Two Tristans and two kings Marke are sitting on the stage. They bend over and then back. They rise their arms, turn their heads. These minimal gestures, which are slowed down can give dream-like levitation to the wordless action.

Zoltán Balázs has not forgotten his earlier relative style, (Theomachia, The Blacks, The Vampire) and he has created the archetypic story with his own linguistic. Isolde appears here in two forms too, the most beautiful one can be connected to the one with blonde hair. Franz Schubert’s Serenade can bring romantic musical arcs into the place, the greedy male gazes follow rolling on the ground the prima donna’s movements, who is running from the right to the left side, up and down. They resonate to the view, not only with their direction, but with horizontal pirouettes they can easily jump over one another.

The miracle does not stop, tiny gestures, artistic signs on their own simplicity can express the happenings, and they draw truthfully the modulations of the inner happenings. It is not a shame, that we have already known the legend of the lovers, but the experience can be full, even if we can experience the suggestion of the view. – Or even more powerfully!!!

We can thank for the dramaturg, Judit Góczán, that in spite of the paralleled roles, doublings and compressions, she can keep the main line of the story, its stylistic unit. The original story becomes more relatable, in contrast to the director’s later performances, where the tonne of the words ruined the performance.

We the Vampire-admirers, the fans of The Blacks would like it very much if in the future with the Maladype, or with other formations, here in Hungary performances will be made with similar aims, as they can characterize the most authentically Zoltán Balázs’ extraordinary creativity.

White Elephant, Kulturális Ajánló, 2013

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

In the Puppet Theatre of Budapest the Swan Lake has been performed by Zoltán Balázs, according to his ideas, it becomes a gracefully composed, far-eastern-like illustration, mostly based on story-telling, with its colours and materials, using the ideas of feng shui. It is not especially for children.

While the success-machine of Hollywood has discovered (again) Tchaikovsky’s classical play for themselves and – however very didactically, but – can turn it convincingly into an award winning film adaptation, parallel to it, in Hungary, this world wide famous ballet play becomes actual in a theatre for children. After the Modern Ballet dance performance in Szeged in 2007, Zoltán Balázs, who has not been avers to the puppets before, has thought over the musical play again, which is based on a Russian folk tale, without any ballet and dancers. The puppet theatre performance of the Swan Lake can prove Zoltán Balázs, the director attraction towards puppets and his mood to do experiments. He does it all with a pure, elegant on its own simplicity, but many times spectacular view of stage.

Péter Polgár, who was chosen to the be the set designer of the year in 2010, and who got the award of the best set and costume in July on the festival of Nyitra, for the performance of The Kitchen, which was put on stage by Zoltán Balázs. He has designed for the Swan Lake a gloomy, dark toned, desolate landscape, which is free of any decoration and figurative reference, which attracts captivatingly our attention. Seemingly the blurred, grey shadows of a Whistler-landscape, which has been enlarged to be huge, its varied horizon can be tensed in the background, which is completed with a rhomb shaped stage, with one of its peak, hanging over the viewers. There are short, bar-chairs-like seats, covered by black leather, in a shape of a fan, in the holes of the parts of the set by the sides, which are divided into layers. Polgár’s set, which is minimalist and refers to the far-eastern world of pictures, can be strengthened by Júlia Horányi’s costumes, which makes the eastern line clear with their Japanese aesthetic nature. The characters are wearing uniformly black costumes down to the ground, which function as background too, which consist of tight-fitting tops and long, buggy, skirt-like trousers of samurais.

In the middle of the stage, the storyteller, Gyöngyi Blasek is sitting, between elevated, expressionist styled rocks, which are from metal sheets, her black dress and long white hair reach the ground. She narrates the tale, which has been written on stage by Judit Góczán and its dialogues, in a cold, steady style, which is connected well to the set, sometimes she does it in very monotonous, uninterested rhythm. In the group of the puppet performers, there are professionals and students of the puppet course, they can show variedly their juggler skills, together with the fans and swords, which are central organising elements of the performance. These properties are not just fulfilled the role of extended limb/wing/weapon, but they mean the characters too or sometimes a whole mosaic, which form a composition of swans. They perform the characters, the objects and the places of the story with the help of these breath-taking “puppets”: the fans appear in different sizes and colours according to the characters. The women have ones with white feathers, the men have with elegant silk material, in the scene of the ball they impress the viewers with every colours of the rainbow.

