“The Hypocrite Can Be Killed, but Hypocrisy Survives”. Interview with theatre director Gábor Tompa

Abstract

Born on August 8, 1957, in Târgu-Mureș, Gábor Tompa is a Romanian-Hungarian theatre director with extensive activity both within Romania’s borders and abroad. Since 1990, he has been the Manager of the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj-Napoca and, since 2018, the President of the Union of European Theatres. Over time, he has staged highly successful productions in numerous significant Romanian institutions, receiving multiple nominations and distinctions from UNITER (Theatre Union of Romania). He is also a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French government (Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres). Due to his special fascination with Molière’s personality, he first staged Tartuffe in 1994 at the Institute of Theatre Arts in Târgu-Mureș. He later revisited the play, notably with a critically acclaimed production in 2000 at Theatre de l’Union in Limoges, France. Similarly, in 2011, over a decade after staging The Misanthrope at the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj-Napoca, he created a new production of the same play at the National Theatre in Iași, in an entirely different aesthetic paradigm. During this interview, I attempted to unravel the driving forces behind this enduring fascination with one of the founders of European comedy, whose dramatic stakes transcend mere frivolous amusement.