Roger Vitrac: Victor, or Power to the Children

2h with intermission

Victor, nine years old: ÁRON DIMÉNY

Charles Paumelle, Victor's father: ZSOLT BOGDÁN

Émilie Paumelle, Victor's mother: EMŐKE KATÓ

Lili, Paumelle's maid: CSILLA VARGA

Esther, six years old: CSILLA ALBERT

Antoine Magneau, Esther's father: ERVIN SZŰCS

Thérèse Magneau, Esther's mother: ANDREA VINDIS

Le général Louségur: JÓZSEF BIRÓ

Madame Ida Mortemart: ENIKŐ GYÖRGYJAKAB

Doctor, The mute lady, Maria, maid: LEVENTE MOLNÁR

 

Directed by SILVIU PURCĂRETE

Set and costume design: DRAGOŞ BUHAGIAR

Music composed by VASILE ŞIRLI

Musical consultant: KATALIN INCZE G.

Director's assistant: ISTVÁN ALBU

Set designer`s assistants: PETRE-TIBERIUS TRIFAN, VLADIMIR IUGANU

Stage manager: YVONNE NAGY

 

If we look at the cast of the play, it may seem that we are dealing with a boulevard play very common in contemporary Parisian theatres at that time. However, when we discover that the main hero, Victor, who is celebrating his ninth birthday, is five foot eleven inches tall, we start to suspect that we are being presented with something other than a realistic representation or imitation of bourgeois life. Already in the first scene there is a series of provocations as Victor manipulates the maid and breaks a valuable Sèvres vase. He also accuses her, saying that she provides sexual services for her employers. The illusion of bourgeois life and values falls into decay in minutes, and the image of this world is turned upside down. We are faced with a ruined world lacking values and where adults quote long passages from the Larousse Encyclopedia. They all speak at once and behave like children. We are not surprised that Victor plays at riding horses with General Louségur who was invited for dinner; that parents give vent to their sexual desires and cheat on each other in front of their children; that it's Ida, a lady who accidentally wanders off and breaks wind, who induces real emotions in Victor; that everybody becomes confused after her departure; that human behavior is unpredictable; and that the functioning of language contradicts the rules of the common wit. Everything suggests the trademark of surrealism: that life in fact is just a dream, a hallucination, hypnosis.