Caligula

Caligula. This name of a real person, a Roman emperor from the Julio-Claudian dynasty, has been associated for many centuries, starting with the book of the historian Suetonius "Lives of the 12 Caesars" (c. 120 AD), with cruelty for which there are no limits, impunity of tyranny, and perversions reaching absurdity.

And at the same time, his tragic fate intrigues him, fascinates him with a mysterious paradox, a certain obsession. What is behind his contempt, sometimes outright hatred for everyone and everything, from which animal cruelty arises?

Caligula in Albert Camus' version is a lonely egocentric who has experienced the loss of sinful love for his sister, trying to escape from the madness and pain of emptiness that this loss of his native soul has created. Wanting to free himself from the past, using the unlimited power of the emperor, Caligula seeks to prove to everyone and everyone his strength and invincibility in the face of the challenges of fate. Trying to regain the meaning of existence and happiness, he begins to act. But his actions bring only chaos and death. Are there answers to the questions that concern the main character of the play and each of us: to what lowliness is a person capable of falling in his fear for his own life? Because of what or because of whom is he capable of transgressing, enduring humiliation, torture? What is true freedom? At what price is the freedom of an individual acquired? What turns a person into a slave, into a creature that loses dignity and honor? What is a person capable of with unlimited power? Is it fear itself or silent connivance that dominates the environment, giving rise to tyranny, bringing death and destruction not only to humanity, but also to civilization as a whole….

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French novelist, philosopher, and publicist, one of the leaders of the philosophical and artistic movement of existentialism. Winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature.

A. Camus worked on the play Caligula from 1939 (first edition) to 1958 (third edition). In 1945, Caligula was first performed at the Théâtre d'Eberto in Paris. The main role was played by Gerard Philippe, whose acting talent was first truly revealed in Caligula.

“A man of honor is such a rare animal in our world that I cannot bear to look at him.” (Albert Camus)