The Will To Move. Finding the Vanishing Point as an Analytical Method

Abstract

In 1962 the political elite removed the burden of the directorship of National Theatre from the shoulders of Tamás Major, the parliamentary representative of Hungarian theatre arts. Nevertheless, he continued to determine the artistic conception of the theatre with his French-chic aesthetic sense, his comprehensive and up to date theoretical knowledge, and his imperturbable political communication skills. The repertoire of National Theatre is better defined by the European left-wing propaganda-philosophies than in by Hungarian premieres; Major likes to talk about the impact of leftist thinkers such as Mnouchkine, Strehler or Brook. Giorgio Strehler staged the Weiss-play, “The Song of the Lusitanian Bogey” in 1969, because “the truth should be always told loud”, and Major, who is also “always looking for the essence, horribly tormented with the text”, sets about to revive the idea and form of propaganda theatre. The Lusitanian Monster is the first Hungarian rock opera from 1970. In my presentation, I examine the complex perspective that hides this performance within our theatre-historical tradition, I examine our vanishing awareness, that the National Theatre has the National director (and the future National actress) play rock.