The interchangeability on the base of parts and the whole, of the fans, which are made of light white feathers and downs and of the swans, the transformation back and forth of this two (from a fan a swan, from a swan a fan), their precisely over-thought play, their shapes, their graceful airy movements are the greatest virtue of the performance. The usage and function of this properly over-thought element, can connect the Zoltán Balázs-like Swan Lake some way to dance, to its ease, to the cruel punctuality and calmness of the ballet, and many times, thanks for the overall picture of the sets and properties, to the fine arts too. At the same time, the choreography which celebrates András Szöllősi, seemingly means a great task for the puppet actors, which is mostly signed by the fact, that at the harder tricks, when the characters in fast, very precise combinations of movements, throw in line into each other’s hands the opened fans, unfortunately they let them fall down annoyingly many times. During the solo and “dances of couples” these is not any clue of this uncertainty, the movements of their fans can show many times individual characteristics: Gergő Pethő performs Red Bearded, István Kemény performs the Master of the Court, Károly Hoffer, the puppet master student, is Siegfried, between the swan girls, Odette is performed by another student, by Viktória Makra and Rita Radics in turn, Odilia is moved by Borbála Karádi and Judit Rusz.

Anyway, one basic question remains, as we are talking about a performance, which is a children performance for most school children: may the six years old ones, who are sitting in the auditorium – as it would be the age, which the Puppet Theatre offers – can understand, feel, enjoy this philosophical elevation from the point of view of the connection between the vision and the folk tale, which is the base of the ballet. Or, as it is more possible according to the reactions, to the reflections of the rhythm changes of the performance, the children can connect to the performance, which they watch, only with the help of the well-known sounds of the canonical musical. Neither the dance, nor the narrative dialogues help them decode the performance. Meanwhile the children, as they can understand it after the first scenes, cannot see anything else besides the dance of the fans, which can raises reaction from them, they start a strong and definite boredom. Well sensible evidence of it, not only the whispering, but what cannot be connected anyway to such a well-composed performance with conception, that the children are usually connected again to the performance, when a melody starts, which is familiar to them. Similarly, to the style of comedies, they start clapping together with the music, until a change of scene comes. The fans and together with it, the performance become uninteresting to them. This holds responsible the whole staging for it, in spite of its aesthetic and kinetic virtues.

Zsófia Krupa, Fidelio, 2012

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

The theatre, which is full of fantasy the most, must be performed for smaller ones, of course. They will become the viewers of the theatre in the future.

In the Puppet Theatre of Budapest they have performed the rewritten version of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece, they offer the performance to children, who are older than six, and of course, to the adults who takes them, as the view and the great Russian composer’s timeless music is for everybody.

In an afternoon of the early winter, the great hall is full of people, the schoolchildren are noisy, they are crying, there is tension, which is shaking in the air, there are some on the lamps too. “Do not shout, sit in silence”, we can hear the teachers’ order making sentence, then the reflectors are turned on, then the children want the beginning in a choir, in the same rhythm. The overture is accepted with general ovation.

In Judit Góczán’s rewritten version for the puppet theatre, with Zoltán Balázs’ staging, of course, there are not any graceful ballerinas, who are wonderful in their small tulle skirts, the story of the classical ballet can be seen with the creative and witty usage of some simple, but very effective properties, with the performers’ richly choreographed movements on the stage, with the endless moving of the properties and with the nobly formed narration, which puts the story in frame. In front of the performers, that view must have been floated, that if they have to perform the Swan Lake without dancers, then they should keep something from the airy nature of it, from the vibrant flapping of the snow-white swans, from their moving, and endless changings. All of it is performed by the actors of the puppet theatre with the help of wonderful fans: with the circular movements of black and white fans, with their shaking, throwing, catching. The gracefully turning wings of fans are flying around in the performance, as light butterflies are moving around or feather-light fine downs are floating in front of the blackish background, above.

We indulge in the smaller and bigger, white and black, striped and colourful hordes of fans, sometimes in situations, which are stressed dramaturgically, a huge bird of fans appears on stage, which has wonderful reddish and greenish peacock feathers. The performers, men and women, are leaning in dark tops and ground long black skirts, they are playing, juggling with acrobatic skills, that way they can form busy and fast moving tableaus. Meanwhile we can listen to the music, to Tchaikovsky’s wonderful music. Meanwhile a long white haired old lady is telling the tale slowly, while sitting on a metal-like throne, which is cut by some kind of licks of flame, in the lap of the rustic picture of the stage. She tells the story of Swan Lake, about prince Siegfried’s wonderful journey, about the empire of life and death, about Red Bearded’s adventures, about the power of the mythical lake, and about the searching of true love.

