Alföldi's Mephisto: the theater that becomes reality

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Alföldi's Mephisto: the theater that becomes reality
Alföldi's Mephisto: the theater that becomes reality
Anonim

What happens when the devil offers us everything we've ever wanted, but asks for our souls in return? In addition to Faust, who also plays an important role in Mephisto, countless works immortalize this classic dilemma, and we have to tell you the joke: Mephisto of the Alföldi does not solve it, but rather adds additional nuances to the moral dilemma.

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Satanic deals, political games

Mephisto or Mephistopheles is the most famous devilish figure besides Lucifer. Klaus Mann wrote his novel Mephisto in 1936, already in exile, which exposed the author to numerous attacks and even lawsuits. In Nazi Germany, many people recognized themselves as weak-character figures who serve power out of fear or ambition, and who change their ideological beliefs as it suits them. However, the nature of dictatorships is basically very similar, so when István Szabó's movie based on the novel was shown in 1981, everyone thought they would discover the sick practices of the state socialism of the time. The film won an Oscar, and the fact that it turned out that the director himself was an informer gives his subsequent interpretation a particularly spicy flavor.

The National Theatre's new and last performance in the current line-up is also not free from political overtones: as it is said in one of its important scenes, the theater always politicizes. Adapting the story of the actor Hendrik Höfgen, who allegedly put his talent at the service of the Third Reich and betrayed everyone for the sake of success and applause, Mephisto is the last joint work of this company, the last direction of Róbert Alföldi – the end of an era and an effective finale at the same time. Mephisto's main question is how much power can interfere with art. "In the life of an artist, the question of how far he will go with power cannot arise. A social environment where this is a question is already in trouble," said Róbert Alföldi before the presentation about the play's topicality.

No one is what they seem

In the early 1930s, on the eve of the Nazi takeover, Hendrik Höfgen, an over-the-top bon vivant of a Hamburg theater, rehearses with his lover, the half-Kenyan black demon. The opening scene is strong: Höfgen, panting and jumping, is completely at the mercy and whim of Juliette, who whips him. Already at this point, you can guess that this scene will not only turn around, but also frame the performance.

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It soon becomes clear that although Höfgen sympathizes with the communist experimental theater and hates the increasingly powerful National Socialists, he is actually a weak character who is only interested in success and the recognition of the audience. Although he struggles between good and bad, right and wrong, he ultimately cannot overcome ambition and self-worship. Perhaps he is striving for it: the dark side of the black dominatrix's soul, while his wife, Barbara Brückner, who comes from an aristocratic Jewish family, could be the good side. However, this is impossible: the play subtly hints that Barbara is actually the actress Nicoletta von Niebuhr's lover. Barbara later emigrates, while Nicoletta becomes a Nazi and marries Höfgen. The country communist rascal becomes the cultural leader of the Nazis in Berlin, and the dominatrix with sadistic tendencies is a broken refugee begging for alms. The celebrated star actress, Dora Martin, emigrates because she cannot get roles in the Third Reich because of her origin. While at the beginning of the play the entire Hamburg troupe idolizes her, by the end she becomes a treasonous Jewish whore. At the beginning of the play, the young Nazi who is a drunken Jew - a flawless farewell song by Zsolt Nagy, with a not at all likable character - eventually becomes a victim of his own system. Höfgen, on the other hand, goes to heaven with his pole-turning and sole-licking.

The director of the Hamburg theater appears to be a compromising figure at the beginning of the play, until finally he commits suicide together with his Jewish wife from the death camp that awaits them. A very touching scene - the mastery of Sándor Gáspár and Andrea Söptei - as they plan and then carry out the suicide. "One day, perhaps sixty years from now, they will remember that there was a theater director named Kroge who did not deny his wife. And then we will live again," says Rahel, the wife, before they throw themselves in front of the train. Mephisto is strong in this: in the end, no one is what they seem.

