Ákos Török: The completeness of number eight
The scales of movements, which are composed from points to points just slowly reveal their improvising nature, we can notice some simple rules, which are organising the sometimes confusing, then multi-simultaneous happenings. There is real concentration, being together, fall from two and half metres high – I do not even watch if they caught me or not, as I know that they did it. There is real nudeness, there is real spit on the eggs, which they give to each other from mouth to mouth. They play and they play well, the question is that they do it on their own or to us too?
The director, Zoltán Balázs does not leave many catchable to his actors, in the newest performance of Maladype, in the Egg(s)Hell: there is neither text nor any frame of dramaturgy. Which remain there: 32 pink flamingos, 8 chairs, properties (mainly eggs, sugar cubes, cigarette...), some music parts in an unfixed order (mainly Ravel), some etudes of scenes, and they, the eight actors, in the place of the New Studio of Thália Theatre, which is enlightened evenly, naked into blackness with the viewers on the one side. They have to do something today with it.
In case of Leonce and Léna the choice of marking physicality as a mode of speech has already been exciting (physical theatre), however then the actors still had the chance to speak, the safe calmness of intonation, to which they could return in this doubled (composed from text and sign-like movements together) performance. Now they do not have this handhold. There is always some special kind of excitement when those kind of actors deal with physical theatrical forms, who do not have any experience (or they are unexperienced at all) in the art of movements: the formation of movements can give elemental experience of truth on the one hand, on the other hand, there is the risk, that because of their civilian lumpish nature, the concrete physicality cannot reach any metaphorical level, so the performance become either arty or meaningless.
The Egg(s)Hell, which starts from Sándor Weöres’ one-word poem, tries to avoid these extremes, however it moves towards both sides: the poetic nature of speech with the closest connection to the music, can lower down the elemental experience of truth of the naturalness of movements, while simple scales of movements, the clear sign language of gestures can avoid mostly successfully the trap of vulgarity on artistic meaning and arty nature. I think there will be people, who will like very much this wonderful, vivid togetherness on stage and there will be those, who however like the troupe of Maladype – will suffer all through this one and half hour long period, especially if they arrive unprepared (with expectations, hungry for stories, sweaty after the fights for parking spots).
Despite Zoltán Balázs’ and the troupe honourable initiative nature – with which they are searching for unversed ways and speaking form for themselves again and again – they perform a play again, in case of which we cannot feel the experimenting nature anyway. I am watching it, and I can see a complete performance, which worked out nature does not mark the quality, but some kind of readiness, which is noticeable in spite of all stylistic openness and incompleteness (now it is the improvising nature).
The Maladype seems to reach the end of something all their performances from one to the another, and in spite of the elements, which can be found in many of them and obviously over brought results of some of them, but they seemingly start something different all the time, which they will finish again in some months.
The Egg(s)Hell is mainly the togetherness of eight people, their careful watching of one another – through the signs of touching, approaching, moving away. It is a real and symbolic play with eggs. In the performance, I watched, some of them broke – I think sometimes none of them does it... Today there were too many changes of position on the chairs, for me it was much over that point, when the drive of the meaning of its multiple sounding can hold out, as all the performance pulses finely between the excitement of beauty and the boredom. Today it was better to be on the stage than between the viewers. It was that kind of evening.
Ákos Török, Ellenfény, 2009
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
The director, Zoltán Balázs does not leave many catchable to his actors, in the newest performance of Maladype, in the Egg(s)Hell: there is neither text nor any frame of dramaturgy. Which remain there: 32 pink flamingos, 8 chairs, properties (mainly eggs, sugar cubes, cigarette...), some music parts in an unfixed order (mainly Ravel), some etudes of scenes, and they, the eight actors, in the place of the New Studio of Thália Theatre, which is enlightened evenly, naked into blackness with the viewers on the one side. They have to do something today with it.
In case of Leonce and Léna the choice of marking physicality as a mode of speech has already been exciting (physical theatre), however then the actors still had the chance to speak, the safe calmness of intonation, to which they could return in this doubled (composed from text and sign-like movements together) performance. Now they do not have this handhold. There is always some special kind of excitement when those kind of actors deal with physical theatrical forms, who do not have any experience (or they are unexperienced at all) in the art of movements: the formation of movements can give elemental experience of truth on the one hand, on the other hand, there is the risk, that because of their civilian lumpish nature, the concrete physicality cannot reach any metaphorical level, so the performance become either arty or meaningless.
The Egg(s)Hell, which starts from Sándor Weöres’ one-word poem, tries to avoid these extremes, however it moves towards both sides: the poetic nature of speech with the closest connection to the music, can lower down the elemental experience of truth of the naturalness of movements, while simple scales of movements, the clear sign language of gestures can avoid mostly successfully the trap of vulgarity on artistic meaning and arty nature. I think there will be people, who will like very much this wonderful, vivid togetherness on stage and there will be those, who however like the troupe of Maladype – will suffer all through this one and half hour long period, especially if they arrive unprepared (with expectations, hungry for stories, sweaty after the fights for parking spots).
Despite Zoltán Balázs’ and the troupe honourable initiative nature – with which they are searching for unversed ways and speaking form for themselves again and again – they perform a play again, in case of which we cannot feel the experimenting nature anyway. I am watching it, and I can see a complete performance, which worked out nature does not mark the quality, but some kind of readiness, which is noticeable in spite of all stylistic openness and incompleteness (now it is the improvising nature).
The Maladype seems to reach the end of something all their performances from one to the another, and in spite of the elements, which can be found in many of them and obviously over brought results of some of them, but they seemingly start something different all the time, which they will finish again in some months.
The Egg(s)Hell is mainly the togetherness of eight people, their careful watching of one another – through the signs of touching, approaching, moving away. It is a real and symbolic play with eggs. In the performance, I watched, some of them broke – I think sometimes none of them does it... Today there were too many changes of position on the chairs, for me it was much over that point, when the drive of the meaning of its multiple sounding can hold out, as all the performance pulses finely between the excitement of beauty and the boredom. Today it was better to be on the stage than between the viewers. It was that kind of evening.
Ákos Török, Ellenfény, 2009
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)