Zsófia Molnár: Phoenix
Maeterlinck Before and after the blue bird
In case of Maeterlinck the secrets of the universe and the human existence (and death) are in the deep. The surface is full of poetry and myth, because it is a minefield of artisan words and expressive symbols – from the point of view of stage it is for sure.
Maurice Maeterlinck’ (1862–1949) plays are pleasure to read, they are logical games, but it is not easy to direct them. It is not because of its ordinary tragedy from that – in a wider sense – we can find enough in his contemporaries, in Chekhov’s, Ibsen’s and Strindberg’s too, but while they usually hide secrets of families, in case of Maeterlinck the secrets of the universe and the human existence (and death) are in the deep. The surface is full of poetry and myth, because it is a minefield of artisan words and expressive symbols – from the point of view of stage it is for sure. „For him symbols are not pure sets, but deep sense of life”, as Antonin Artaud writes about him, and he summarizes the troubles of staging too. If we talk about the one-act plays of the 1890s (for example: The Blinds or The Uninvited Guest) and his marionette dramas (like Family Circle or The death of Tintagiles), we can explain their actions the most plastically with the help of Vladimir Jankelevitch’s philosophical term: I do not know what it is (je-ne-sais-quoi) and it is almost nothing (presque-rien). The texts are full of tension anyway, but we can read it not in the dialogues but in the authorial instructions. In other cases beside the atmosphere the elements of tales are over (The princes of Maleine, Pelléas and Mélisande, Alladine and Palomides and so on), which are as tricky as the “children poems” by Sándor Weöres.
Taking into consideration the whole dramatic career, it can be divided into three bigger parts. At the beginning the pictures tell more than the characters, in the middle part – where The Blue Bird, which was published in 1909, belongs too – the artistic set becomes a little bit fainter than the speech, in the third one, which is the longest too, the double optics predominate. In case of Maeterlinck the summary strangely began quiet early after the debut of 1898, in Aglavaine and Selysette (1896). We think about the fact that the introduced women characters, the “prototype” of Mélisande have started to repeat, multiply, more exactly become nuanced, which will appear in later plays too. The most exciting examples for it are Ariane and Bluebeard (1899), Sister Beatrice (1901) and later Princess Isabelle (1935) or Jeanne d’Arc (1943-45).
Some dates of performances can be interesting, as in case of Maeterlinck the keyword is that how these dramas of suppression or explicit philosophy can be put on stage: for Jeanne d’Arc we can find only one musical adaptation, surprisingly it was in 2006 (Claude-Henri Roquet, Théâtre du Nord-Ouest, Paris), the Isabelle has not been put on stage, however in both of them we can find an original spirit. The Ariane, as Pelléas too which was popular in its own time, in prose too, could thank a lot to the composers: the opera version of the earlier one (Paul Dukas) was directed by Olivier Py, who has led the Festival in Avignon for years, not a long time ago in Strasbourg (2015), the most interesting musical performance visually of the later one (Claude Debussy), can be connected to Robert Wilson (1997). In France Claude Régy has done a lot for Maeterlinck’s staging poetry (Family Circle, 1985, Paris and 2013, Japan; The death of Tintagiles, 1996, Paris, and in Canada Denis Marleau who found a perfect form for The Blinds (2006). Do not forget Christoph Marthaler who made a montage like Maeterlinck performance in Odéon in Paris in 2007. In Hungary The Blue Bird has been performed the most, once The Miracle of Saint Antony and Monna Vanna were popular (the prose and Emil Ábrányi’s opera are in turns) and sometimes Pelléas has appeared too. This list shows more or less the tendency in the world; to Maeterlinck’s plays directors with strong visual ideas could connect a strong formal language (Zoltán Balázs direction in 2005, his Pelléas and Sándor Zsótér’s The Blue Bird, which was not a youth play in Vígszínház) belong to here, or they work with the women characters that fulfil big dreams (the first wife of the writer, Georgette Leblanc kept the role of Mélisande for herself for a long time; in Hungary we can talk about Emília Márkus as Monna Vanna in 1902). But the connection of the two viewpoints can happen too, as Meyerhold in Saint Petersburg did it in 1906 in case of Sister Beatrice, the main role of it he gave to Vera Komisszarzsevszkaja, who was the diva of this time. She played the role in a composition of fine art, in a deep relief on stage.
