays “anti-materialistic” by promoting a fatalistic approach to existence.

A vallástanár

Author(s): Mihaela Michailov / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 3/2018

Mihaela Michailov is a contemporary Romanian playwright and theatre critic born in 1977, who also teaches at the Caragiale Academy of Theatrical Arts of Bucharest. Her plays have been translated in several languages, including Bulgarian, French, German, Spanish and Hungarian. This impressive list is now continued with Johanna Bertóti’s Hungarian translation of Profu’ de religie (The Religion Teacher). Michailov’s play invites us to the world of Romanian institutional education, populated by the characters of the primary school pupils, teachers, and parents, but gradually – with the complication of the events – opening up toward a wider social framework, in order to provide a more comprehensive view of the sensational and scandalous media coverage of an abuse story. Did the religion teacher touch the thigh of the 12-year old girl? What does it mean in fact if he did? What does abuse itself mean in this case? Who is the victim? What is the truth? The author does not provide us with any clear-cut solutions. Her aim is rather to show how unsure our language and our various discourses, the adults’ and children’s interpretations might be in this case, along with complex ways in which the media transforms the issues of victimhood, while also presenting an ironic image of church, religion, ​and education in Romania.

Aated ja stiiliotsingud: ekspressionism 1920. aastate eesti teatris

Author(s): Luule Epner / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 17/2015

In Estonian theatre, the experience of World War I found expression somewhat belatedly, in the early 1920s, when Expresssionist plays, mainly by contemporary German playwrights – Ernst Toller,Walter Hasenclever, Georg Kaiser et al – were staged in the Estonia Theatre, in the Drama Theatre and in the amateur Hommikteater (Morning Theatre, 1921–1924). The article examines the most significant Expressionist stage productions, focusing on the relations between their ideological, affective and stylistic dimensions. Critical and audience receptions of Expressionist plays are discussed as well.In the Estonia Theatre, a group of young actors and directors(Ants Lauter, Erna Villmer, et al) sought to innovate theatrical language by making use of new, Expressionist devices. In contrast, the amateur Hommikteater (led by August Bachmann and Nigol Andresen)placed emphasis on spreading the ideals of new humanity and social justice, which reflected the left-wing sympathies of the troupe , but their work was also distinguished by an inventive style and a strong emotional impact on audiences. The members of the literary group Tarapita (who promoted Expressionism themselves)enthusiastically supported Hommikteater. This little theatre became highly influential in the process of theatre innovation, despite its very small audiences.However, the key ideas and ideals of postwar Expressionism (including a strong anti-war pathos) had rather little effect on Estonian theatre in general. Expressionism mainly contributed to the widening of the stylistic palette of Estonian theatrical art. This can be partly explained by the social situation of the 1920s: victory in the War of Independence and the subsequent building of the independent Estonian state raised nationalist spirits and made people less sensitive to the destructive experiences of World War I as reflected in postwar German Expressionism.

ADRESA SVEMIR - NEKOLIKO PORUKA

Author(s): Wolfram Lotz / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 158-159/2012

Drama play by Wolfram Lotz

An Enemy of the People on the Stage of the Iași National Theatre in 2016

Author(s): Crina Leon / Language(s): English,Romanian / Issue: 1/2018

Originally written by Henrik Ibsen in 1882, An Enemy of the People was adapted in 1950 by the American playwright Arthur Miller, and this adaptation was the one taken into consideration by the director Claudiu Goga when staging the play at the “Vasile Alecsandri” National Theatre in Iași in 2016. In this paper, we aim to analyze the reception of the play in Iași by also pointing out the differences between Henrik Ibsen’s original, Arthur Miller’s adaptation and Claudiu Goga’s staging and showing that any adaptation of a text leads in fact to a new piece of work. Goga’s staging enjoyed favorable reviews, probably also due to the possible identification of the audience with the social-political realities in Romania.

