Sometime in 2021 I read Literary Romania a very good and exciting review of a book that has just been published in France. The book is called Long live Derryisre diversitywritten by one of the most famous French-speaking literary theorists, Antoine Compagnon, and the review was signed by a professor from Iași, Alexandru Kelinescu.

Of course, most of what the Belgian wrote during an exceptional career, who came to literary studies after several years of preparation for a future career as an engineer, aroused interest. Back in student years La seconde main ou le travail de la citation it became like mandatory reading, because later books about Montaigne, Baudelaire or Proust, about Five paradoxes of modernity or close to anti-modern to be among those books whose citation becomes obligatory. A real guarantee of honesty. Scientific. professional.

Long live Derryisre diversity however, it has a special meaning and history. This is the last one. The last public appearance of both the writer and the teacher, who thus ended his career in Kolleisge de France after previous practice in Colombiauniversity and in the Sorbonne. And the theme of the work is exactly that. How to exit the scene. How do you break away from literature or how do you break away from teaching.

Professor Calinescu’s review had the extraordinary quality of saying everything that could be said about the Companion’s book. Not only about the topic, but also about the professional career of the author or about his well-known preference for the works of Roland Barthes. The review instantly made me think of our compatriot George Bana. He was also concerned about how it was done and what it meant exit from the stage (his recent books prove this), and he came to theater criticism after a possibly unsuccessful acting career, and he was an unreserved admirer of Barthes’ works, often cited in his excellent volumes of theater essays. So I sent George Ban a page with Literary Romania with a review by Alexander Kelinescu.

The French playwright of Romanian origin answered me immediately. It was a habit of his that he loved. Operativeness. He did not like to make the interlocutor wait. He didn’t like waiting. And this despite the fact that the venerable Roland Barthes wrote exceptional pages on expectations. George Banu had read Antoine Companion’s book, and he had mixed feelings about it. However, he admitted to me that he really liked the chronicle of the famous teacher and writer from Iasi.

I was reminded of this whole story the other day when, thanks to the kindness of director Felix, I received Alexa Last time. Truly the last book by George Banu. A fact confirmed by a short story at the end, which reproduces a real case. The shepherd unexpectedly advised Noika prepare And the appeal of this simple man, addressed to the philosopher, was now obeyed by George Banu. Who in the last days of his life collected for voluminous appeared on Publishing House of the Museum of Romanian Literature part of theatrical essays that appeared in us in An old dilemma. He ended them with a whimsical, in a sense provocative, section entitled delineation. A chapter that contains what I dare to think of as little poems about life and theater, about theater as a second life. About the closeness of mourning. But never about the disease. Rather, not about sick people. But only about the years of illness. About painful years and difficult times. We meet, we meet again in delineation with Peter Brook, with the famous Bouffes du Nordwith Chekhov, with his so often repeated idea entre deux, with the unbearable theme of silence, with Shakespeare, with Lady Macbeth, with Ionesco, with Beckett, with Picasso, with many, many others. Which in one form or another we will meet again in the chapters TESTIMONY and Essays.

Topics from Essays they are diverse. Or only outwardly diverse. About what the theater looks like at the announced hour of reckoning. All of them are obviously marked by the inevitability of farewell. Farewell is quite different from Puck’s farewell from Brooke’s show, who somehow miraculously arrived in Bucharest after a devastating Theses from July. And who decided the fate of George Bana. This farewell to Puck was a revelation. debut. Last time this is the final goodbye. with closing And a good remainder is usually accompanied by tears. Perhaps, that is why the most consistent part of the book is devoted to tears in the theater. IN Among the tears, Intervals of the game, a curtain of tears George Banu even creates a mini-story of tears in the theater. Because in one way he cried in the 18th century, and in another way he cries for Chekhov, one of the fathers of modern theater.

Reading these texts, my thoughts took me to Diderot. To the famous, to the mysterious, to those who are so often quoted Paradox about the actor. About which the exegete declared that this is not a paradox at all. But it seems that paradox it was inspired by Diderot’s personal incident. A representation of his game Le Fils naturalel she was completely compromised by excessive lacrimation. Then those who were in the hall (please, they could do it, they even paid for this right) and those who were on the stage cried. Hence the idea and from Entretiens.., and from paradoxically… that the best actors are the least sensitive people.

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