Attila Beres, director of the musical “Rebeca“: “Acting Plus Mathematics Equals Directing”

The stage director Attila Beres staged at the National Operetta Theatre “Ion Dacian“ in Bucharest the performance “Rebecca“, to be premiered on 7 Mai. We talked with the Hungarian director about who was Rebecca and what she's doing on the stage of the Operetta.

Was your way to theatre direction short or long?
It included several stages: I graduated Mathematics in Cluj, then acting in Târgu Mureș, after which I went to Budapest where I studied directing.

Do you have an equation of these three factors?
Yes. Acting plus mathematics equals directing.

Was it just as mathematically that you became and actor?
Not at all. I wanted to become an actor after seeing Romanian theatre, which has a fantastic level. And this comes from me, who has seen some theatre in this life. I know precisely when I had the “switch”. It was in 1992, when I saw “Richard III” with Marcel Iureș. I was dumbfounded after seeing it and I told myself: “I want to become an actor like Marcel Iureș.”

Did you never fancy the idea before?
Yes, I did in the '80s when I saw “The Threepenny Opera” at the Arts University in Târgu Mureș, at the Romanian section. I told myself at the time: “I want to be Macheath.”

Still, we have our best performances at the Hungarian Theatre in Cluj. True, with Romanian directors.
Yes, because the company there has been on the same track for 20-25 years. (I was among the extras at the Hungarian Theatre in Cluj and Tompa Gabor, the director of the theatre is a neighbour of mine.) Let us not forget that they're also following the Romanian school of theatre.

For how long were you an actor?
For half an year at the National Theatre in Târgu Mureș.

So you never got to interpret neither Macheath nor Richard III.
I haven't, but I did direct “The Threepenny Opera”.

So that was your retaliation.
Exactly.

And how did you become a director?
When I was an actor, a director from Budapest came to our theatre and I liked so much what she did that I wanted to do the same.

So direction “had”  Marcel Iureș.
I guess you may say that, yes.

You are now staging “Rebecca” at the National Operetta Theatre in Bucharest, after having staged in Budapest another musical created by the couple Michael Kunze - librettist and Sylvester Levay - composer. When saying “Rebbeca”, audiences everywhere would first think of the love novel written by Daphne du Maurier and then of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller with Laurence Olivier as lead. In your staging, you followed more into Hitchcock's steps or in those of the British novelist?
From my perspective, the thriller is more interesting. However passionate, the love story only upkeeps the suspense. So I have to admit that we are rather into Hitchcock's steps. With the lady who wrote the novel love came first, while I'm more interested in the way Hitchcock “read” the book. His “reading” was truly brilliant. Hitchcock raised the level of the story greatly, because, let us be honest, Daphne du Maurier was never Dostoevsky.

But Hitchcock is Hitchcock...
Exactly. And he gives a completely different perspective to the story.

How is the film different from the novel in your view?
First of all, Max de Winter, the one who was married to Rebecca, moves quite subtly to the centre of the plot. His entire life is haunted by his former wife. He is the prisoner of this relation. He can't get out of it. For the audience's sake he made up a sort of a happy ending where he suggests that with his new wife he'll manage to break away from Rebecca, but I think that all his life he'll be not so much Rebecca's prisoner but the prisoner of his own consciousness.

His life spins around three women: his late wife, his actual wife and the maid who was nurturing an insane love for her former master. Is Max de Winter a weak man, lead by women?
If you will follow Michael Kunze's text, you will see that he wasn't weak at all, on the contrary, I'd say. When his father was on his death bed he had made a promise. In the novel, this idea is dismissed in three lines, but in our performance this becomes an entire scene. He swore not to destroy the family's honour. And, because of it, he was so keen on saving his marriage. When a man promises something to his father, in my view, as I love my father and am grateful to him for being what I am and because I owe to him all I know, that man will keep his promise, at the cost of his own life. This is why I am saying that Max is actually a very strong person. Because he never broke his promise to his father, despite the fact that his life with Rebecca had become hell.

How mush theatre and how much musical is there in “Rebecca”?
This performance is not a simple musical. Okay, sure it is a a musical from a point of view because there's singing in it. But in my view, this is a theatre performance. I for one do not differentiate between theatre with music and theatre without music and prose theatre. I believe that there are only two types of theatre: bad theatre and good theatre.

Still, you have to admit that it often happens that in musical performances theatre is left behind music. Will your performance satisfy both theatre spectators and those who come for the music?
I graduated theatre directing, not musical theatre directing. For the nine years since I've been directing I staged many performances on music, but they're not even a quarter of everything that I staged on a whole. I was more active in the so-called “prose” theatre. I want everyone to be satisfied, both those who come for the theatre and those looking for good music. But I certainly hope that it won't be such a clear differentiation between them. I'm first of all looking for the story, the characters, the relationship between them, so I may say that I am looking for the theatre. It is clear that I am greatly supported by Sylvester Levay and his exceptional music. Music is a “film” in itself, the story is in it, and it is much more similar to film scores that to musical par excellence. Text and music take the story farther, fully supporting  the thriller.

Both in the novel and the film, although both called “Rebecca”, the character giving the title is not present. Although absent, Rebecca is a very strong character. It is probably the most devastating invisible character in the history of film and literature. Is Rebecca present or not in your staging?
Not in flesh and blood. Some shadows to suggest her presence will appear at some stage. Since I don't have a camera, I was faced with some limitations. It is very difficult to “make” a thriller in theatre. Sure, you can use lights and shadows. We used mirrors that seem to be reflecting a woman's face. A sort of a spirit of the woman who died or committed suicide, or was killed, that's not clear. Although I have my own theory on it…

Don't you tell me that you know what happened to Rebecca.
Oh, yes, I do.

What happened to her???
Something terrible.

This we all suspect.
Let me tell you a story. When my brother who has been living in America for many years came to Budapest to see the performance, he told me in the end: “See, Attila, if you're a lord and have the money you can even get away with a crime.” This is what everything is basically about. But, I am adding, you can't get away from your own consciousness. This can never be done.

Which of your works are you most proud of?
The “Demons”, after Dostoevsky, which I staged at the National Theatre in Pecs, and “Oedipus King”.

What will come next after “Rebecca”?
We'll have to see... I can say that I live in a car and that I go where the road takes me.