|     Pavol Palkovic  |  Homepage  | 

THEATRE IN SLOVAKIA: SAM SHEPARD'S "FOOL FOR LOVE "

Lecture by Professor Pavol Palkovic
at the University of Pittsburgh Thursday, 3 September 1998
113 Cathedral of Learning, The Czecho-Slovak Nationality Classroom

Sam Shepard's plays have been performed in Slovakia only in the past few years. In order to understand their impact, I will first give a brief review of contemporary Slovak theatre activity. At the end of my comments, I hope you will have questions for discussion. 

The Slovak professional repertory theatre is relatively young. It could only be founded under the conditions which brought about the rise of the Czechoslovak Republic out of the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy after World War I. The first Slovak professional theatre was the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava (the capitol of Slovakia). This theatre was established in the year 1920. In the '40s, other professional groups were founded and by the early '50s, a network of Slovak professional theatres had been established. Of course, after the Tender Revolution in 1989, additional professional, semi-professional or studio groups, also emerged. 

Presently the network of Slovak professional repertory theatres belongs to the most numerous and most active in Europe. There are about 30 active repertory theatres in Slovakia, serving about five million citizens, including three theatres serving the National Minorities (2 Hungarian in Kornarno, South Slovakia - and Kósice, Eastern Slovakia; and Ukrainian - in Prešov, Eastern Slovakia). There is also a Gypsy theatre group (Kósice) which is the only one in Middle Europe. In the capital of the Slovak Republic - Bratislava - there are at least thirteen ensembles of all categories and genres which play their regular repertoire. We have here opera, ballet, dramatic theatres, theatre for children, puppet theatre, classic theatre, as well as avant-garde studios. There is even pantomime led by the famous European mime Milan Shádek. 

Shádek emigrated to Western Europe at the beginning of the '70s when he couldn't continue in his work in Bratislava on the stage of the Slovak National Theatre. He founded a pantomime theatre and a pantomime training school in Koln, Germany. He returned home and for the last 2-3 years he has renewed a memorial theatre building, the Arena, in the suburbs of Bratislava, changing it to a pantomime theatre and a center for all genres of the current theatre movement. Besides the professional theatres, hundreds and hundreds of amateur theatre ensembles work in Slovakia. He organizes here every year an international Festival of Theatre of Movement. All of the professional theatres are given money by the Slovak government, except two: the Sewer (Stoka) Theatre in Bratislava and the Radosina Naive Theatre, also in Bratislava. Of course, the level of government support is not sufficient. Managements of the theatres must find additional sources of income, more than ever before. 

After a difficult start in the pre-war period, professional theatres in Slovakia gained noteworthy results. The level of dramatic production (especially of the Slovak National Theatre in the '60s and the '70s) was at least comparable to other outstanding European theatres. The quality of their work was confirmed on tours to Moscow and to cities in Western Europe. A special success was Tchekov's The Seagull, produced by the Slovak National Theatre (directed by Jozef Budsky) in Stanislavsky's Moskowar (Moscow Art Theatre) in the '60s. Nowadays, all artistic work, especially theatre and film, is under pressure of the market economy. This fact must exert certain negative influences upon quantity, and mainly the quality of contemporary theatrical works. But still the productions with serious aesthetic ambitions have clear superiority above the commercial ones. 

In the development of the Slovak professional theatre and in theatrical culture, one cannot neglect to notice the merits of  Academy of  Dramatic Arts,  Music  and Dance in Bratislava (founded in 1949) in the education of the young theatre practitioners, historians and theorists of the drama and theatre, as well as critics. 

The science research of the Slovak Drama and Theatre in European and world contexts is concentrated in the Department of Theatrologie in the Academy of Dramatic Arts, Music, and Dance and in the Department of Theatre and Film of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. This Department issues a scientific quarterly called "Slovak Theatre." 

The Slovak National Centre in Bratislava has always monitored the documentation of all events referring to Slovak theatrical life and culture, both at home and abroad. It records the current activities in Slovak professional theatre and issues year-books with all dates, referring to all events in all Slovak professional theatres during each season, and also produces a current monthly journal, Teatro. Very important is its activity in the field of publishing original and translated plays (classical and contemporary) and professional literature on theory, history and criticism of Slovak, European, and World drama and theatre. From the latest books published by the Slovak National Centre, I'd like to introduce an important work Symbolistic Theatre by Francis Deak, the famous professor of theatre at the University of California at San Diego, a Slovak who graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts, Music and Dance in Bratislava. A young generation of critics has found their own place in the journal, Among Times (Medzicas). 

