“Molière” in Berchtoldsdorf: the cowardly artist does not have it either …

How can a poet live under a dictator? Bulgakov’s play, in which the Sun King represents Stalin, did not really take off under the leadership of Michael Storminger, director of “Jedermann”.

How should an artist act under a dictator? Courageously defy censorship and the cult of rulers — and risk being ostracized or worse? Or introduce art and at least let him continue to produce it? A dilemma in which creative artists are stuck not only now, and not only in Russia. In Berchtoldsdorf it can now be said that even a fig is not easy under the arbitrariness of an absolute ruler. This moral can be extracted from the play “Moliere or: Hello Hypocrites” Michael Storminger In his final year as director of the Summer Games.

And he is a coward, the protagonist here, whom he himself is well aware of: “Where else, Your Majesty, can you find such a gigantic statue as Moliere?” At the end of the day, ask the Sun King: “No in all of France!” Unfortunately, there was no point in licking saliva, stroking ego, and all the submissive gestures with which Molière tried to win favor Louis XIV I have begged. Finally he withers, old, sick, threatened by killers and abandoned by his loved ones. What a fate for a state artist!