Fragments

We have been in Austria yesterday with Bence. We have seen a performance of Peter Brook. Three actors have shown on stage five small texts of Beckett. An amazing woman, and two good actors. Very simple, very short (about 50-55 minutes, which has pased so fast, that I haven't noticed), very accurate.
Almost no set (exept for the lighting, which they have used, and some small objects).
They started with a piece about a blind and a cripple. (Rough for Theatre I.) They both want something from each other, they try different methods to find somekind of relationship, they tease each other, they talk, one helps the other, the cripple even hits the blind. I could feel both of them are acting, and reciting the text in a way, which makes easy to recognize, that these are lines in theatre play, told by an actor.
But afterwards the woman (Kathryn Hunter) came on seen, and told the text of Rockaby. She was sitting in a chair almost all the time, sometimes she rocked, as if she was sitting in a rocking chair. Once she stood up, and did it with chair, as if someone else would sit in it, and rock with it. She was talking in a capturing way. Exact, dry and a littlebit sad sound. And from this point the performance started to wing it's way.
They have made loose game with the texts of Beckett. The last scene was a beatiful fusion of childishness and old age; three woman sitting on a banch, remembering of their young years, leaving and returning to the banch, one by one, and whispering about the one who left to each others ears. The original text (Come and Go) gives the instruction, that the one who leaves, should completly dissapear. In their version, she always walked a few meters away, and than stayed, showing her back, as children do, when they are the seekers and they count in the play hide and seek.

Budapest

The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - third part

The prince threw his hat in the direction, where he saw the bonfire and climbed down the tree, and started off in that way. He reached the edge of the forrest. There blazed the big fire, and twenty-four gaudy bandits sat around it. They were turning a buffalo on a skewer above the flames.
"Whatever comes to me, I need to go there." Said the prince. "I'll check who are these." He mustered his courage, and steped up to them. "Good evening!" He saluted them.
"For you aswell. What kind of fellow are you?" Asked one of them.
"Just like you." Replied the prince.
"If that's true, just take some of this meet." Came the answer. The prince couldn't do anything, he took his pocketknife, cut a piece of the meet and started to eat it, in a fine and classy way, just how it fits to a noble person. The eyes of the bandits met.
"Oh you are not at all like us. Look how it goes." And they threw big pieces of the buffalo-meet in their mouthes, as big as a chair. "Okay, if you figure out, what we have been lurking for in the neighbourhood for twenty-four years, you are going to be our cheaf."
"You have gave me an easy task." Replied the prince. "I know exactly, that you are lieing in a wait for burgle in the cellar of the duke, who lives nearby. The cellar is full of gold, but you never managed to enter, because from east there is cock and from west there is a dog guarding the gates of the cellar. When they notice you at the gates they allways start to make noise, and wake up the guards of the duke. But I know the solution for the problem."
"Hurrah, hurrah! You're our cheaf, lead us to the cellar." Cried the bandits, and they all started off. The prince brought one of the bones of the buffalo, and tied a little noose on it. When they have reached te eastern gate, and the cock started to crow, he threw the bone with the little noose on the neck of the cock, and they all run away. The dog has smelled the bone, and started search for source of the smell. When the dog found the cock with the bone in it's neck, it ate the whole animal. And the bandits had time to brake the lock of the eastern gate. They all went in, and when the dog had come after them, they shot it down in the cellar, so no one could hear the noise of the shot. They took away as many gold, as they could.
When they spent all the money they had robed, they decided to go back to the cellar. But the duke had put unbrakeable metal lock on the door, so they undid the wall next to the door. When they made the hole, an idea came into mind of the prince. "Listen, I'm the cheaf, I'll go first." He told them. "You come after me in the order as I call your names." He sliped through the hole, and called them one by one. And when a bandit came through the hole, he stood behind him, grabbed his hair, and cut his neck with his knife. He killed all the twenty-four bandits, and made a pile of them in the cellar. He took gold with him, and left the place. He didn't go back to the shady joint of the bandits, but he went to town.

Fourteenth note

I concluded reading yesterday Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus. I started to read it approximatly a year ago, but when I arrived to Vestjyllands, there was still a little part left from it (maybe 80 pages), and I tried to complete, but after some weeks I had to admit, I can hardly find time to read on that place. During the five months of the school I almost didn't read anything exept for the Odyssey.
So some days ago, I brought out the book again, and yesterday I came to the end. I cried after the last page. It is sad to become lonely beacause of your art. The main character had done the reverse of Giacommeti's saying, he had rather chose art than life.

