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György Spiró : Az ikszek [The Xs]
Our hero is the very real Wojciech Bogusławski, a Polish theatre director/producer , actor and playwright. The time is 1815. Napoleon has been defeated and sent to St Helena. Poland is now under the rule of Russia. Bogusławski has been in Lviv but has come back to Warsaw where he had previously been director of the National Theatre. He left his son–in-law in charge and also left numerous debts. It soon becomes clear he is one of the lovable rogues beloved of literature.
We know exactly what day he returns to Warsaw – 6th of September 1815 – as we are told that it is the day Holy Alliance is signed.
Bogusławski makes the rounds in Warsaw but avoids his son-in-law. He goes to the tavern and regales the regulars with tales of his adventures. He goes to his son’s house, where he is welcomed by his daughter-in-law and tells her of his plan to get rid of his son-in-law and take over management of the National Theatre again. He is, he says, the Polish Molière and, one day, Molière will be known as the French Bogusławski.
He meets many people and most are very glad to se him, often assuming that it has been already decided that he will take over the theatre again and they bring him ideas, requests and even scripts of their plays. He does avoid some people, including his daughter from an earlier relationship.
His discussions with his many friends also involve the political situation with the possibility of war between Austria and Russia. One wit comments that if that does happen, the Russians would only be informed by their government fifteen to twenty years later.
Ludwik Osiński takes over management of the theatre and offers Bogusławski a job and everyone assumes he is now in charge so they come to him with their issues.
Meanwhile politics are continuing in the background. Various troublemakers have been arrested. Bogusławski is hurt that they did not bother arresting him. With Poland now part of Russia, the Tsar visits and attends a performance at the theatre.
However the theatre is now active again and there is much discussion as to what is reappropriate and what is politically acceptable. Two plays are seriously considered: August von Kotzebue‘s The Two Klingsbergs. (This was made into a German film in 1968 and the German text is available for sale online. Kotzebue himself was controverial and he was assassinated in 1819.) The other play was Racine’s Athalie. The actors and others have considerable discussion about these plays. They generally turn to Bogusławski for guidance. Indeed he seems to be something of a nursemaid for many of them. such as an actress who is being stalked.
When the The Two Klingsbergs is finally performed we finally get to learn of the eponymous Xs. One of the local newspapers publishes a damning critique of the performance, signed only as Mr X. The cast are furious and so is Bogusławski. He writes a riposte. The editor claims he has no idea who wrote the review – he received it anonymously – and agrees to publish Bogusławski’s riposte. Soon we have more Mr Xs, who write – anonymously – giving their point of view. More join in till the authorities call a halt.
The actors now call on Bogusławski to take over management of the theatre but he says it was bought legally. They then call on the government to nationalise it.
However, as the title suggests, the Xs are not going away. There is naturally various speculation as to who they really are and various theories abound. Some people to know or even claim that they are one of the Mr Xs though how reliable their claims are is not clear. It gets more complicated,. Bogusławski is a freemason, though not a very active one. However they also get involved. The authorities may have dissuaded the editor from publishing further articles/letters from the Mr Xs but the Mr Xs are not going away. Indeed it is even suggested that Bogusławski writes a play about them.
Inevitably politics is involved. Quite a few Poles fought for Napoleon as he fought the hated Russians. There is a lot of discussion about what is Poland. The main part of Poland is under Russian rule but there parts of Eastern Europe either attached to Poland or which the Poles see as historically Poland but where the majority speaks other languages such as Lithuanian or Ukrainian. We also learn details of what happened in the war that have not been released to the general public.
We continue with the doings of our hero, the Xs and the theatre. Bogusławski wants to put on a play about a ruined castle in a ruined castle, specifically this one when it was in far worse shape than it is now but that falls through. He decided to learn Eng;ish. He learned French in a month so, he claims, English should only take a couple of weeks. He goes to the local bookseller (who, apparently cannot read) and buys some English books and, with a dictionary and these books, including Castle Rackrent and and The Mysteries of Udolpho he learns English. He even writes a poem in English:
\The silver moon
Will be up soon
Even at noon
and considers writing a play in English.
We continue with a lot of activity around the theatre and with the local and national political situation. They put on plays – mainly foreign – English (Shakespeare), French (Corneille, Molière and Racine), German (Kotzebue) and Italian (Alfieri and Goldini) though they do consider a play written by our hero – Presumed Innocence or the Cracowiners which causes trouble as it is a Polish nationalist play.
The authorities eventually decide that he has to go and he is offered the proceeds of that night’s play (Corneille’s Horace), his debts paid, a pension and membership of the Academy (a first for an actor). He seems to be prepared to go quietly. However the audience riots. He carries on for a bit but eventually dies – maybe. One of the Xs comments that he would not be surprised if the coffin were empty.
While it was fascinating to read about the goings-on in the theatre, the politics (national, local, theatre) in post-Napoleonic Warsaw and the somewhat larger than life and very colourful Wojciech Bogusławski, I felt that this book was too long – nearly 600 pages in the French translation with very small type, and it could have done with a bit of editing. It seems that the Poles did not like it as it was considered unflattering to their country and people, while the Hungarians enjoyed the intrigue and machinations in the theatre and Warsaw.
Publishing history
First published in 1981 by Szépirodalmi Kiadó
No English translation
First published in French as Les Anonymes in 1988 by Éditions B. Coutaz
Translated by Françoise Gal
Also available in Czech and Polish