His Master's Voice [Volume: 4(1985), pp. 209-275]

Cross Currents 4 (1985)
A Yearbook of Central European Culture
HIS MASTER'S VOICE
Absurd Documentary Play in Two Parts
Istvan Eorsi
(Translated from Hungarian by Emery George)
PERSONS:
GYORGY LUKACS
ISTVAN EORSI
MARIAN RAABE
YELENA GRABENKO
GERTRUD BORTSTIEBER
Author's Note: This piece is based in part on that series of tape-recorded
interviews which the literary historian Erzsebet Vezer and the writer Istvan
Eorsi made, from March through May 1971, with the then already terminally
ill Gyorgy Lukacs. During this time Gyorgy Lukacs's ability to concentrate
and to speak turned constantly for the worse, and the worsening was visible
on his external appearance-his clothing, facial expression, bearing-as well.
In the text of the play I merely signaled this process; those, however, who
may produce this text, should see to it that this process becomes perceivable,
needless to say, without letting the natural portrayal of stammerings, groans,
etc., interfere with the understanding of the contents.
Act I
Scene 1
Lukacs's study. Large desk, books. Next to it a tea cart; on it, on a tray, coffee and a tape
recorder. Behind it sits Eorsi. Behind the desk, Lukacs's place is empty.On the wall, at a clearly
visible spot, the photograph of an elderly woman. Window, behind it the Buda hills, Eorsi, a
man of middle age, drinks coffee.
EORSI:
On my first visit, in 1952, that is, at age 21, Aunt Gertrud asked me if I liked
Turkish coffee. I hadn't the faintest notion of what that was, but I nodded
enthusiastically. Ever since then I've been getting Turkish coffee around
here. Following a four-year imprisonment, in 1960, they waited for me here
with Turkish coffee. Not even after Aunt Gertrud's death did I have to
Copyright ~ 1985 by Istvan EUrsi.
209