Novi Sad Theatre, premiere 18th September 2024
Vaudeville – in the sense of farcical comedy – is rarely performed in Serbia, but there are notable exceptions. The famous A Flea in Her Ear by the master of the form Georges Feydeau, directed by Ljubiša Ristić at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, has been performed approximately 1,300 times over 53 years. Now audiences have the opportunity to see another Feydeau play, at Novi Sad Theatre / Újvidéki Színház with the one-act play Don’t Walk Around Stark Naked, which has been staged very rarely over the last few decades in state theatres, in a new production by Miloš Lolić.
Feydeau found the reality of his married life to be the most fruitful source of inspiration for his work. His wife, Marie-Anne, served as a prototype for his several female characters. Biographers have noted that Marie-Anne’s sharp-tongued remarks during marital arguments often made their way into Feydeau’s writing. At the centre of the play Don’t Walk Around Stark Naked is a bourgeois family. The husband is an incompetent, submissive politician who bases his position on connections. At the same time, his wife, strong, assertive, and somewhat headstrong, refuses to walk around the house dressed, which damages her husband’s reputation. She embarrasses him in front of the servants, political opponents, colleagues, a neighbour, a journalist, and even their child.
The playwright Periša Perišić used the translation by Heltai Jeno, a Hungarian author and poet, to preserve the Hungarian and local spirit of the performance text. The setting was relocated to Budapest: the wife dreams of going to Lake Balaton, and the journalist visiting them writes for a Novi Sad daily newspaper. The title of the play was amended with the exclamation Hey as a cry of desperation, a loss of patience, and a symbol of powerlessness through which the husband begs his wife to get dressed.
The original text has not been altered in any other significant way. So what can this text, written in 1911 in France, offer the creative team? Lolić has avoided modernizing the play by altering the text or changing the context and period. Instead he has sought to find what is universal and communicates equally with both the audience of the past and the present. The position of women provides the intersection of these two perspectives. All characters, both male and female, have a ‘shadow’ in the form of a male actor. While the character of the Wife, brilliantly portrayed by Emina Salai Elor, uses her voice, her shadow provides invisible support by holding the microphone, and props, and affirming her body language. The character of the Husband is played by Gabrijela Crnković, who silently mouths the lines, while her shadow, the excellent Arpad Mesaroš, provides the voice. This same principle applies to all male characters – their bodies are played by actresses, while their voices are provided by a depersonalized actor in a purple suit. This directorial approach is visually very effective and, if nothing else, entertaining. The women physically embody the male characters in a stylized, exaggerated manner, almost caricaturing them, while their shadows follow them. Crnković-Mesaroš excelled the most in this portrayal of two people, yet one body and one voice.
Hey, Don’t Walk Around Stark Naked, Novi Sad Theatre
The meaning of this approach can be interpreted in several ways. Perhaps the most obvious one is that women today are only physically present in our society; they have the right to hold positions like politicians, and journalists, but in reality, they do not have their voices heard in these roles. Their voices and decisions may be overshadowed by men. The director may be telling us to listen only to the authentic woman, who challenges authority, disagrees with her husband’s political maneouvering, and finally declines to comply with his demands since the Wife is the only one who has her voice. The woman’s physical presence with the voice of a man creates dissonance, and this can potentially question gender identity. Is our gender identity defined by our body or the tone of our voice?
The only character without a ‘shadow’ is a 13-year-old child (Eva Voštanić). The child is on the verge of puberty when gender roles are not yet fully established. Therefore, the child does not yet have a clear gender shadow. After all, the play is a comedy, and this approach contains a dose of humor, which might be explanation enough. The arrival of the Politician (Judit Laslo, voice Zoltan Širmer) and later the mix-up with the Journalist, whom the Wife mistakes for a doctor (Terezia Figura, voice Ištvan Kereši), creates comedic moments where the presence of the shadow leads to even more confusion and chaos on stage. It could be that none of this understanding is true, or that all of it could be true. The director does not provide a definitive answer, leaving room for various interpretations.
The set design, props, and the one-piece suits of the shadows are purple. Purple is a colour rarely used in theatre; it symbolizes wealth, power, ambition, and a spiritual state. It is a mix of red (love, lust) and blue (inspiration, wisdom, freedom), which aptly represents the two opposing principles of the Wife and Husband. Purple serves as a good counterpoint to the orange costumes. It’s also humorous that the costume covers more than it reveals of the main heroine, making the husband’s frustration even more comical. The performance begins and is accompanied by music on the violin (mesmerizing and witty Gabriela Benka). Visually, and at times sonically, Lolić’s production sometimes slips into repetition and fatigue.
In general, Feydeau’s play doesn’t seem to have much relevance to a contemporary context, and it may not have gained enough recognition to be considered part of the theatrical canon. The creative team brought much playfulness to the marital conflict within the limitations of the text and I applaud the theatrical boldness of the stage experiment with bodies and voices. It’s particularly bold that the meaning is not clearly defined, allowing the audience to leave feeling perplexed – as well as, crucially in the case of vaudeville, entertained.
Credits:
Drama: Žorž Fedo // Director and set design: Miloš Lolić // adaptation: Periša Perišić // Assistant director: Simo Đukić, Zoltan Puškaš // Costume design: Maria Marković
Cast: Livia Banka, Gabrijela Crnković, Emina Salai Elor, Terezia Figura, Judit Laslo, Ištvan Kereši, Arpad Mesaroš, Atila Nemet, Gabor Pongo. Zoltan Širmer, Eva Voštinić
For more information, visit: ujvideki.com
Divna Stojanov is a dramaturg and playwright. She writes mainly for children and young people.