Zoltán Balázs, who is usually a director, who forms his performances with rich visual fantasy and inspiration of ideas, now leaves almost everything to András Szöllősi’s punctually composed choreography, to Júlia Horányi’s creative costumes and properties, and to the always emphasized Gyöngyi Blasek’s intensive presence on stage, who is in the role of the narrator, storyteller. All of it can be enough, if not young school children were the viewers the anyway well-composed performance. But the small ones, can be not only overwhelmingly thankful but cruel too: the long narrative parts, the always repeated plays with the fans, and all these performances after a while cannot hold their attention. They run towards the edge of the stage, maybe something new can happen, watching from there, which is exciting, which is adorable and can be magical. And if they have to be disappointed, they do it honestly, loudly, as only a child can be disappointed. If the performance cannot enchant them, which has lured them with wonderful music and graceful movements and performances, their attention lowers down soon, then they can tell them tales about king and princesses, about balls and magic, about Odette’s wonderful transformations. All of these are for nothing, the long, and painful moments of restless noise have begun. It is true, that in the performance they would rather tell, than show and perform to them, that what kind of magic they would have to watch on the stage.

Zoltán Balázs is a guest in the Puppet Theatre of Budapest, not for the first time; with his staging of Faust, he has proved, that he is an inspired and creative user of this special theatrical language. But now in its artistic nature too, his modernised Tchaikovsky version becomes a little bit sterile and bloodless, which cannot be saved by the facts, that the performers fulfil with great attention and devotion the director’s conception and András Szöllősi busy choreography. This way even the view of stage is not so attractive: gloomy and greyish pictures are coming one after another.

Maybe by the rising of the age limit, the performance would find its viewers more easily. Anyway, it is a pity, if with Tchaikovsky’s music and with the Swan Lake, with this masterpiece of all generations, the performance cannot infect the schoolchildren. May they realise anytime what they have lost?

Dezső Kovács, Revizoronline, 2012

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

Zoltán Balázs’ Tchaikovsky staging is a ballet performance without ballet. It is an art of movements without dancers. An old woman is sitting in the centre of walls, which appear by the two sides as fans, she has ground long white hair, she is between forever frozen metal flames or icicles, and she is telling a tale. She tells the story of the swan girls, who have been enchanted by the Red Bearded man, and the of the prince in love, who will finally free them. And the story comes to alive with the help of wonderful fans – the puppet masters are moving them: all of them that one, which characterizes the most their own characters’ individuality. There is a huge, fire-red at the magician, there are black and white feathers with the women: their dance at the party is nothing else than the airy floating of the huge amount of fans and the changing of them, which is similar to the changing of partners. The rhythm of the music follows everything, the fans, which become attributes – and in the case of men: the swords – can show a choreography, which well over-thought, the enchanting aesthetic experience can become smaller only a little bit by the fact, that the fans fall down ten times more, that it should have been acceptable. But it is hard to forget, that the communication of the Puppet Theatre, which offers the performance from the age of six, is bad: without the always noisy and demonstrative bored children, in a smaller and more intimate place, the performance can be incomparably more effective.

For the distraction of children’s attention we can partly blame Gyöngyi Blasek too, who is tells the text, which is formed to this stage by Judit Góczán, very monotonously, sometimes with bad stresses and without holding any difference between the replies of the dialogues. Anyways it can reform the stresses of the story, and it changes the Swan Lake into a simple tale of love, into a cruel joke instead of the reign of terror, with a fulfilment of love instead of the fact of becoming free. All of it is an absolutely valid interpretation, but its lesson becomes easier, the only important thing becomes the love. That way the especially powerful “experience of beauty” cannot become a spiritual performance.

Bálint Kovács, Magyar Narancs, 2011

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

An idea, aim and united world of form, which gives interpreting frames to the story are seemingly presented on the stage, but this seeming nature of it is the visible problem: it confuses the tale. It is true, in spite of the fact that Odette and Siegfried’s classical story, which comes from a Russian folk story, is definitely between the easier ones: the cold-breathed Red-Bearded – “do not ask me why” – turned Odette together with eleven of her mates to be swans. However, being swan must be a wonderful thing, it cannot be too comfortable, so that is why the girls would like to get back their human bodies, for which only one pure thing is needed, a prince has to pledge love three times to the most beautiful one of them – and it is Odette of course. And we all know, that the first pledge easily comes of the mouth, but the second one can miss its aim easily. The situation is the same with Siegfried, whose action is hardened by the Red-Bearded, and another wonderful Odette-doppelganger, by name Odile. Finally, the prince is successful, he defeats the evil one, he declares his love, and our characters can live happily ever after, until their death.