The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - second part

There was somewhere a black world. And in the black world lived another king. No single woman wanted to marry this king, because anyone who tried, was murdered by him.
They were saying about him, that he is so pagan, that he would let Sun's blood effuse, if it would go with him to the altar. But the king could't stand that he had to fast in love. So he took on one hundred merchants, to go from village to village and from town to town and buy him a wife. They travelled with pouches full of gold and cried in each town: "We are buying women, cripples, lames, blind ones." But there was no single soul, who wanted to put his daughter or wife up for sale.
Until they have reached the town, where the king and queen lived, who have employed the turkey-herd woman. As the king have heard the criing of the merchants, he called for his wife. "Hey come, and listen to what these men are shouting, let's sell them the dughter of the turkey-herd woman, so she will get so far, that she will be never able to come back home." So they called in to the palace one of the merchants, and told to him: " We have a girl for sale, but we only sell it to you, if you promise you take her so far away, that she will never find her way back home." "Oh have no fear about that." Answered the merchant. They brought to him the girl, who was shining from beauty, but the merchant even didn't throw a glance at her. He put her in a dog-box, so she will not be able to recognize the way the are going.
When the pagan king so her, he immadietly fall in love with her. And he had locked her in room, under the eye of guards, until he prepares their wedding.
When the merchants have took the girl with them, the king in the white world made a copy of her of gypsum, and made a funeral for her.
When their son finnished his studies in Germany, he came back home, and asked about his mate from his child-hood. His parents told him, that she had died, and they have buried her. The boy didn't want to beleive it. "It's not true!" He mumbled. "It's not true!" He started to run the streets, and kept asking the people passing by, if it was true, that the daughter of the turkey-herd woman has died. He went to the graveyard, and asked after the grave of the girl. When he saw the name of the girl on the headstone, he cried, he sobed but he couldn't do anything, he had to take in, that he can not do anything, no one can resuscitate dead people, expect for God. So he went home.
At home he had fallen into melancholy. He sat for days wordlessly, with tears in his eyes, he was wringing his hands, he was thinking, and he didn't receive any food. He was mourning for his mate. His lips became like the lips of a rabbit, and he became so week, that he started to shiver every now and than.
The king almost became mad of worry. He asked his wife, what he should do. "Take him on a hunt. Go to the forrest, bring all dukes with you, and bring him aswell. Shoot on deers and wild-boars. Maybe he will forget his sorrowful thoughts."
They announced the hunt. It would have been a big shame for the prince, if he hadn't gone with them. He took a gun, and went to the stable to choose a fine horse.
They rode to the forrest. Others told him to follow a path, and they will chase the beasts towards him, so he only have to shoot them. He conceded, and the hunting started. The blew the horns, beated the drums, span the clappers, screeched, shouted, cluncked.
The prince started to ride on the path, and a little later there came a little hare, and stood right in front of him. He took his gun the shoot it, but the hare tilted his tail, in way that seemed, as if it was asking for mercy. The prince let down his gun. "Nope will I hurt it, it is a bland hare. I will rather go to it, and capture it live!" He got off his horse, and tried to catch the hare. But the hare sprang on. He tried again, but the hare sprang a litlle further again. He was chasing the hare into the middle of the bushy forrest. He thought, that he will manage better if he can use both hands, so he tied his horse to a tree, and left his gun there, and followed the hare into the scrub. And the hare kept spranging in front of him. Once, when he tried to catch it, the hare sprang one much bigger than before, and disappeared. The prince didn't see it anywhere. And he didn't even know, where he was. He realized, that he got lost, and it became dark. "Oh my God, where am I? Where should I go? What shall I do?" After puzzleing his brain, he decided, that he will climb on a high tree, so that he will be able to see, if there is light coming from somewhere. He did so, and somewhere in the far distance he saw a bonfire.

