The creativity of Albert Camus as an author of dramatic literature is limited to only four original works.

Caligula and misunderstanding, both dated 1947, are considered masterpieces. They still appear frequently in the repertoire today, and were also played in communist Romania, relatively without problems. And this despite the fact that not everything Camus wrote was liked by the regime. Which, for example, did not even allow the essay to be published Angry mannor the journalistic articles grouped in the volume Actuatorno so-called Speeches from Stockholm. The texts in which Camus harshly denounced the decision of the Nazis in Moscow, as a result of which Boris Pasternak was forced to refuse the Nobel Prize for Literature, revealed the inquisitorial character of socialist realism. Which, being a socialist, is only realism (no longer).

State of siegemainly rewriting in the dramatic register of plague made at the suggestion and sometimes even to the taste of the great actor Jean-Louis Barro, and The righteousboth works from 1949, appeared in Romanian in volume la Publisher forUniversal literature, but no one was in a hurry to stage them. Probably during that period in the history of the Romanian theater that I know about dreams only one showing State of siege (somewhere in the late 90s in the Romanian section of the Northern Theater in Satu Mare, directed by Andrii Mihalache), and about the previous production of the play. The righteousbefore the performance directed by Mihai Manyutsiu at the National Theatre I. L. Caragiale from Bucharest, I have no news.

However, the theater always occupied a prominent place in the concerns of the great writer. This is confirmed by numerous adaptations intended either for the radio theater or for amateur groups, as well as activities as a creator and leader of such groups. I believe that this is not a coincidence and a symptom of what was to happen The righteousAlbert Camus gave an adaptation for the stage Demons to Dostoevsky.

In 1949-1950, when the work appeared on the market The righteousCamus left the French Communist Party a long time ago. He did it back in 1936 and never went back on that decision. He was not deceived by communist illusions. As it happened, for example, to François Furet in the conditions described in detail in his correspondence with Ernst Nolte. Camus had a position very often opposed to that of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir on purification (see on this subject his editorials in fight anthologized in vol Actuatorfinally appeared in Romanian in 2019 from the Iași publishing house Polisher), knew and was not afraid to say that he knew and condemned what was happening in the USSR and in the entire communist world. In a speech delivered in 1948 in the hall PleyelCamus said: “We live in a time when people, driven by mediocre and fierce ideologies, are used to being ashamed of everything.” Or: “The world around us is in misery, and we are being asked to do something to change it.” Or: “When death becomes a matter of statistics and governance, it means that things are not going well in the world.” And, finally: “The trouble is that we live in a time of ideologies and totalitarian ideologies, that is, confident enough in ourselves, in our stupid mind or our limited truth, to see the salvation of the world only in our own rule.” .

Stepan, a professional revolutionary from The righteous, he also sees the salvation of the world in the ideology and dominance of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. For him, any crime is for the benefit and benefit of Russia. Yes, Grand Duke Serhiy must be killed at all costs. Even if in the carriage with which he goes to the theater, not only he and the Grand Duchess, but also two children. In this regard, the answer is indicative: “All of Russia will learn that Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a bomb by a fighting group of the Revolutionary Socialist-Revolutionaries in order to hasten the liberation of the Russian people. The Imperial Court will also know that we are determined to spread terror until the land is returned to the people.” The task of carrying out a terrorist-anarchist action falls on Kalyaev, who is convinced that by committing a crime, he is not killing a grand duke, but despotism. However, as I already said, there will also be two children in the carriage. The fact is unforeseen and unknown to the organizers of the crime. The revolutionary Kalyaev succumbs to the poet of the same name. “I was surprised. Everything happened too quickly. These little serious faces, and I hold this terrible burden in my hand.” And if Stepan claims that “He should have executed without flinching… When we decide to forget the children, then we will masters of the world, and the revolution will win.” Dora, in my opinion the most complex and well-realized character in the play, says, “Open your eyes and realize that the Organization would lose its power and influence if it allowed for a moment that some children were destroyed by our bombs… On that day, all mankind will hate the revolution.”