To show all of it, from the director, Zoltán Balázs, came an idea, so that the performers would perform with fans. It is not a problem, they sometimes very illustratively, beautifully, expressively move their feathers. Their manual cooling tools, with different patterns, colour and size, which have been designed for forty degrees of heat – that way, in the minus twenty they have a really anachronistic view - with the help of them, we can easily associated with swans that appear in the title. The problem starts somewhere with the realization, as with the fans the witty and creative revival of the tale, the real performance does not happen, just its lyrical formation, the shadowing, the further abstraction of already abstract classical melodies can happen that way.

In the background, obviously can be found something similar to a shore of a lake and a landscape of a lake on the set, which draws it all, and elevates a throne (Péter Polgár), but not many concrete things can be found in the situations, not only by the children but by adults too. It is true in spite of the fact, that the actors, using the maximum of their presence on the stage, without word, they tell and move the tale and the dialogues, interpretively by Gyöngyi Blasek, and very purely (in case of the tale, this method is very disadvantageous; the try is understandable, so that they do not babble to the children, but meanwhile it is worth giving them something, to make them take attention – and here you have to be skilled child or attendant, who can follow the introductory text) so as they would talk to one another in reality. But even this kind of presence cannot move the wandering doubts from the heads, that there is hardly anything to watch here, and if there is, that it is not about something, which can be grabbed.

All of it is made to be unfortunate many times by András Szöllősi’s choreography, which seems to be very spectacular on the level of imagination, but in reality, can be very accidental. For the presentation of the dances, we would need at least one at about twenty years old juggler, and parallel to him, the same amount of dancer experience – but a puppet artist profession is less important. Even the most talented characters have serious problems during the throwing and turning of the fans – many properties fall down meanwhile. I am not sure, that it is the actors’ fault, if somebody does not care about the edges of their abilities. Of course, it must be right that way, this can be the conception, but then there is a question mark in front of us, in connection with the fact, that what this performance is about.

In spite of it, the children follow with acceptable behaviour, the scenes, which many times are without any ideas; they follow the actors’ example, and sometimes they throw some objects to one another, sometimes they listen to Tchaikovsky – the fast Spanish dance has the greatest success obviously. By reaching the end, they start whispering more and more loudly, in an apocalyptic tensioned way, but before anything bad can happen, the performance is over.

However, there are some very enjoyable moments, and the music has become well-known not by accident, but why has this performance been made, why in the Puppet Theatre, and then what makes a tale this tale (if it is), and what it is about, so any reasons of this happening is so slowly moving as a beaten swan after a dog-walking in the park. But why does a performance have to be performed as a performance for children, which aims especially adults with the form of its language?

Attila Nyulassy, 7óra7, 2012

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

Norman Bel Geddes, the American painter and set-designer, the founder of the thousand members Guild Theatre, designed a God tempting arena for The Divine Comedy. His ambitious monumentality has never come to alive, because of the costs, but it has become famous.

Max Reinhardt after it ordered from him the world touring set of The miracle. The Croesus-like exhibition is a tempting view. Its puritan version puts the inner beauty into the foreground of the view. Kazimir in 1968, in the Circle Theatre put it on stage as an oratory in nightdresses, with Sándor Weöres’ text edition, with Mária Sulyok and Lajos Básti’s musical sounding recitation.

The Maladype Theatre put on the stage their own Inferno performance by Dante into the place of Trafó from their saved up pocket money, according to Péter Polgár’s inventive and economical set plans, with Júlia Horányi’s costumes. With the highly professional lighting they can create inferno-like darkness, mysterious glow.

The souls, who are put into black clothes, are sitting around on thirty metal structured modern bar chairs. Only some uncovered upper bodies and female shoulders can be seen to be white. The frightening figures, who are painted onto the background, on which hats cover their hawk-nosed faces, can show the performers to be endless with their half-presence.

There is a simmering, waving, flooding, plastic crowd. Sometimes it is an impenetrable phalanx. They brake up into atoms. Their hoods cover their faces, but when some pairs of eyes can be seen, these are lifeless, they are objects of the other world that are moving like objects. Because of their performance, we have to register them, because Bettina Alscher, Gábor Bordi, Lívia Sarolta Csányi, Zita Horák, Lilla Horváth, Dalma Juhász, Tamás Kerekes, Judit Kovács, Gergő Krausz, Lilian Kutrik, Marcell Lakos, Kata Lukáts, Kati Mácsai, József Nagy, Zoltán Nemes, Ildikó Orbán, Letícia Orgován, Viktor Pataki, Cintia Peller, Tamás Rábavölgyi, Eszter Sákovics, Tímea Samu, Dorottya Urai, Brigitta Varga, Kata Zelencsuk have stressed presence on the stage. The twenty-five civilians, who has applied for the notice, with a weeklong rehearsal – if I know well, free – with their ordered devotion serve the wobbling, flying, laying, disappearing, then appearing guilty souls, who form the dynamic set. In their black cotton clothes make us remember from the 20s Alice Madzsar and Ödön Palasovszky’s movement-artistic veteran-like experiments.