American dramatists contributed to the growth in quality of the Slovak professional theatre. It is interesting to note that the plays of American authors were relatively frequent in the repertoire of Slovak theatres, even during the times of strong socialist censorship in the '70s and '80s. The interesting questions is, 'How could this be possible?' The leaders of theatre groups justified the introduction of American and other Western plays in their repertoire on the basis that they represented a criticism of the Capitalist regime and its morality. The advantage, especially of American literature and drama, was its grounding in realistic traditions. Slovak literature and drama, especially, were similarly grounded. The other advantage was that the American dramatic heroes were strong, integrated, complex characters. Our Slovak actors and actresses were grateful to have such strong character roles to perform, because those roles allowed them the opportunity to develop their excellent skills in dramatic interpretation and creation. For these two reason, the stages performances of American plays belonged to the best in modern history of Slovak professional theatrical works. And these productions helped raise the aesthetic level of our Slovak professional theatre. It would be a long list of American playwrights and titles that have been produced on the Slovak professional stage, from Eugene O'Neill through Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Arthur Miller up to Sam Shepard.

Sam Shepard, now the premier American dramatist, was discovered by the Slovak professional theatre in the '90s. Before he was known as a film actor. The production that began our growing interest in his work was the production of his play Fool for Love in the dramatic theatre of Jozef Gregor-Tajovsky in Zvolen (Middle Slovakia) premiering on December 3rd, 1993. 

The following productions were premiered in 1996: A Lie of the Mind at the New Scene in Bratislava and True West (under the changed name Western as Gun) at the Studio Theatre (A. H. Theatre), also in Bratislava. "Literary Agency" issued Burial Child in 1990. This is a very little part of the rich and enlarged work of Sam Shepard, too little for penetrating into the depth of the playwright's visions and the variety of forms their expression takes. That handicap had to reflect in the level of all productions in the sense of simplifying Shepard's script on the stage. From the trinity of productions premiered, relatively speaking, the best seemed to be the interpretation of the play Fool for Love in Zvolen '94. 

In spite of this, the theatrical practitioners were ahead of the theorists and critics. We have still not addressed the serious analysis of Shepard's plays by our essayists. But the situation begins to change also in this field. One of such serious tests seems to be the essay of my doctoral student Juraj Sebesta who, after a one year Fulbright scholarship in the U.S.A., accomplished diploma work on Sam Shepard the dramatist. A part of this paper was published in the quarterly, "Slovak Theatre" (Vol. 48/1998, n. 1, p. 3-20) under the title "Sam Shepard's Family Drama" (this issue of "Slovak Theatre" I have on me). 

During my study-stay in the USA in 1985, 1 had the chance to see the production of Shepard's play Fool for Love on Broadway in July. This play was originally premiered on February 8th, 1983 at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, and was directed by the author himself. In May of that year, the production was moved to New York City where it was presented by the Circle Repertory Company, still with Sam Shepard directing and maintaining the premiere cast (which included Kathy Baker, Ed Harris, Dennis Ludlow and Will Marchetti). Fool for Love was awarded an Obie that year for the best new American play. 

The performance impressed me deeply. It was a high-point in my life in my experience of theatre productions. Of course,  my purpose here is not to analyze in detail the value of his play and interpretation in its New York production. This task was done by contemporary American critics. In this talk I will refer to some of the ideas of these critics. In any case, the occasion of seeing both productions -- American and Slovak -inspired me to the comparison, the one with the other, not to the valuation. 

Shepard's style demonstrates that realism, as a method, is open enough to receive to influences of other modern styles like naturalism, expressionism, symbolism, and dramatic work absurdity.  It is hard to name and define "realism" as it appears in Shepard's plays. Zinman, T.S. calls it Super-Realism (Zinman, T.S.: "Sam Shepard and Super-Realism". In Modern Drama, vol. xxix, n. 3/1986, pp. 423-43). In my opinion, Shepard's style of many forms and colors, musicality and imagination is closely related to the "magic realism" of the Latin American authors (e.g., Marquez). Let me quote David J. De Rose (Theatre Review, Feb 9, '83): "Realism [in Fool for Love) is mixed with ritual in a tightly-knit plot where past and present, truth and illusion, slash with irresistible force." Further on, De Rose again comments, "Shepard's script encourages a bigger-than-life style and this premiere production supplies it." 

Sam Shepard was born and raised in the American mid-west. His roots are embedded in the culture, moral values, and social traditions which have been idealized into a myth of the American West. Dealing with this myth from his current, present-day perspective, he sees that the phenomenon of these traditions is in a state of decay and agony. In his plays he de-mythicizes the image of traditional relationships among people. 

Shepard puts the essence of the plot in the hearts and actions of the heroes with the four walls of the stage setting. Again, in the words of De Rose, "Shepard's physical staging, his use of the room as a huge drum off of which characters bounce their emotions; the dangerous presence of guns, ropes, and spurs are all master-strokes of playwriting and direction." We see that the decay of the traditional Western family in the background corresponds to the love-hate relationship of the lovers. Their relationship is based on violent sexual instincts, even of an incestuous nature. These two facts limit their feelings and desires within air-tight walls. Such love h'as no positive solutions and can bring the characters nothing but endless suffering.

