Creative Meeting on Stage of Three Artists: Eden Palashovsky, Nikolay Evreinov, Eva Zeisel (Episodes from the History of the Hungarian Theatrical Avant-Garde)

Abstract

Experimental theaters led by Ödön Palasovszky stand out among the attempts to renew the Hungarian theatrical culture of the 1920s. He was the central figure of the creative community that worked under different names, but the performances were results of a collective work. Contemplating on the nature and possibilities of theatrical art, young experimenting artists set themselves the goal of creating a reflective art aiming at the creation of a new society. In search of new ways of expression, they turned to various forms of cabaret, revue, compere-entertainer, choral genres, simultaneous play based on the principle of montage and eurhythmics, and they used many scenic innovations. In my paper, I will focus on the analysis of the staging of Nikolay Evreinov’s monodrama The Theater of the Soul. The performances of the Extraordinary Stage (Rendkívüli Színpad) were built around the typical problems of the modern human. The play by Evreinov was performed only once, on October 3, 1928, during the evening of Happy end. On of the contributors to the stage design was Eva Zeisel (Éva Striker, 1906–2011), who worked in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and later became a world-famous ceramist in the USA. Since the scenery depicting a living organism was presented on the stage as part of the action, the performance may be considered one of the most original experiments in the Hungarian avant-garde theater history.