Analysing Dangerous Emotions: Pragmatics of Jealousy in Othello’s Speech

Author(s): Alina Ielisieieva / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2017

To achieve its cathartic effect tragedy must communicate and elicit emotions. Any dramatic utterance, treated as an act of communication within the represented world, rests on the interaction of two inseparable, accordant, and interrelated systems – language and emotions. Language can name and verbalize emotions in order to construct them in the dramatic world, but to create a linguistic image of a believable emotional utterance the language a character speaks must appear to be infl uenced and shaped by emotions. Further, that mimetic representation of emotion through language must be understood by the audience. To achieve this, dramatic language must either rely on conventional linguistic means used to express emotions or create its own code that will be decoded by the audience. The audience will vicariously experience the characters’ emotions by recognizing them in their language and actions. The emotionally dynamic image of Othello, one of the most passionate men of Elizabethan drama, is created primarily by the language he uses. To follow the changes in the syntax and the semantics of his language as the action of the play develops is to observe the transformation of the character from a loving and caring husband into a jealous beast that knows no mercy. The article will offer an analysis of the pragmalinguistic representation of jealousy in Othello’s language and show how his discourse changes in the text. The analysis will rely on basic pragmatic categories and consider Othello’s use of directives, assertives, expressives, etc. The emotional change in Othello will also be illustrated by a brief study of the change in his syntax and his vocabulary: from balanced rhetorics and sophisticated words to erratic speech and expletive swearwords.

ANCHORING THE VERBAL IMAGE IN NOH AND SHAKESPEAREAN THEATRE

Author(s): Anna A. Hlavácová / Language(s): English / Issue: Special/2014

This paper investigates how verbal images are anchored in acting. It focuses on the concretisation of the actor’s imagination and the possibilities of relating the declamation and gestures to the stage disposition and the theatre’s location in the city. Two models are used – Noh and Shakespearean theatre.

ANCIENT DRAMA TODAY. ORESTEIA AND ITS STAGE FORMS

Author(s): Martina Borodovcakova / Language(s): English / Issue: Special/2015

This study focuses on the most important stage productions of Aeschylus’ Oresteia of the 20th century. A special emphasis is given to the possibilities of reading the tragedy, in relation to politics and social climate. Based on selected productions the study also follows the evolution of various modern directing concepts and diverse approaches to staging ancient drama. Productions of Aeschylus’ Oresteia were often an integral part of significant changes in modern history and went beyond established ideas of how to read ancient drama.

ANOMALIJE

Author(s): Božidar Stanišic / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 3/2018

Drama play written by Božidar STANIŠIĆ

Antwerpeni közjáték

Author(s): András Ferenc Kovács / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 3/2014

András Ferenc Kovács, the poet residing in Tg-Mureş is a well-known figure of contemporary Hungarian literature and a collaborator in creating several theatrical texts. Antwerp Runs, which appears in our drama supplement, is a sketch from his script entitled Debauched Armada of Comedians (Elizabethan English Fosteriades). The characters of the dramatic text in verse step out from Paul Foster’s drama Elisabeth I. They are mostly money lenders, as the theme of the text is the world of money and its way of functioning – offering us a peek into the witchcraft of power. Characteristically to András Ferenc Kovács’s poetry, in the Antwerp Runs layers of historical and current experience and language, the political-economic relations of the sixteenth century​ and the reality of the European economic and political union build on each other with ease.

Atkārtojuma veidi, funkcijas un semantiskās īpatnības māras kimeles teātrī. A. Strindberga "Jūlijas Jaunkundze"

Author(s): Valda Cakare / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 1/2006

Theatre is a cultural activity deeply involved with repetition. Repeated text recycling of specific material, and the practice of using the same spaces and bcj dies appear in a wide range of theatrical cultures. Māra Ķimele as a stage dire tor has always been interested in the original, the unique. Yet she is not free fro postmodern obsession with things that return. This can be clearly seen in two productions of "Miss Julie" by August Strindberg. Māra Ķimele gains enc mous power from repeated appearances of the same actors and scenic element.

