Before they know it, the meeting at the Edda Union has already started without them. They had totally forgotten about it. Now, they begin to fight with each other
about everything they can remember. He hits her. She tears his clothes to
pieces. He does the same to her blouse. They both cry from rage and try to mend the remnants of their apparel. Then they call a
cab.
The conflict continues in the car. The driver gets distracted and they have an accident. Resi is wounded by the broken glass, and they are both covered in blood and dirt. Still, they run to the doors of the Edda Union, only to find that the meeting is over. They can only manage to join the crowd in shouting "Heil Hitler!" They ask the people around them whether he was wearing his brown gloves. The answers differ: some say yes, others say no. Soon a brawl ensues. It continues until the crowd suddenly spots a Jew and decides that he is the reason for all their troubles. They rush at him. End of story."
That short play [my translating ability
is limited] establishes a benchmark for the modern comedy. It is sublime.
It has everything: meaningful topic, humor, wit, scathing satire, and good taste all at the
same time.
The most important feature of the play is LOVE. Hirle loves his people; he loves them unconditionally in all their glory and shame. They are his, he is theirs. In just a short scene, he manages to display all of his feelings toward them. The artist holds up a gigantic mirror for all to look in. But the mirror is not intended to capture hate or indifference, but rather discontent, faith and hope. Here is true art, a creative power intent on making people better. Hirle is as brave as a medieval knight. His honor shines like armor.
The great and honorable genre of Comedy goes back to Aristophanes, whose
Athenian comedies [using two actors only] are funny and scathing even today. Read the famous Peace, and you will recognize our stupid modern warmongers right away. Like the light from great stars come to us the comedies of Tiberius Plautus from
Ancient Rome, Giovanni Boccaccio from early medieval Italy,
Francois Rabelais from 14th-Century France, and Lope de Vega, the
Phoenix of Spain. In his own glory shines Jean Batiste Moliere, the King of Comedy from the 17th
Century, who established the principles
of acting in modern comedy.
Closer to our time, we have Fielding, Dickens, and Jerome K. Jerome in
England, Rostand in France, Mark Twain and O'Henry in America, Fonvisin, Griboedov and Nikolai Gogol in Russia, and Jarozlav Gashek in the Czech
Republic. And, in our own time, we all know and admire the famous comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, directed by Stanley Kramer, who had previously directed the most tragic movie in 20th-century American cinem a, Judgment at Nuremberg, released in 1961 and starring Spencer Tracy.
True Humor Demands Courage
True comedy is true art, and its essence is perhaps best described in the following short verse by Russian poet Evgeny Evtushenko:
Let's praise Humor as the brave man he is.
Whether a man or a woman practices humor, the requirement to be brave is paramount. Brave and honorable. They watch us, those great minds from the abyss of history. They even stay on their toes to hear our voices (the metaphor belongs to Russian poet A. Kushner). Art is vengeful and unforgiving. It requires you to be a whole person.
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