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The theater mixes not only with politics, but also with reality. This is reinforced by the director's solution, which preserves the function of the stage curtain during the standing ovation after the performances in the play, but its direction is reversed: the actors turn their backs to their real audience and lean towards the stage towards the fictitious applause in the play. It is as if the curtain is a magic mirror, with reality on one side and theater on the other, but the passage is easy. On both sides of the mirror sit crowds who judge and condemn. It could almost be assumed that this would be the play's biggest weakness: although every sentence can be interpreted topically, the actors often speak specifically to the audience. We understand how sad it is when aimless young people march in formation as prisoners of violent ideals, but perhaps we don't need to bite our teeth so much. Of course, that doesn't make it any less sad.

Right to life and liberty

Mephisto is not only a resolution, but also a reward game. The acting and the acting are flawless almost throughout. András Stohl strongly portrays the selfish and success-hungry character of Höfgen, who turns from a struggling rascal into a servant of power, Dorottya Udvaros, as usual, can do no wrong in the role of Dora Martin, and we already knew that her singing voice is also excellent. Sándor Gáspár, in the role of the Hamburg theater director, turns from a mediocre artist into a broken but morally irrepressible old man.

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Mephisto maintains the viewer's attention, the strong, resonant sentences require constant concentration - however, with the exception of perhaps one song, catharsis is lacking. According to the play, operettas are usually played in the theater in Hamburg, which, towards the end of the first act, fools both the imagined and the real audience with a joint, truly operetta-like insert. The lyrics come from the first version of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, literally the following passage: the right to Life and Liberty, and the right to the pursuit of Happiness. To secure these rights, Men establish Governments whose legal power rests on the consent of the governed. If at any time any form of Government shall become unfit for the execution of these purposes, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish such government, and to establish a new Government, founded on such principles, and organizing its power, as shall better protect their Safety, and promote their Happiness.” This is a bizarre but refreshing insert, in which the game of twists and contrasts flashes again. The silly melody and the lofty lyrics don't go together, yet they work together. On the way home, passing by the civilians occupying the Ludwig Museum, this is what is on our minds: the right to life and freedom.

Pathetic clown

The pronounced strengths of Róbert Alföldi's Mephistó are predictable but imaginative set and costume solutions. Höfgen's continuous transformation and disappearance can also be traced in the change of the Mephisto mask. While he first wears plain white face paint and a black costume as the diabolical character of Faust, in the second act, with a clever gag, Mephisto already appears in Heath Ledger's Joker face paint and a cricket suit, while having dinner with the Nazi general portrayed by Zsolt László. Stohl also plays on this, his facial expressions and accents are especially reminiscent of Ledger's figure. This is also one of the strong scenes of the otherwise two-and-a-half-hour performance: the corrupt Joker and the satanic Mephisto meet in a small, out-of-character actor who is able to betray even his friends because of his own ambitions."I'm just an actor," is the last sentence of the play, as if the constant tinkering with reality could be an excuse for servility. The Joker-Mephisto, leaning towards the field marshal, is not scary at all, rather he evokes pity and contempt. As he leaves the scene bowing, Höfgen feverishly wipes off his clown mask. However, purification is already impossible at this point.

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This is just theater

At the end of the play, Höfgen and Nicoletta, who have now become Nazis, the embodiment of the perfect German couple, celebrate their wedding in the company of their friends, accompanied by waving Heil Hitler. The Field Marshal-Prime Minister also pays his respects and even interprets the Führer's good wishes and presents a shiny skull on a silver tray as a wedding present, a copy of the famous contemporary English artist Damien Hirst's Diamond Skull. The tray refers to the biblical Salome story, while the skull shape itself suggests that Höfgen shines in the role of Hamlet at the Prussian National Theater after Mephisto. Just as the celebrated actress turns into a traitor with a foreign heart, the angelic wife turns into an emigrating whore, Höfgen turns into a Nazi cultural leader, and the rest of the play's characters become more or less a corpse, the play's Faustian lesson is clear that right and wrong are not always objectively measurable categories. The actor-turned-director will be tasked with cleaning the Prussian National Theater of foreign elements, putting it at the service of German culture, and in the meantime filling it with a German audience. Of course, this is said in the play, and the Hungarian audience sitting in the theater is silent, very silent.

The Third Empire, 18th-century American proto-democracy, famous elements of 21st-century contemporary culture, and a strong political point to make: as you might have guessed, Róbert Alföldi closed the last five years with influence. He made good theater, so it's only natural that the finale was also strong.

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