The Blue Bird is a separate case. From dramaturgical point of view, it is a kind of getting away of mysterious symbolism: the dream is not an atmosphere any more, but it is a frame, the objects, water, the trees and other living things are not pure symbols, but they get sounds too. Somehow like this: „It is time for the poets to recognise: the symbol is good to show the truths which have already been accepted or which we cannot accept or unable to face up with; but when the moment comes, that we would like to reveal this truth, it is better if the symbols disappear.” Maeterlinck asks not only in silence the backstage of the past and future, birth and death, but brings the characters behind them – as well as the readers in his essays in parallel with his dramas. The eternal Mélisande-like figure cannot miss from the tale or (real) fairy tales: for a moment she appears in the character of the neighbouring little girl. It is important to say, because The Blue Bird has a less well-known pair play ten years later, Les Fiançailles (The Betrothal), where Tyltyl who is at the age of getting married has to find, more exactly has to recognise the true one, the mother of his future children. Bérylune the fair leads him over the steps of his initiation again, similarly to the stages of The Blue Bird, the Fate follows him, who cannot change the end of things, and he becomes smaller and smaller funnily by the end of his journey. It is predestination, the Fate can just bring together those six characters and the veiled, sculpture like faceless (because it is forgotten) figure, from whom Tyltyl does not have to choose as his future first born will do it for him. And who else can be under the veil than that girl who Tyltyl made happy back than with his bird, by name she is Majoie (My Happiness). We can see that the logger’s children and this form of stations would not leave Maeterlinck alone: the third, last part of this “cycle” which remained only in handwriting is from 1940 (and/or 1948), it title is La Nuit des enfants (The children’s night), and many familiar elements are there not only from The Blue Bird – the writer makes his thought clearer again. The children, Patrocle – who is said to be the grandchild of Tyltyl but can be found in Mélisande’s past too – and Jocelle – whose name rhymes strangely with the name of Joyzelle about whom Mélisande wrote in 1903 – the two of them follow again the fairs together, who show the road together too, Bérylune, is the hope, Bérénice brings rebellion, and now the searching for happiness get a universal meaning – it is not strange as the war was coming. The trees, games, clothes, the kitchen workers are rebelling around us, the birds are flying silently above us...Meanwhile we learn that growing up will be a painful process, the fear of death can be dispersed.
The motives of tales and tools can be found in all three parts of the “cycle”, it is surprising that almost everybody sees The Blue Bird as a youth play. It is a rare example in theatre history, that the premier can define so much the tradition of performance. Even if this exact first one, the premier in September in 1908 can be connected to the name of a theatrical person, who is Stanislavski, and it was not his first theatrical performance from Maeterlinck by the way. It was so successful that Paris got it from Moscow too, then in 1909 London did, then in 1910 New York went on this road too. The film versions also put sugar layer on the topic of recognition of the average happiness of everyday small things which are not childish at all.
Zsófai Molnár, szinhaz.net, 2019
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
In case of Maeterlinck the secrets of the universe and the human existence (and death) are in the deep. The surface is full of poetry and myth, because it is a minefield of artisan words and expressive symbols – from the point of view of stage it is for sure.
Maurice Maeterlinck’ (1862–1949) plays are pleasure to read, they are logical games, but it is not easy to direct them. It is not because of its ordinary tragedy from that – in a wider sense – we can find enough in his contemporaries, in Chekhov’s, Ibsen’s and Strindberg’s too, but while they usually hide secrets of families, in case of Maeterlinck the secrets of the universe and the human existence (and death) are in the deep. The surface is full of poetry and myth, because it is a minefield of artisan words and expressive symbols – from the point of view of stage it is for sure. „For him symbols are not pure sets, but deep sense of life”, as Antonin Artaud writes about him, and he summarizes the troubles of staging too. If we talk about the one-act plays of the 1890s (for example: The Blinds or The Uninvited Guest) and his marionette dramas (like Family Circle or The death of Tintagiles), we can explain their actions the most plastically with the help of Vladimir Jankelevitch’s philosophical term: I do not know what it is (je-ne-sais-quoi) and it is almost nothing (presque-rien). The texts are full of tension anyway, but we can read it not in the dialogues but in the authorial instructions. In other cases beside the atmosphere the elements of tales are over (The princes of Maleine, Pelléas and Mélisande, Alladine and Palomides and so on), which are as tricky as the “children poems” by Sándor Weöres.
Taking into consideration the whole dramatic career, it can be divided into three bigger parts. At the beginning the pictures tell more than the characters, in the middle part – where The Blue Bird, which was published in 1909, belongs too – the artistic set becomes a little bit fainter than the speech, in the third one, which is the longest too, the double optics predominate. In case of Maeterlinck the summary strangely began quiet early after the debut of 1898, in Aglavaine and Selysette (1896). We think about the fact that the introduced women characters, the “prototype” of Mélisande have started to repeat, multiply, more exactly become nuanced, which will appear in later plays too. The most exciting examples for it are Ariane and Bluebeard (1899), Sister Beatrice (1901) and later Princess Isabelle (1935) or Jeanne d’Arc (1943-45).
