Abstract
This study analyses three plays by Romanian author, Matei Vişniec, namely Richard
III n’aura pas lieu, Le Roi, le rat et le fou du Roi, et L’Histoire du communisme
racontée aux malades mentaux. The study begins with a discussion of the author’s
particular personal, historical and literary circumstances in order to contextualise his
use of intertextuality and the fictionalisation of writers to whom he pays homage in
his plays. It seeks to further analyse the way in which these various contexts provide
the author with a unique authority and insight to speak on notions of freedom.
Through close readings of the given texts, we analyse Vişniec’s use of various
techniques such as parallel monologues, characters as mouthpieces, the repetition of
phrases, and silence in order to demonstrate the breakdown in communication that
penetrates his plays. In a communist context, the study recognises that verbal
denunciation is not an effective means of protesting the oppression often experienced
in totalitarian or dictatorial regimes.
If verbal communication is not an effective means of protesting the horrors of such a
regime, the study seeks to determine whether staged theatre could fulfil this role. The
study notes that leaders in totalitarian regimes have often used theatre as a propaganda
tool in order to further their own agendas. Similarly, we suggest that theatre could be
an alternative means of communication in the hands of the oppressed. The study
shows that the public and unifying character of theatre allows it to influence reality
and thereby become a means of denunciation, a weapon of the struggle for freedom.
Finally, we discuss the complex relationship that exists between man and freedom.
The study distinguishes between political or external freedom and metaphysical or
internal freedom. We posit, along with Jean-Paul Sartre and Erich Fromm, that
freedom is accompanied by responsibility and a profound existential angst. Man is
unable to bear this burden and as such, he willingly loses his freedom in order to seek
it once more. This perpetual search for freedom becomes a vicious circle from which
man tries endlessly to escape. In conclusion, the study demonstrates how Matei
Vişniec himself experiences this vicious circle of freedom: having escaped the
oppression of the Romanian communist regime, the author finds himself oppressed
once again under the democracy of France, his country of exile.
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