This type of irrational violent love-hate relationship, based on man's lowest instincts, is a universal phenomenon which may be used as a bridge for transferring the plot of the play from the original time and space to another, from one culture and tradition  to another. But in Shepard's works, mainly in his plays Love for Love and A Lie of the Mind respectively, there is another motive which is of the same nature. That is the inclination of male heroes to escape from the truth of reality to the world of illusions about themselves and even - in their relations to women - to feel themselves great unresisted winners. This feature of a man's nature may also be in a social sense more dangerous than the first. It's interesting that in Fool for Love, it is just May who pulls down Eddie and her Father from the clouds of illusions, to the hard earth of reality.

 We don't know exactly who Frank, May, Eddie, Martin and the Old Man really are because each one's version of the story is different, paraphrasing Frank Rich from his article in the The New York Times of May 27, 1983. In this way, the author has left room for a variety of interpretations. So now we see that Shepard's manuscript is opened not only towards the other modern unrealistic styles mentioned above, but it is also open to a variety of possible interpretations by theatre ensembles, directors and other creators, including the spectators -- even in quite different social and cultural territories or geographical continents.

The Slovak performance of Fool for Love, directed by Lubomir Majera in the Theatre of Jozef Gregor Tajovsky, gave convincing proof of such openness. To begin with, I must stress the personality of the director, his origins, and his experience. Lubomir Majera, a member of the Slovak National minority in the former Yugoslavia, graduated  from the Academy of Arts and Dance in Bratislava. But, he was born and still lives in Yugoslavia. He experienced the terror of the Yugoslavian civil war, which began in 1991. This life experience influenced his attitude toward the contemporary world and toward the mission of art -- especially theatrical art. Majera, as a director in residence in Zvolen, cooperating with other Slovak theatres, represented his notions first, in the choice of plays which corresponded to his conceptions. Shepard's Fool for Love belonged to this category and secondly, he asserted his life experiences through his interpretation of the Shepard play. 

Shepard de-mythicizes the traditional forms of life called 'true west' which is in a state of decay. Majera, on the contrary, is thinking all the time of a quite different myth which is vivid, aggressively growing, and very dangerous for larger communities such as  families in many countries in Europe -- not only in Yugoslavia and the Balkan countries. This myth calls Nationalism as the only and almighty means of resolving all problems: national, political, social, racial, religious, etc. 

Of course the director Majera also stressed the love-hate relationship between May and Eddie, and he represented it with an unusual roughness. Here I must acknowledge that the acting of the Slovak troupe was not as dramatically striking and equalizing as that of Shepard's actors. I refer especially to the acting within echo-sounding walls, which Frank Rich compared to "an indoor rodeo." But Majera didn't close his characters within walls. On the contrary, as Shepard, he enveloped the story on an opened stage on which only a bed, some chairs and a light from reflectors round the stage helped the actors and actress to fill out the characters of the heroes, to play around the relationships, especially between the two lovers, and to provoke the atmosphere of tension and mystery. (The set design was projected by the director himself) Majera wanted to indicate that the wildness and irrationalism of low instincts can exceed all limits and break down the relationships and the futures of not only individuals and families, but also larger communities. Not by chance, L. Majera understood Shepard's play (I quote his words from the Stagebill), as "a story about love and passion, grief and hate, a story of all of us." 

The important difference between Shepard's and Majera's stage interpretation of the script lies mainly in the conception of the Old Man. In Shepard's production, the Old Man was placed on the right fore-front of the stage, in the dark. He emerged from the darkness only when speaking his part. In the S!ovak production, the Old Man moved around the stage as an inseparable part of the memory, consciousness and destiny of the young couple. The fatal connection between the supposed Father and his children, between the old and young generation, is accentuated also by this means. 

David J. Rose, in his article on Shepard's production of Fool for Love, quoted Jacques Levy, who once said of Shepard's work, "Sam is more interested in doing something to audiences than in saying something to them." "Fool for Love certainly falls within the boundaries of that intention," adds David J. Rose. On the contrary, Majera's ambition is just to say something to the audience. By demonstrating all this suffering which comes from the destructive power of irrational and uncontrolled instincts of human  nature, and of escaping both men from the objective reality, Majera tries to articulate an appeal toward good will, noble-minded feelings, and even sane intellect of the audience. The open scene connects the stage and the audience into one unit of dramatic discourse by means of lightening the parts of the audience.

 I must confess, that not all ambitions and notions were realized in this Slovak production. To the best parts of the performance belonged the acting of Andrej Mojžiš the role of the Old Man. His movement around the stage and his narrative skills helped to convey the idea of blurring the border between real and unreal, past and present, and to unite all elements in one time and space - which is the time and space of the actor as well as that of the spectator. 

The shadows of the productions are connected with the actors and the acting of the couple in love. The dominating role of a huge Eddie, which was performed by Karol Šimon, and a subordinate position of May, acted by a slim actress, conveyed this concept.

Jana Hubinská doesn't go together with the spirit of Shepard's script. There were other aspects of the performance which were debatable. But the audience accepted the production with sincere interest and comprehension. 

In conclusion, I have tried to demonstrate the inspiring quality of Shepard's play Fool for Love in contrasting American and Slovak productions respectively, which I hope may have been interesting for my American colleagues. Thank you.