The Budapest Chamber Theatre, the French Institute, the Cartaphilus Publishing House, Café Vian and the restaurant Le Jardin de Paris joined together to organise Vian-related events between December 8 and 12.
The restaurant put together a special menu for the occasion featuring entrees such as "Pâté from Eels Drowned in Pineapple, Placed in a Pastry Basket and Scented with Reasonably Snobbish Truffle." Pianoctail, available from the bar, is a cocktail inspired by Vian's extraordinary novel, L'Écume des jours (Froth on the Daydream). Many consider the novel to be the most moving love story ever written, and it was "under the influence" that Mária Perger, director at the Technical University's Department of Management and Corporate Economics, asked the chef at Le Jadin de Paris to study the book as if it was a list of recipes.
Famous for his work as an artist, Vian was also infamous for the scandals in which he became embroiled. He died, perhaps fittingly, of a heart attack after a fit of rage during a preview of a film based on his novel J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Shall Spit on Your Graves).
At a public talk held at the Alexandra Literary Cafe, the translator, dramaturge and journalist József Vinkó said that Vian suffered from a heart condition from a young age. He only allowed himself 4-5 hours sleep a day because he calculated that this way he would live the equivalent of 80 years. His life was a race with time. His writings published under his own name received mixed reviews from critics and failed to attract considerable attention from the public. However, his popular fiction written under the nom de plume Vernon Sullivan enjoyed great success.
Editor-in-chief of Cartaphilus publishing house József M. Takács, also the editor of Cartaphilus' Vian series, said Vian was a life-long rebel, an anarchist, someone impossible to pigeonhole. Over the years, he has attracted a cult following, especially among younger generations.
The Budapest Chamber Theatre's Shure Studio will premiere his "paramilitary vaudeville" L'Équarrissage pour tous (The Knacker's ABC) on December 12. Director of the performance Csaba Kiss said he was initially rather annoyed by the play and only after several months of "being lost in the dark" did he find a way to approach it.
The play's tragic hero is a father who times the wedding between his daughter and a German soldier to coincide with the Normandy landings. The man, who works as a knacker, thus becomes a symbol of "nonsensical civilian defiance." Despite all the absurdity and grotesqueness of the story, it is a wonderful lyrical play, Kiss said. The actor Pál Péter Szűcs, who plays the German soldier said the play offers liberating humour and a powerful message about justice. It does not allow identification with any of the characters in a traditional way but evokes a very original spirit that may successfully open a new and oblique perspective even in today's Budapest, he added.
Author: Éva Kelemen / Photo: Dániel Kováts
