Cinderellagame by Paul-Eerik Rummo as compared to Song games

Abstract

Estonians are ardent theatre-goers. The dozen professional theatre companies in a small country with population scarcely a million, and the numerous amateur groups both st home and until recent years also in the Diaspora refer to the popularity of organised theatre. Despite the keen public support to theatre, very little of significant merit has emerged in original native Estonian dramaturgy. The situation with prose writing and poetry is quite the opposite for since the appearance of the first original Estonian belleslettres, many prose writers and poets, both male and female, have proven themselves as world class writers. The most recent example of this is Jaan Kross with his meteoric rise to the international renown. According to the opinion of the author of the present article, among the very few original Estonian plays that can claim to be of international stature, Cinderellagame (Tuhkatriinumang, 1969) by PaulEerik Rummo should be regarded as one of the truly outstanding works in Estonian dramaturgy. In the following essay, I will briefly analyse one of the reasons for the destitute state of the original Estonian dramaturgy and then view one of the aspects of the structure of Paul-Eerik Rummo’s remarkable play in this context. A proficient English translation of the play by Andres Mannik and Mardi Valgemae is available in Alfreds Straumanis’ anthology of Baltic plays Confrontations with Tyrrany (1977). All quotes from the play below are taken from this publication. While any play can move beyond simple entertainment by embodying messages of universal significance, ultimately, the primary purpose of theatre is nonetheless entertainment. The origin of secular theatre for entertaining purposes, however, is usually found in religious rituals. The birth and development of classical Greek theatre from Dionysian fertility rituals is a well-known example. The same phenomenon can be traced in the development of modern