The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - first part

We are making a performance of a Transylvanian Gipsy folk tale with the ensemble of Föld Theatre. The title is Wise of the World. To collect material to our performance I am reading other Gipsy stories, they are amazingly beatiful.
There is one, with an enthralling description of a love relationship which goes through on abundance of tribulations.
The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman
There was once a very wealthy king and a queen, who had no child. So they had take on someone to take care of their poultry. They employed a turkey-herd woman. After several years she became pregnant, and at the same time the queen became pregnant aswell. They have given birth to their babies on the same day. Both babies, the daughter of the turkey-herd woman and son of the king and queen were beatifully shining, and the entire white world (= the world where humans live) was shining from their beauty, when the parents were holding up them, to show them to the sun.
When they became six , and they had to go to school, the king has decided, that since the girl has born in the court, so it is his duty to pay her education, they will go to the same school.
They went to school each morning together, hand in hand, and the young prince thought that the girl is his sister.
Once, when they were fourteen years old their classmates told to the boy: "This girls is not your sister, she is the daughter of the turkey-herd woman, and you are the son of the king.
The boy didn't want to beleive, what they were saying, he went home, and asked his dad, if the girl was his sister or not. The king told him the truth.
The boy mused on what he had heard. And he decided, if the girl is not his sister, she will be her wife. And on the next day, when they were coming home from the school he nipped the girl, and another day he stroked her. The girl didn't counter the approaching of the boy. They matched to each other more and more, so much that in secret they started to make love to each other.
But one day the king has noticed from his window what the youngsters are doing, he called for his wife.
"Don't you notice something on these two kids"
"Not at all, they're playing, and going to school together."
"Mind, what I'm saying to you; some day we are going the have a big scandal, that God gave a child to this girl."
So the queen ambushed them again, and when she realized, that they are kissing and petting each other; she deliberated with her husband over what shall they do. They can not permit their son to marry a girl with a poor background. They decided that when the prince will finnish the elementary school, they will send him to study in Germany, so he forgets the girl.
The prince obeyed his parents will. They made him a passport, and escorted him to the trainstation.
The boy was not even on half way of the journey, when he took his golden pen, and started to write a letter on paper, white as the snow. My true love, thanks for God, I'm fine. I'm here and here. I love you very much."
But it was the king, who found the envelope on the gate-post. He became angry and burned it in the fireplace. And when the boy has arrived to the school, his first thought was the girl, so he wrote to her again. But the king received it again.

Changing view from the window of the room, where you have stayed

Music

When I stayed at Esther's appartment in Copenhagen, for a I while we shared the hospitality of her with Olga's brother, Mateusz and his friend. One evening we went biking with Mateusz, from Nørreport, all the way down to the statue of the Little Mermaid. In a street near Nyhavn we met with a music band, playing on violin, accordion, saxofon very cheerful music. We decelarated the speed of our bikes, to listen to them. They were walking by a wedding couple, and playing music for them. As I figured out later, just for fun, beacuse they were walking towards a pub, where they were going to play on that evening. As we slowed down by them to their speed, one of them crossed the street, and walked by us, and invited us to this pub. We went in and listened to them. Great music, reminds me a lot klezmer, and the guy told as later, yes, it is mixture of swedish folk music and klezmer. Unfortunatly we couldn't stay there for long, because, Olga was waiting for us (originally we went just for a fifteen minutes ride), and we didn't have any money with us to drink something in the pub (for the same reason). After the first unit of the music, we were leaving. The guy, who invited us, came to our table, and we had a little chat. He was really kind. The name of the band is Räfven, he gave us a call-card. Some weeks ago I checked their website, and I found a part on it, where you can order their CD, I thought I'll try, maybe it is possible from abroad aswell. It says you pay the price for the CD, when it arrives. Well, they have sent me their CD, without any fee, I didn't had to pay for the postman. I guess it is a present from them. I'm very pleased by their kindness.

Thirteenth note

I have heard an interesting saying of Giacometti, the sculptor. They were qouting him in an old French film: One man and one woman.

"If I had to choose, what to save from a fire, a man, or a Rembrandt painting, I would choose the man." And the man qouting him in the film, commented: "He would rather choose life, than art."
Great! I hope it is true, that Giacometti said so, and it is not only the invention of the author of the sreenplay .

Twelfth note

We have performed on Sunday and yesterday, the new version of Round Cabbage at Sirály. Tonight we will do it again. We play the bottle game, we pose questions to the audience. Afterwords we try to build in to the scenes what they tell us. It is really really hard. And the solutions what we found were mostly verbal, exept for one thing. We ask for qualities of another person (the question is: What makes you fall in love with someone else?), and we pick small objects from a bag (for example: a shaver, a matchbox, a little plastic toy figure, a bottle cork, tissues) which we associate with the qualities what the audience tells.
It is interesting to experience how difficult it is to react right in the moment. It is good education for being present. But I don't think this is the best solution for presence and reality on stage. It reminds me more a very planed trick of a magician. The spontaneity is an effect just, which enchants the audience.

You have started your course yesterday in Nepal. I really wonder how it goes. And what you will think afterwords.
I understand very well, what you have wrote to me in the comment; travelling with a friend can be easier, and maybe gives more freedom, than travelling alone.