Între ideologie și identitate culturală (Piese cu tematică istorică la Teatrul de Stat din Sfântu Gheorghe, în anii 1960-1970)

Abstract

Between Ideology and Cultural Identity (Plays with Historical Themes at the State Theater in Sfântu Gheorghe, in the 1960s and 1970s
In the context of political liberalization in the 1960s, Hungarians in Romania, taking advantage of new cultural opportunities, quickly adapted to the new conditions. After the administrative reform, following cultural concessions, a phenomenon similar to that in Romania of reinventing and reproducing the historical past took place in Hungarian cultural institutions. Theatre played an important role in this cultural phenomenon. The State Theatre of Sfântu Gheorghe participated very actively in all the cultural initiatives to promote ethnocultural identity and local values initiated by the new political and cultural elite in Covasna County, founded in 1968. The main aim was therefore to rediscover, care for and promote the local historical past (Transylvanian and Szekler) in the context of the cultural policy of the time and the communist ideology through historical plays. The success, or lack thereof, of these plays should be sought in this context rather than in their literary and dramatic value. The theatre of Sfântu Gheorghe, in search of new forms after 1968, took up, accepted these plays, these historical themes, managed to slip them through the institutions of censorship and put them on stage. These plays are characterized by a lack of professional maturity, by ideological clichés. They are telling examples of how and to what extent the local Hungarian intelligentsia tried and failed to adapt to the new cultural conditions in the country, in these political-ideological conditions, how it tried to find Hungarian cultural alternatives and to what extent it managed to process and stage these themes.