Augusts Saulietis un viņa "Kēninš Zauls" - traģiskais un pretrunīgais

Author(s): Zane Šilina / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 1/1998

Ak, brīži - Kad lielāks, nekā dzīvot, prieks ir mirt!.. ’ Šādu epigrāfu savai apjomīgākajai lugai - traģēdijai “Ķēniņš Zauls” - izvēlējies Augusts Saulietis (1863.-1933.). Kā liecina nosaukums, lugas fabula aizgūta no Bībeles, Pirmās Samuēla grāmatas, kas iezīmē soģu laikmeta beigas un ķēniņu valdīšanas sākumu, tātad būtisku pavērsiena punktu, kad sakrālo, t.i., priestera, varu nomaina laicīgs valdnieks - karavadonis. A.Saulieša traģēdijas galvenais varonis Izraēla pirmais ķēniņš Zauls pieder šīm abām pasaulēm — viņš ir Dieva izraudzīts valdnieks, bet tai pašā laikā šo izraudzīšanu pieprasījusi tauta. (Zīmīgi, ka A.Saulieša lugā par ķēniņu kļūst tautā jau iecienīts, slavas oreola apvīts varonis, lai gan no Bībeles teksta noprotams, ka karavadoņa slavu Zauls gūst tikai, būdams ķēniņš.) Šī ap Zaulu savijusies pretruna izraisa arī viņa iekšējo traģēdiju, jo, kā lugas pēcvārdā raksta tās autors, “kaut ar vienu savu pusi Zauls tiecas uz jaunu dzīvi, it kā ārā no Zamueļa reliģiski-fanatiskās pasaules, ar otru pusi tas paliek pilnīgi viņas varā un tad arī zem viņam uzkrautā Jachvē's lāsta, un viņam jākaro pret to, kas stiprāks nekā cilvēki” [...]

Autor i kulisy – przypadek Pawła Demirskiego

Author(s): Pawel Stangret / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2017

Stangret examines the dramatic work of Paweł Demirski by juxtaposing his strictly literary output with the work he did on the project Szybki Teatr Miejski [The Fast City Theatre]. The main problem is the creation of the authorial subject within specifically artistic communication. Treated hypertextually, the literary work, which is linked to autocommentary and the uncovering of the author’s perspective, causes the author himself to become the text in which the above-mentioned elements come together. Stangret sheds light on the communication strategies of this particular kind of text. The main means of communicating “oneself as a text” is the intimation of transgressing the speaking element for the sake of immediate expression. The artist creates himself as an author writing a text whose meaning is largely based on action beyond the work. Another element is the strategy of provocation whose main factor is the speed of transmission. Stangret shows the ways in which the poetics of Demirski’s plays can be inscribed in modern media communication.

Bábszínház

Author(s): Áron Köto / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 11/2015

Benjamin u Moskvi

Author(s): Branko Vucicevic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 86.32/2016

BERTOLT BREHT I EPSKI TEATAR

Author(s): Barbara Novakovic / Language(s): Bosnian,Croatian / Issue: 4/2018

Jedno od nesumnjivo najznačajnih stvaralačkih imena njemačke, ali i svjetske, književno-pozorišne scene XX vijeka jeste Bertolt Breht. Liričar, dramski pisac, pripovjedač, dramaturg i režiser. Reformator i utemeljitelj jedne moderne forme teatra: epskog teatra.

BEZ SRCA

Author(s): Sam Shepard / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 4/2018

Svetska premijera predstave drame „Bez srca” izvedena je u produkciji „Signature Theatre”, u Njujorku, 27. avgusta 2012. godine, na sceni Ajrin Dajmond (Irene Diamond Stage). – Džejms Hogton, osnivač i umetnički direktor; Erika Malin, izvršni direktor; Bet Vitaker, izvršni direktor saradnik. Režirao je Daniel Oukin; scenograf je bio Judžin Li; kostimograf Kei Vojs; dizajner svetla Tajler Mikolau; dizajn zvuka Erik Šimelonis; producent Donald Frajd.