Here, in these lines, the great ideas of the work are concentrated. Its fundamental questions. What is the meaning of revolutionary speeches? What is the place of murder, crime in their economy? What about terror? Who and when does a revolutionary have the right to kill? What is the relationship between the project of the revolution and the expectations of the people? The questions are even more urgent, even more acute today, when we know that nowhere in the world was the communist revolution real. Of course, not everything that is said in The righteous it sounds just as relevant today. The righteous it was then, in 1949, a warning and an act of courage by Camus. Another. Something that was hard to hear and accept in France in 1949 and that remained more or less unchanged until around 1975-1976 when it was published The Gulag Archipelago Unfortunately, residual elements are preserved in the book Left objection by Thierry Walton, published on Humanitas gives many arguments in this regard.

Today, many lines from The righteous sounds calp, fake, lozincard. So, Mihai Manyutsiu did his best by subjecting Camus’s text to a radical revision. It started with the oldest translation by Marcel Aderka. He had the last minute available. I would prefer to work on it. From the volume Theater just appeared in Polisher He condensed five acts into a performance without an intermission lasting less than two hours, reduced the number of characters (only 6 remained from 9), changed the gender of some (Boris Annenkov becomes Varya Annenkova), moved some lines, transferring them. on other heroes than Camus planned.

The first part of the play, which sums up the first three acts intelligently and comprehensibly, is consumed in realistic scenery. Sanctified also by the austere decoration elaborated in this matrix by Hadrian Damianus. In a relatively poor apartment, Grayâthree, as the French would say, where Dora Dulebova (Raluka Aprodu) and Varya Annenkova (Mirela Oprishor) have already arrived, Stepan (Marius Bodochi), Voinov (Chiprian Nikula) and Kalyaev (Marius Manole) arrive one after the other. And if for the time being we ignore the nuances of caboty, which are already dangerously visible in Marius Bodoch’s play (the text is shouted, recited, accompanied by the same old grimaces that accompany the actor even to applause), then everything is fine. Okay, so there’s also the fancy costumes, particularly the male characters. They look straight out of the box. They were designed by Luisa Enescu. They are believed to be similar to those worn by Dostoevsky’s anarchic intellectuals. Studying at major universities in Russia and abroad. Raluka Aprodu is wonderful and will continue to be so in the future, there are already the first signs that the artist shines emotionally in the final part of the show. In the performance of Mirela Oprishor I did not notice any traces of rhetoric or falsehood, Marius Manole is very good, no, there is no hint of fatigue, self-quotation or mannerism in his performance, as he sharply dictated, I don’t know who else, but Cyprian Nikula is exactly that. what is needed The actor captures the mixture of emotions, enthusiasm, impulse, as well as fears of the young Voinov.

Adrian Damian found a profitable solution to stage what happens in Camus’s play in the fourth act. Unfortunately, this is where the show’s big problems begin. From here, Mihai Manyutsiu got out of control. It is difficult to understand why the director entrusted the role of Skuratov to Marius Bodoch. Which turns the story into a caricature. For a few moments it seemed to me that the director intended to transfer the scene into a nightmarish-oneiric register. No nothing. Did Mihai Manyutsu intend to assume that Stepan was the police informant referred to by Skuratov? There were such cases of double play. The hypothesis is confirmed all the more because Stepan knows a lot about how the moment of Kalyaev’s shooting took place, and Dora asks him persistent questions about it. Does she have any suspicions? In The Grand Duchess, we see Maya Morgenstern feeling her best in a gorgeous costume designed by Luisa Enescu. Only Maya Morgenstern resorts to her famous vocal trills. However, the great actress does not have the slightest relationship with Marius Manole. He plays on his own judgmental, humiliating account. They find refuge in the space of an individual mini-concert. Who do I sell to?inread the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro