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absurdity, if the world cannot be redeemed, either by wickedness or by goodness. The evil and the fear from evil are closely connected in his life. The depth of this human state, often referring to Shakespeare, has been stated by Sörén Kierkegaard when he has spoken about crime as desperation, but this desperation does not stay on a low level, but strives toward maximum. The real crime is not the totality of criminal deeds, but the result of »staying within the crime«. The desperation which causes this, is more fruitful, than the common one which is only of transitive character and remains in Christian cosmology. »To remain in crime is much worse, than the isolated crimes, because it is the crime itself« - wrote the famous Danish philosopher. In the Christian cosmology, the crime loses its magical and demonical character, as it can always count with forgiveness. The real danger of remaining in crime has been passionately described by Saint Augustin, and he has written that the poor soul is the one who »does not aspire to reach something by disgrace, but the desires the disgrace itself«. It is not the most shocking in Ristić’s interpretation of Richard’s world that he has reached something by disgrace, but he has had the strength to long for disgrace. But at the same time, thanks to his fearful self-knowledge, he knows that there is no forgiveness. He

RIČARD 111/PHOTO RADOVAN BELESLIN

knows that every deed has its weight, and no deed can be effeceable. Therefore the conflict of the freedom and belief meets in his life. This (very up-to-date) conflict has been revealed by Kierkegaard, as he sees the true contrast of the belief in crime. The one who does believe, will start the way of crime. The believer can commit crime, but he will not be on the way of crime. The spirit of Ristić’s performance puts the possibilities of modern tragedy, the basis of Shakespeare’s interpretation, into the contrast of belief and crime. Shakespeare’s world imagined in this way, looks at our age. Otherwise, the performance does not contain any forced modernization, the allegorical costumes do not refer directly to any time. They are a little modified, and do not exactly represent the epoch, still, they refer to

Shakespeare’s age. The stage-space, the Palié promenade, the natural surroundings even more neutralize the reference to a specific period. Yet, the directing conception reveals expressively contemporary meanings. The reason is, that Richard is much more ambivalent than being an evil only. He suffers his lot, and fears from belief too. There are ruins around him, the evidences of this own destruction, but these evidences are not enough fot the discovery of a firm point in himself. His tragedy is that he can never be perfectly evil, he will never find the absolute, instead of the belief. The way of crime is endless. The performance of Richard HI in Subotica ends with a strange symbol. The great battle with Richmond is left out. The Richard of this performance would get rid of parts of the punishment if the were defeated on the battlefield. Instead, Richmond steps out from the dazzling light-world of the Globe theatre, and he leads the horse for whish Richard has begged. Richmond, dressed in white costume is the knight, symbolizing the mysterious liberator. He says only a few words. Richard cries out his famous sentence again: »A horse! My kingdom for a horse!« Richmond offers it to him. Who has won, and who has lost? Who will go, which way? Richard has shown the fight of the Good and the Evil in the performance. Only that the Good and

the Evil as in myths, meet in a complicated way. In fact, Richard has lost, because the Good has deprived him from freedom. The Good has strength for that. The question is, who know's whether he will have strength for freedom. In this age, all the powers acknowledge freedom too much, therefore he could not realize it. The Richmond of the performance is a distant vision, like a utopian promise. Richmond cannot tell more. □ László Végei

RIČARD 111/PHOTO RADOVAN BÉLÉSŰN

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