Biedni emigranci patrzą na getto. O Smoczej 13 Stefanii Zahorskiej

Author(s): Jakub Osinski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2018

Having outlined the genesis and publication history of Stefania Zahorska’s play Dragon Street 13 (1944), Osiński interprets the text in the context of various historical events – the Grossaktion Warschau, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the attitude of Polish exiled war veterans towards the Holocaust. Scholarship on the play is discussed in the light of recent finding and of reviews of Dragon Street 13 in the émigré press. Thus Osiński reveals the documentary value of Zahorska’s text as well as her original contribution to Polish émigré literature.

Bir Siberdrama Biçimi Olarak Dijital Oyun: ‘Alice Harikalar Diyarında’ Örneği

Author(s): Özge Baydas Sayilgan / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 72/2012

As a product of cultural industry, digital games taking place more and more in daily life activities and with its dramatic potential, being subject to theoretical discussions shaped by the researches from different scientific disciplines during 90’s, are accepted as the new storytellers of ‘new media’ which come forward with its interactive quality. Looking at digital games from a ‘narrative’ perspective, J. Murray(1997)’s ‘cyberdrama’ and M. Mateas’ (2004) ‘interactive drama poetics’ concepts, evokes ‘interactive drama’ definition shaped by technological possibilities of cyberspace. Within the scope of this research, it’s aimed to follow the formal transformation to cyberdrama of a selected story presented in reading, watching and playing activities both in historical process and today. As the sample determined within this research, the novel ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (Carroll, 1865), and its cinema and digital game adaptations’ (Burton, 2010; McGee, 2011) narrative structures are analysed. The study’s main problematic is to question the transformation of ‘narrative’ (epic) structure to the ‘representative’ (dramatic) structure on film screen and to cyberdramatical structure on game screen with its interactive images and story. To question if the digital game text, calling continuously the user activity, is bringing or not a contextual changing in the basic story’s coming to prominence for this research. In this context, archetypal character and plot structures and dramatic structure components are used as notions referenced for narrative analysis and comparison of the adapted texts.

Bizantyjskie „Zapevi” Współczesnego Teatru Bułgarskiego. Teksty, Konteksty, Figury

Author(s): Galia Simeonowa-Konach / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2017

The article is dedicated to the problems of historical drama, one of the ways of interpreting the past. The study is placed in the context of the sociology of culture and the historical memory of society, with a focus on the transposition and the symbolical representation of the history of Byzantium and the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (1181–1396) in literature. The subject of the analysis are the works of the Bulgarian poet and playwright Radko Radkov (1940–2009), above all his play Theophano, written in the convention of classical drama in verse and the so-called ritual drama, according to the title of the author, a synthesis of text borrowed from Old Bulgarian Literature, and Byzantine hymnography, inspired visually by the images of the Middle Age Miniatures included in Manassij’s Chronicle (Codex Vaticanus Slav II) – Praise of Turnovgrad and In Praise of the Word. The historical theme in the work of Radko Radkov is substantially different from the interpretation of the Bulgarian history of other Bulgarian writers of the second half of the 20th Century, by which the author is opposing the ideological constructs of the official authorities during this period. Within the discourse of the relations between creator and authorities, attention is paid to some events surrounding the 1300 anniversary of the creation of the Bulgarian state (celebrated in 1981), when, thanks to the benevolence of Lyudmila Zhivkova and the open culture policy that she, as Chairperson of the Committee of Arts and Culture, had introduced, the plays of Radko Radkov were allowed to be staged in the theatres. The playwright has found semiotic and stylistic devices that recreate the classical past of the people, the orthodox Christianity and culture in the universal perspective of the Byzantine Commonwealth, and artistically voice his historiosophic views concerning Bulgarian national history and the Byzantine-Bulgarian cultural community. The paper analyses the tribulations of the performance of Theophano, staged in Bulgaria by the French Director Pierre Della Torre, who sees in the poetic world of Radko Radkov “the monumental force of the masters of French theatre, Racine and Corneille”.