Some dates of performances can be interesting, as in case of Maeterlinck the keyword is that how these dramas of suppression or explicit philosophy can be put on stage: for Jeanne d’Arc we can find only one musical adaptation, surprisingly it was in 2006 (Claude-Henri Roquet, Théâtre du Nord-Ouest, Paris), the Isabelle has not been put on stage, however in both of them we can find an original spirit. The Ariane, as Pelléas too which was popular in its own time, in prose too, could thank a lot to the composers: the opera version of the earlier one (Paul Dukas) was directed by Olivier Py, who has led the Festival in Avignon for years, not a long time ago in Strasbourg (2015), the most interesting musical performance visually of the later one (Claude Debussy), can be connected to Robert Wilson (1997). In France Claude Régy has done a lot for Maeterlinck’s staging poetry (Family Circle, 1985, Paris and 2013, Japan; The death of Tintagiles, 1996, Paris, and in Canada Denis Marleau who found a perfect form for The Blinds (2006). Do not forget Christoph Marthaler who made a montage like Maeterlinck performance in Odéon in Paris in 2007. In Hungary The Blue Bird has been performed the most, once The Miracle of Saint Antony and Monna Vanna were popular (the prose and Emil Ábrányi’s opera are in turns) and sometimes Pelléas has appeared too. This list shows more or less the tendency in the world; to Maeterlinck’s plays directors with strong visual ideas could connect a strong formal language (Zoltán Balázs direction in 2005, his Pelléas and Sándor Zsótér’s The Blue Bird, which was not a youth play in Vígszínház) belong to here, or they work with the women characters that fulfil big dreams (the first wife of the writer, Georgette Leblanc kept the role of Mélisande for herself for a long time; in Hungary we can talk about Emília Márkus as Monna Vanna in 1902). But the connection of the two viewpoints can happen too, as Meyerhold in Saint Petersburg did it in 1906 in case of Sister Beatrice, the main role of it he gave to Vera Komisszarzsevszkaja, who was the diva of this time. She played the role in a composition of fine art, in a deep relief on stage.
The Blue Bird is a separate case. From dramaturgical point of view, it is a kind of getting away of mysterious symbolism: the dream is not an atmosphere any more, but it is a frame, the objects, water, the trees and other living things are not pure symbols, but they get sounds too. Somehow like this: „It is time for the poets to recognise: the symbol is good to show the truths which have already been accepted or which we cannot accept or unable to face up with; but when the moment comes, that we would like to reveal this truth, it is better if the symbols disappear.” Maeterlinck asks not only in silence the backstage of the past and future, birth and death, but brings the characters behind them – as well as the readers in his essays in parallel with his dramas. The eternal Mélisande-like figure cannot miss from the tale or (real) fairy tales: for a moment she appears in the character of the neighbouring little girl. It is important to say, because The Blue Bird has a less well-known pair play ten years later, Les Fiançailles (The Betrothal), where Tyltyl who is at the age of getting married has to find, more exactly has to recognise the true one, the mother of his future children. Bérylune the fair leads him over the steps of his initiation again, similarly to the stages of The Blue Bird, the Fate follows him, who cannot change the end of things, and he becomes smaller and smaller funnily by the end of his journey. It is predestination, the Fate can just bring together those six characters and the veiled, sculpture like faceless (because it is forgotten) figure, from whom Tyltyl does not have to choose as his future first born will do it for him. And who else can be under the veil than that girl who Tyltyl made happy back than with his bird, by name she is Majoie (My Happiness). We can see that the logger’s children and this form of stations would not leave Maeterlinck alone: the third, last part of this “cycle” which remained only in handwriting is from 1940 (and/or 1948), it title is La Nuit des enfants (The children’s night), and many familiar elements are there not only from The Blue Bird – the writer makes his thought clearer again. The children, Patrocle – who is said to be the grandchild of Tyltyl but can be found in Mélisande’s past too – and Jocelle – whose name rhymes strangely with the name of Joyzelle about whom Mélisande wrote in 1903 – the two of them follow again the fairs together, who show the road together too, Bérylune, is the hope, Bérénice brings rebellion, and now the searching for happiness get a universal meaning – it is not strange as the war was coming. The trees, games, clothes, the kitchen workers are rebelling around us, the birds are flying silently above us...Meanwhile we learn that growing up will be a painful process, the fear of death can be dispersed.
The motives of tales and tools can be found in all three parts of the “cycle”, it is surprising that almost everybody sees The Blue Bird as a youth play. It is a rare example in theatre history, that the premier can define so much the tradition of performance. Even if this exact first one, the premier in September in 1908 can be connected to the name of a theatrical person, who is Stanislavski, and it was not his first theatrical performance from Maeterlinck by the way. It was so successful that Paris got it from Moscow too, then in 1909 London did, then in 1910 New York went on this road too. The film versions also put sugar layer on the topic of recognition of the average happiness of everyday small things which are not childish at all.
Zsófai Molnár, szinhaz.net, 2019
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)