Ákos Kerényi, Kornél Mogyoró play together the percussion instruments, as the movements beat, toll and snuffle. The musical background gives the movement, or the movements can be heard.

The Play was born by a dark era. There were split up, irreconcilable political infightings. It was the era of betrayal, cheats, violence, feuds, robberies by power, contemptible greediness, the oppression of the ordinary people, shameless financial businesses, unprincipledness, vendetta, murders, ugly lies. It is the era of political Firenze. The performance makes us sense the degenerate sins, which fill the relationships as they would be contemporary, based on Dante without any fluttery winking of a single eyelash.

The central metal structured set – it can be a dentist’s chair crowned by skulls, or it can be a huge, double-armed corkscrew – Dante Alighieri, the author himself is sitting in the middle, as György Dózsa did it on the burning throne. He does not go down into the circles of inferno. The scales of hallucinations are working in his head. Zenó Faragó gives his voice, which is not resonant, it is powerless, with some kind of monotony, while he is sitting in the centre. Two of his followers are next to him: Beatrice, who is crystal-beautiful in- and outside too, is exposed by Kamilla Fátyol, then her presence breaks up soon, as a rainbow coloured soap bubble. From now on, she is invisible.

Ákos Orosz cannot do anything with the role of Lucifer. Before his birth, his playing method was connected to László Ungvári. His mask comes before the birth of the writer of these lines, it is the theatrical make-up from Gyula Csortos. Behind and above them, these is Andrea Ladányi’s (Vergil) seemingly emotionless passion that stands in for Dante’s incorruptible political hate, his implacability, which can see all from above, witty, with his mental superiority. The cruel judgement of the scanning mental state. Ladányi does not miss the sharp mockery because of the unnecessary things. The reserved irony. We cannot connect two false critical phrases to the talented performer at all. The lack of tools, as her artistic compactness express the most important thing, which is forged to be lean on high heat. The other one is: the empathy. We cannot blame Ladányi with it. In contrast with the actors, who feel themselves extremely inspired, Ladányi, as usually the greatest one do, with the total concentration of the individuality performs her role all through the performance.

The love scene by Judit Kovács Ligeti (between her other ones, Thais, the courtesan), Erika Tankó (Francesca) and Ádám Tompa (Paolo) is an extraordinary performance: “he kissed on my lips, I was shaking nervous. That was Galeotto becomes the book and its writer too. That day we did not read any more” – with Babits’ words. Tompa’s Judas is strong, from the point of view of pictures and performing art and its body-mimic performance. Zoltán Lendváczky’s grotesque, suffering puppet head, which sometimes appears, from the shapeless human circle, and Zsolt Páll’s brutalist presence.

I have read some fast-made critics about the Inferno. They complained, that they could not understand it. Have they read the Play? I have read it. I did not understand it. I can speak about it, write about it, but I cannot understand. They want desperately to understand Dante, instead of feeling it. Theatre is not the place of ratio. If we want to find meaning anyway in the performance, we knock the door from the wrong side, we can never get it. I would like to get immersed in philology. I would not compare Babits’ translation to Ádám Nádasdy’s new text, which has been made on this occasion, and I would not deal with the fragments, which have been put in like patchworks from Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus and Paolo Santarcangeli’s writing. The one and half hour long Inferno, which is performed in the Trafó, is not a literature lesson on Dante. In the Városliget, in the Circle Theatre The Divine Comedy was an explosive summer success. Many people rushed to watch it. They bought tickets. They watched it. They left the theatre well-educated. A proud self-conscious made people more, to be able to replace their failures. They can absolve during three hours, the mental immersion of long years. They have known The Divine Comedy.

The Maladype’s Dante performance is something different. Balázs’ performance goes doomed up against the running theatrical trend. It is no the Dante course of the University of the Knowledge of All. It is not a lyrical fast learning course.

It is an autonomous theatre.

Péter Gál Molnár, szinhaz.hu, 2011

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

It takes me a while to understand, that the most exciting figure of the Hungarian theatrical life for me is Zoltán Balázs without any doubt, who is the artistic director, face and director of the independent Maladype Theatre. For the celebration of the anniversary of the almost ten years old troupe they performed on 31st March the newest play, which was made of the Inferno act of The Divine Comedy by Dante, for which the Trafó gives the place.

