Kovács Levente: Egy fő az egy fő, 1976
Levente Kovács: Man Equals Man, 1976

Summary/Abstract: This study analyses the 1976 production of Man Equals Man, directed by Levente Kovács at the Szentgyörgyi István Institute (currently: University of Arts) in Târgu Mureș, and examines how Bertolt Brecht’s early experimental drama was recontextualised within the cultural politics of socialist Romania. The study situates the performance in the ideological climate following the consolidation of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime, focusing on theatre as a site of symbolic and coded resistance. Through this analysis, the article demonstrates how Kovács utilised fairground aesthetics and Brechtian alienation to portray identity loss not just as a psychological evolution, but as a ‘mechanical reassembly’ of the individual. The reception history and surveillance documents reveal the interpretative uncertainty of the authorities and demonstrate how this student production became one of the most significant Transylvanian Hungarian Brecht stagings of the 1970s.

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