MEANINGFUL INTERFERENCES

A wonderful surprise welcomed the audience while entering the hall of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj-Napoca last night: an extended performance carried out simultaneously by different groups of young students of the Theatre School in Cluj. 

White shirts, black trousers and shoes, red lips for the female mimes and dark eyebrows and beard for the men, an alternation of standstill and dynamism, immobility and movement where the actors were both independent and linked to each other like an intelligent mechanism. The choreography created by one of the main actresses of the Hungarian Theater, Enikő Györgyjakab, was grabbing the attention of the audience. The presence of an accordion, the violin and at some point the actors voice made the atmosphere more welcoming. Their performance was already performed in different places of the city while preparing the 4th edition of the Interferences International Theatre Festival.

After this intriguing start, the audience was called to the Main Hall to take part in the official opening ceremony of the Festival. 

The artistic director, Gábor Tompa, presented the programme of Interferences in three different languages (Hungarian, Romanian and English), underlining that all the shows are linked by a central theme, a general and mysterious subject which this year is the Stories of The Body. 

Corporality, sexuality and mortality; the ephemeral life and the significance of the body in its ageing, relating to other bodies and dying. All of this seen from an existential and universal point of view which regards all of us as human beings. Also we can look at the body from the specific context of the theatrical art. Here, it is the main object of expression, a gift used to give life to an art form. 

Hence, the performance of the young actors in the hall was totally part of this story where the bodies are explored in their interconnections and life.  

After the introduction of the artistic director, one of the most interesting experiences of my life started, the play “An Enemy of The People”, Henrik Ibsen’s drama directed by Thomas Ostermeier. 

What is the plot about? 

It is the story of Mr. Stockmann, a doctor who discovers, after careful evaluation, that the water which supplies the public Baths and the surrounding territory is polluted by substances due to industrial effluence. Still, the Baths are the main source of economic prosperity for the town.  

This discovery unchains a feverish dramaturgic mechanism. Immediately Dr. Stockmann wants to publish a report to denounce the environmental disaster and the demands of the city council who is planning to re-route the water pipes. After initial promises of support, both by influential citizens and by local journalists, Stockman is progressively left alone in his fight for the citizens’ health, for honesty and transparency, for what he believes and it’s supposed to be, the “public good”. 

His brother Peter, who is also the mayor, questions the reliability of the research; raises doubts among his supporters; and most of all, tries to cover up the fact of the polluted water. He justifies his conviction by saying that the spa town will be threatened, that the tourism and economy will be killed and accuses his brother of betraying their hometown. 

In the explosive final act, after calling a public assembly to present his discovery, he actually finds himself accused of being a traitor to the civic good. Dr. Stockmann then starts a harangue which goes beyond the particular situation of the town, approaching instead the global condition of nowadays society. He furiously attacks the system and questions the widespread vision of democracy as the will of the majority, the economy itself which “isn’t in crisis, is The crisis”, the much debated austerity programs discussed at European level and even the traditional familiar nucleus on which society is grounded. 

When Dr. Stockmann finishes his speech saying that the “truth’s worst enemy is the bloody liberal majority”, his opponents stepped forward to take a show-of-hands vote among the audience by inviting them to take part in the debate. That was the very first time I assisted such an incredible event!

I could actually see active participation, and also how art, in our case theatre can involve everyday life of people and make them not only think over a crucial subject, but also let them express their ideas. As Michael Billington wrote, by doing this, director Thomas Ostermeier reveals the desire for radical change simmering under the surface of our well-ordered society. 

At the end of the play, Dr. Stockmann has been let in front of a choice; his father-in-law bought the shares of the Baths and offered him the possibility to find a solution, or rather compromise. There is not a clear end of the plot which stimulates even more reflection among the spectators. What is the public good? What is democracy? Is health less important than work and economic wellbeing?

I am so fascinated by this play not only because of the engaging talent of the Director and the actors, but also because, despite “An Enemy of the People” was written by Ibsen in 1882, it still approaches the problems and questions of “today” by directly pointing issues which keep being part of current individual, social and economic conflicts. For instance, I could not avoid thinking about similar unsolved situations in Italy, my country, like what has happened with the steel plant Ilva in Taranto, Puglia.

The conflicts, as I said, are contemporary: the acknowledgement of a tragedy, the act of concealing responsibility, the choice between a radical change and the impossibility, for the authorities and the society to embrace this change. Prophetically, various antinomies arise: health versus work, environment versus progress, and democracy versus what could be perhaps interpreted as a dictatorship of the majority.

The beginning of International Theatre Festival Interference could not have been more meaningful and linked to life with its contradictions.