I have quoted the book very often, perhaps even without permission for a long time, in my writings There is also Shakespeare our contemporary? (Publishing house meridians, Bucharest, 1994). The book on the covers of which John Elsom brought together the debates at the meeting up to 1989 International Association of Theater Critics. Then Shakespeare scholars from all over the world, be they theorists or theater practitioners (from all over the world, but not from Romania, which at that time was even more closed than Denmark in Hamlet) gathered not only to pay tribute to Ian Kott, but also to try to determine how modern the great Will is.

The conclusion, of course a compromise, was that the mentioned modernity is manifested not always, not everywhere and not in any way, but periodically and in certain places. Or, judging by the extent to which Shakespeare’s works are now present on the posters of Romanian theaters, how many premieres we recorded with them even in the first two or three months of 2024, it is clear that the great playwright has become our contemporary. Of course, they mainly play comedies, Twelfth night still remains the absolute leader, sometimes played as well Hamletbut the big surprise is the fact that he is back on the poster Pericles. A piece at the end of a career that is considered not quite finished. Not exactly Shakespearean. Piece final summary. In which, as Adrian Papahagi writes (cf. Shakespeare is played by Adrian Papahagi; Pericles, Cymbeline, StormPublishing house Polirom, Iasi, 2023) it is quite possible that Shakespeare (Shakespeare and his assistants, among whom a certain George Wilkins was sharply criticized by the Romanian exegete Georgiou Volchanov in his excellent Shakespeare studies) was more concerned with the details than the whole. We find in them and also find in Pericles “passions and crimes worthy of tragedy, youthful love leading to the requisite weddings or dynastic problems in historical plays, but the general atmosphere is fairy-tale.”

Yes, Pericles is Romanian which talks about “the emphasized intervention of the everyday irrational in the formation and destruction of individual destiny” (Magdalena Boyangiou), and the intervention forces a young man who went in search of a wife to become, as Radu perfectly observed about 40 years ago Albala, El Desdicado. Pericles proves that in the case of geniuses, simplifications do not really make sense. That the end of the career may be uncertain. Mixed, sometimes in a higher mode. How Korney gave, after a whole series of failures, amazing Rodogun“Pericles and Cymbeline they seem to be looking for a formula which A winter story finds her again Storm completes it” (Adrian Papahagi). But, unfortunately, as the same exegete categorically notes, “Periclesit is schematic, narrative, allegorical, but devoid of drama and believable characters.”

Is it then to be wondered at that the Rumanian action is not really considered a success in the case of this Shakespearean work, or rather mixed or partly Shakespearean, in any case of the second rank? I don’t know what the performance was in 1964, staged at the Drama Theater in Brasov by Ion Simionescu (magazine Theater ignored), I only know that such a delicate Radu Albala, quoted above, often used a red pencil in the chronicle of the performance of Dino Chernescu in the Theater Juleshti in the 1981/1982 season, the chronicle was published in the journal Theater there is no 2/1982. I saw the version lastdeclared vigorous and vigorous, attributed to the play by Alexander Hauswater in 1995 at the same renamed Theater Odeum (there the characters wore numbers, not names, Pericles was number 5, as if the director wanted to emphasize their inconsistency) and I can say that Magdalena Boyangiou had every right to call her chronicle from Theater todayNo. 3/1996, Noise without fury.

What does the English director Philip Bar do, who has now been invited to stage a play at the Hungarian Theater Gergely’s tsiks from Timisoara? Apparently that doesn’t remove it from the matrix Romanian. That is, a story about the human condition, about creatures cursed to travel in nut shells, to face storms, to be shipwrecked, to do good but suffer injustice and persecution in return, to lose everything and, in their last years, to be overwhelmed by unexpected happiness. However, the director removes the text from a clear temporal determination (his approach is supported by the sets and costumes created by Brian D. Hunton) and accepts the theater in the theater formula.

Directed by Gower (played wonderfully by Cochardi Levente). This is the narrator. He is a calm orchestra, warm to the audience (the complete opposite of the one in Housewater’s show who gave merciless orders to the audience), Hover tells the story while accompanying himself on the accordion, the actors people with suitcases. That is, the histrions who pass through the world are preparing to play their roles before our eyes, and in some – more than one. Some of the actors even communicate with colleagues between the lines. Actors play, dance (choreography: Anka Stoika) and sing. And they do it beautifully, because, as always, the presence of stage music composer Kari Tibor is worthy of all praise.

His teammates wake him up, take Erdesh Balint, the performer of young Pericles, out of the inflatable boat. Such a Leons, somehow in erotic availability. Lively, playful, generous, kind, who jumps to the aid of Cleon of Tarsus (Attila’s Kiss, a versatile actor who also counts as a musician), Dionysus (Borbeli B. Emilia) and his subjects. Who face hunger and poverty. So we, the audience, also get bread and wine, bread and juice, please Young Pericles guesses the secret of Antiochus, that is, that the king lives with his own daughter (Vaida Boroka). We see a well-accented king played by Matthias Zolt Imre. Fearing his revenge, Pericles leaves his kingdom in Helican’s care. The character in which exegetes saw a alter ego Gonzalo from Storm or his Escalius FROM Measure for measure. A faithful, honest courtier, clearly played by Eder Eniko. The big surprise is that the director does not ask the actress to fall into the transvestite trap. Another proof that Philip Parr’s theater formula works at sight on illusion, on convention, on the complicity and intelligence of the viewer. Young Pericles wins a tournament organized by the good king Simonides, played with elegance and discretion by Bandi András Zolt. The death of Antiochus allows Pericles to return to Tire accompanied by his young wife Taissa (Ljorinc Rita). So a new journey follows, another storm (a succession of storms is one of the show’s strengths under the direction of Philip Parr and the band), the birth of Marina, and later her trials, the character that gives the actress Vadáš Bernadette her first role as a large space, the apparent death of Taisa , call needles louches milieux and all the human variety, well supported by Vaida Boroka, Majari Etelka, Lighter Marco Ernesto, Chuvek Lorand, Hegu Kincho, Asalos Geza, Ballo Helga. A meeting with Lysimachus, his love and youth (he is very good in the role of Iancho Elodes), will save not only Marina, but also Pericles. Now old, unhappy, isolated from the world, a refugee under the boat from which he experienced so many adventures, movingly and Molnoš András Čaba played with great power.

The theater-within-a-theatre formula employed by director Philip Parr greatly softens the implausibility of the play. As from its fragmentation. Philip Parr gives the play a significant degree of coherence, he brings order between the characters, making sure that there are not too many of them. The director, dutifully and professionally imitating the actors, achieves a performance that gives consistency to secondary or simply episodic characters. _Read the rest of the article on Contributors.ro