I was led to my discovery in connection with Zoltán Balázs, that while during the last years I was looking for eagerly the premiers of Bárka Theatre, which accepted the troupe of Maladype, since they have left it, I am less interested in the happenings there. When I turned toward the Thália Theatre, it also happened because of them. Slowly I realised, that I have followed this incredibly talented, even today very young director and founder of a troupe. But now, after leaving the Bárka Theatre, many changes has happened with the Maladype. It seems to be, that with the formation of their open workshop “base” and the almost total changing of the members of the troupe, they have stepped on a new road. The scale of performances, which is a kind of sum of the last decade, brings the initial possibilities of future in itself, which they chained up to the tragedy, which was formed on the base The Divine Comedy by Dante. The first part of this trilogy is the Inferno, which was performed on the last day of March. This performance alternates between the translation by Mihály Babits and Ádám Nádasdy’s new voice.

I am not proud, but during my secondary school years I took easy the compulsory readings, so I only got the outline of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. This work is the part of the basic education, so it is an unavoidable memory, which quotes the atmosphere of the middle age Italy, its mental styles and everyday life. Its main sentences can be heard daily, and we refer to it during many of our conversations. It is hard to think about the fact, that all of it was born seven hundred years ago. But now it gets alive again.

Zoltán Balázs reaches back to the tools of the mystery plays of the middle age, but he wraps it into the appearance of the modern-minimalism. Even the initial picture can define everything, it creates a very strong atmosphere. The figure of Dante (Zénó Faragó) is sitting on a throne, which makes us remember Gigert, he is lighted by a spot lamp, he is wearing the symbols of the life on earth (gold and leather) but he is looking up, towards the light. The two sides support him supported by two of his angles, who are covered by gloom. They are Beatrice (Kamilla Fátyol) and Lucifer (Ákos Orosz). There are black dressed figures around them, (the choir of the volunteers), they are sitting, as they are the insensitive viewers of the human sufferings. Dante’s monologue is the starting point, then on the two sides, above the seduction, appears the ratio and spirit in the figure of Vergil, who reaches above the throne, and somehow he overcomes the poet’s inner battle. Andrea Ladányi gets into the tall figure of Vergil, with her tensed marble like body, and with her guiding the big “adventure” can start, to the place, where humans can go only in their imaginations, to the empire of the dead ones.

The journey first takes us to the inferno, where the less lucky crowd of the divine order is suffering from well-prepared punishments. As Dante asks one by one the fallen spirits about their unlucky fates, the performers and the choir are formed into vivid statues, into the embodied sins, by the precise choreography of Andrán Szőllősi. They are grunting and panting like pigs, they give birth to prostitutes instead of Venuses, they become frozen or boiling water, then dry trees, they become torn bodies or giants. Ulysses and his partners appear, the Minotaur, whose wild anger never gets calmer, and those unlucky ones, who are burning forever in their own devouring fire. All of it is formed in front of us, without any mistakes, we can say, however, the tempo is so fast that we do not have enough time to understand the actual political references of Dante’s time. The main hero is asking questions, because he would like to create a memory of the damned ones in the world of the living ones, who are accused many times by untrue charges. That is why he is continuously asking them, meanwhile he remains almost always in a static position, he is travelling inside himself, and he finds himself (his own humanity) in the story.

The sounds and musicality are defining during the performance. The whispering, humming, singing, shuffling of the choir, or even the noise of their marching are as important as the rhythms and melodies of the two also covered multi-musicians (Ákos Kerényi and Kornél Mogyoró), they are sometimes meditative, then pulsating psychotic or very powerful, their music is similar to the wild circling dance of the Sufi whirling. They push me into unconsciousness, they help us to abandon ourselves to the giddy journey.

The set (made by Péter Polgár) is simple, it is around the death and blood, black and red are dominated around the throne, which elevated lonely in the middle of the stage, as it would symbolise the centre of human conscious, between its thousand projections. In the background faceless hooded crowd turns towards us. The dresses are simple, dark, only Lucifer, who is dressed in the long skirt and net-like top, who is the ruler of the place and the half-naked Dante stand out of the others. Vergil, who goes on the road of the spirit, is grey, Beatrice, who is leading towards virtue and heaven, is brown, that way they also fit into the darkness, among the others.

