Before Sunset

Photo: Jiri Sediak

= Before Sunset is Gerhart Hauptmann’s family drama (meaning about a family) about an aging patriarch marrying a girl young enough to be his granddaughter, first produced in 1931. The Slovak National Theatre (Bratislava) has presented it under the masterful direction of Michael Vajdicka, with a superb cast.

Mr. Vajdicka makes Hauptmann’s characters imposing personages, almost epic personalties. They aren’t defined by their environment - Pavol Andrasko’s set gives us no more than we need. Indeed, the hard, unyielding attitudes of the family are reflected in the walls that bookend the playing area (the audience is on two sides).

Martin Huba gives a complex, commanding performance as the wealthy gentleman (the role was originally created by Max Reinhardt) bewitched by a young girl. He kisses her with a sort of desperate, bewildered disbelief that she’ll have him. His family, of course, disapprove and work to thwart his happiness, but she sincerely loves him. There’s a dinner scene that presents the very act of dining together as a statement of such gravity that some family members refuse to eat with the young interloper.

Tana Pauhofova is impressive, fascinating, as the timid, nervous daughter. Another actress might have fallen into cliché in this role, but Ms. Pauhofova is disciplined, creative and expressive.

Mr. Vajdicka would have done well to make fine cuts to some of the early exposition in Before Sunset - there are some long, challenging scenes - but once we get beyond that we’re totally absorbed. Hauptman has been called a classical playwright, and indeed the script has a classical air of authority about it, even as it has a certain rigidity, lacking the subtlety of, say, the master of family drama, Eugene O’Neill. The production is utterly distinguished.

review
Steve Capra
September, 2019
_________________________________________________________________________________

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interview with Jan Burian, General Director of The Divadlo Festival

Steve Capra's Interview with Jan Burian,  General Director,  Divadlo Theater Festival =  Pilsen, Czech Republic =  September 14, 2019 =  SC: As I understand it, you have 50 productions. How many submissions did you have? How many producers wanted their shows to be in the festival? =  JB: I will explain the system. We work, of course, all year, but our permanent employees are only two. One is the producer of the shows and one is the General Director handling all other things. But we have something that we call the Artistic Board or Dramaturgy Board. It’s made up of five people. But of course we have a lot of collaborators in foreign countries, mostly in the Middle Europe but of also in Germany, Russia and so on. We cover Central Europe, visiting festivals, crucial new productions. The principle is that each production must be seen by a minimum of two people. Of course, it’s impossible to see everything, say, in Poland - it’s quite a big country - so we have friends who
Read more

Sternenhoch

Image
Photo: Jiri Sediak =  Sternenhoch , from the National Theatre Prague Opera, is based on Ladislav Klíma’s expressionist novel, The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch , written in Czech and published in 1928. This opera suggests the first expressionist plays - specifically Kokoshka’s Murderer, The Hope of Women . However, Kokoshka’s mythical male murders the woman he’s found; Klíma’s eponymous hero is a sort of anti-hero, a victim, looking foolish with a thin necktie and derby, and his female is a demon (even the witch Prince Sternenhoch goes to for protection betrays him). Each work is misogynistic in its own way. The cast is flawless. When Sergej Kostov, in the central role, sings without vibrato, his voice has an eerie, haunting tone, less alive than undead. Vanda Sipova is equally mesmerizing as Helga, the wife from hell with an unearthly voice, mesmerizing us from the first line, “Your dead wife thanks for all our moments together.” When Prince Sternenhoch first sees her he sa
Read more