Luulest ja luuletajast tänapäeva eesti teatrilaval: “Johannese passioon”
Poets and poetry on the stage: “The Passion of St. John”

Summary/Abstract: The article gives an insight into a rather unexplored area, namely the poetry theatre. It gives a short overview of the few theoretical texts that deal with the questions about oral presentation of poetry and the signification of voice, rhythm, tones etc. in the theatre. The main focus of the article is on the play “The Passion of St. John” (premiered in Rakvere Theatre): whether the actors on the stage impersonate the poets while reading their texts, or just focus on the poems themselves, their contents and main ideas creating new roles, nameless persons. Besides the above-mentioned play also a short introduction is given into several other plays on the Estonian stages in the 21st century, where poets and their biographies have been depicted. The conclusion can be drawn that poets are usually seen as tragic personalities. In addition, poetry is considered a very intimate way of expression and the creative work is regarded as a sort of mirror of the real life of the poets. Another question about presenting poets in the theatre is the issue of the memory of the audience, what kind of stereotypes they have of the writers, whether the few general facts that have been taught at school are the right ones. Therefore material has been gathered from the diaries, articles, and personal letters of the poets and compared with the well-known stereotypes and with the figures we see on the stage.

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