Zénó Faragó is good, he takes the journey on his back, his text telling is perfect, he performs his character perfectly, he makes it memorable, his appearance has weight. The almost cathartic scene can be connected to him, when Lucifer takes his place on the throne, in his arm with his engaged one, who is burning is ecstasy, with Judas. Dante would like to save Judas, who has fallen into the deepest part of inferno, whose short story provokes in him deep human tenderness and sympathy. It is a wonderful moment, maybe it is the peak point. Ákos Orosz, who performs Lucifer is less convincing for me, anyway he gets into the central point in the end, and he gets the ruling chair of the empire. Somehow, I would expect a more frightening, more blood-curdling, heavier character, instead of it I gets Dante’s little bit superficial, rigid, sceptical aspect. He cannot convince me. The other side is the wonderful Beatrice, who by the arriving of the dawn, melts with the traveller, she is more passionate and more exciting, which is weird, as the character is not famous of her complexity. Andrea Ladányi, as Vergil creates something very important, as she performs her archaic text as an extremely strict tour guide.

Basically, the Inferno is a perfect performance, I can feel the genius ideas, the fact, that everybody, who takes part it in, can understand perfectly the director’s conception, so they can interpret it almost perfectly. The conception is excellent. Anyway, the troupe still has what to do: they have to get used to each other, come together, gain experiences, because their director wants a lot from them, and hopefully, he will not accept less.

Anna Nikoletta Nagy, kultblog.hu, 2011

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

Like a structure of an oratory.

“Let’s see my love, we have to be satisfied with symbols, if we talk about the inferno, as everything ends there, not only the traitorous word, but everything, and even it is its main and first characteristic, it is the first, which must be told, and the new arrival experiences it first down there, and it is, which, to make it clear, he cannot understand or accept with his correct senses first, as the common sense, or any restriction of his mental state prevent the understanding...” Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus.

The troupe of the Maladype theatre has found a difficult task, when they put on stage the first part of the Inferno, from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. Of course, the huge work, cannot be put on stage on its own. So it is even a huge task, which Zoltán Balázs, the director, and Judit Góczán, the dramaturg have done before, so that they have chosen those main points, which are important and necessary, they have chosen those side characters next to the main ones, between the crowd that Dante created into the inferno, who can appear in the performance. They have made Ádám Nádasdy translate the text again, and that way they have brought it closer to the language, we speak today. Except for Vergil, the Leader’s text, he tell the lines of the traditional translation by Babits, so that way, the besides the more modern sounding parts, the archaic text by Babits can show the difference between Dante and Vergil’s languages. They have added some so-called guest texts to the original poem: form Paolo Santarcangeli’s book, Conversations with the Satan and from Thomas Mann’s novel, from Doctor Faustus. The philosophical and world-view lessons of the performance are enriched on by the prosaic parts, but the static nature of the text becomes even bigger.

With this performance Zoltán Balázs goes on with the line, on the way, which he has done before, for example, as he started with the performances of Theomachia or Acropolis, so that theatrical form, which is defined many ways, which has been called theatre of rites, of movements, but these definitions cannot cover his own style. Of course, into the present performance all of his knowledge and improvement has been built in, which is the result of the many years long common work by the director and his troupe. While Károly Kazimír’s performance in the 60s, in the Round Theatre, treated the giant epic work from the point of view of declaration theatre, since this present staging gives much bigger stress and place to the movements and choreography.

The almost musical structure of the performance is very characteristic. As we can see and listen to the structure of a big oratorio. The movements of the faceless, damned souls can stand in for the big choirs. They are going around, meeting up with and leaving each other, they are laying on one another, they can form trees, they are waving like water, they froze into sculptures, they are thrown away and pushing together, they are marching, they form geometrical forms and roll on the ground as the situations require it.

The three main characters are: Dante, Lucifer and Beatrice, their monologues have similar sounding as the big solo arias of oratorios. The smaller named characters’ stories, who are standing out of the crowd, are similar to the smaller arioso of oratorios. Vergil’s text, as a huge recitativo, tells and explains the places and happenings, all through the performance. The atmosphere of the performance is strengthened by the live music, which has strange sounding, which are played by percussion instruments by Ákos Kerényi and Kornél Mogyoró. It is evident, that the temptation of illustration, comics or revue have to be avoided.

