Interdisciplinarity of Themes and Artistic Means in Matei Vișniec’s Drama for Children

Abstract

Matei Vișniec’s drama for children is built around the idea of interdisciplinary artistic creation and is dedicated to a highly receptive audience. Matei Vișniec is the investigative journalist who questions the truth of the plot through his characters; he is the philosopher who speaks about the ephemerality of earthly life; he is the moralist who analyses the transfer of guilt from the culprit to the vengeful victim; he is the sociologist who addresses the children left behind by their parents who have gone to work abroad; he is the political scientist who speaks about tyranny and war; he is the man of theatre who comments on his work through metatheatrical insertions. This thematic interdisciplinarity of Matei Vișniec’s drama is also found in the children’s theatre performance, where the actor relates to the puppet, the theatre play combines with the clown tradition, where the spectator and the character interact directly, advise, and educate each other. Starting from the five dramatic texts by Matei Vișniec published by Arthur Publishing House, we will analyse2 the sets of masks that the playwright puts on, aiming to provide an overview of the interdisciplinarity of themes and artistic means found in his drama for children and the configuration of motifs and cultural references that make up complex worlds open to interpretation on several levels.