The stage of the Trafó is almost empty. At the beginning of the performance, the figures, who are dressed into black coats and, hoods, are sitting and standing by the walls, they are the nameless sufferers, the guilty souls, the damned ones, who are performed by volunteering civilians. In the middle of the stage, on a little bit elevated, round podium, Dante, the main character is sitting on a mental swivel chair, which refers to skulls and skeleton, and it is similar to the seat of an aeroplane. We can follow his travelling into the circles of the Inferno, into the depth of human soul, into the inside of his own soul. But we are not the only ones, who follow him on his big journey, but his dead lover, Beatrice, and Lucifer also does it, who does not wait for him in this performance, are the end of the journey, but he travels with him, inside him too. Dante is guided through the great journey by his model, by Vergil, he shows the way to the poet.

The damned souls, who are named by Dante, are the actors of the troupe. All of them performs many roles and characters. The men perform sometimes women, the women can perform men too. They have a hard task, without any concrete story, they have to change from moments to moments. They have only flashes of time to show some figures, some characters, some dramas. They have to perform sufferers, desiring people, furious ones, those who curse the others, who accept everything, those guilty ones, and sinless sinful ones, who appear from time to time in the faceless crowd, then disappear and fall back down. All of them have some memorable moments, between the figures some, who can put a remaining picture into our memories. Zoltán Lendváczky can get some joyful moments into the dark world with the showing of the head, which can exist independently from its body too. Judit Kovács Ligeti’s most memorable moment is, the modest, lyrical showing of Thais, the big hetaerae. Zsolt Páll is memorable as Ulysses, Minos and Minotaurus. Erika Tankó in Francesca da Rimini’s story shows the power of love, which can beat everything. In an important moment, in a strong picture on the stage, she can raise many fine artistic associations in the viewers. Ádám Tompa, as Christ, who is got from the cross, is laying as Judas in the lap of Lucifer, who is sitting on the throne.

The director, Zoltán Balázs, first invited Ilona Béres for the role of Vergil, who could not accept it for different reasons. (But she was on the premiere as a viewer.) Then Andrea Ladányi, dancer, got the role of Vergil, who is, through the whole performance, standing almost motionless behind Dante, and tells her frightening amount of difficult texts. Vergil, as Dante’s soul guide during his big journey, he is the origin, the starting point of everything. He is the Delegate, who fulfils his task, he leads and protects the poet. He does not hesitate or ask. All the words and sentences he tells: are statements. All of his sentences and words are heavy. He does not have a gender, he is not a man of a woman. He does not have, he cannot have feelings. He is the weight himself. He is the interpretation. He is a monolith, carved from one block.

Lucifer, as he is performed by Ákos Orosz, is not the usual evil one, he is not evil- or demon-like. He does not have a gender too. He is a creature in female dress. He is a cynical with silent words. Thomas Mann’s sentences leave his mouth as heavy truths. Then in a very stressed moment, he sits on the chair, on the throne of the world.

Beatrice, Dante’s dead lover is Kamilla Fátyol. She also follows the poet, all through his travelling. At the beginning of the performance, she starts with a huge monologue. She tells Paolo Santarcangeli’s ideas, about the fact, that how many ways a man can kill. On what different ways he can ruin someone else and then, how he can become the killer himself from the victim, of course. These are heavy, painful, almost unbearable sentences about pity and the human meanness.

Dante, the great traveller is Zénó Faragó. He starts the performance with intermittent words, which come from the deepness, “at the half of human life” then he goes on after a long break. He travels, but he does not even move from sitting position. Once, for a short moment, he stands up from the chair, to give it to Lucifer.

At the end of the performance, when the big journey reaches its end, the stage slowly turns into darkness, all characters disappear, the last beam of light is on the poet, who turns around on his chair, then the lights goes out finally.

“Now I tell you, that the inferno is inhabited by souls, similar to you. It is not so easy to get there, they would be suffering from the lack of space for a while, if they let in all ordinary ones...”

György Gold, Szabadidő Magazin, 2011

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

What can be the reason, why the Maladype Theatre gets the third part of The Divine Comedy, and puts it on stage. Because of its modern nature? No way, as Dante is conservative catholic, he lines up sins with hard words and scourges them. Yes, but Dante is the most modern person of his time, he is the ancestor of all reporters (© Egon Erwin Kisch), who faces up all terrible views with honest interest, however, he clearly gets the risky conditions: “Who enters here, gives all the hope up!”

And why does he do all these? To be able to get his lover Beatrice to and through the inferno, purgatory towards the stars. Can Dante be dusted? It seems to be yes. But should we do it? Of course, it can benefit from it. Not because of its dusty feelings and ideas, but on contrast to it. But its phrasing really comes from the middle age, its statements are extremely long. But what it writes down and shows us – even raises up – that can be used again and again. For example when morals get worse.

Let’s admit, that morals always gets worse. There has not been any time, which seniors have not complained about the failing of its youngsters. Or it was there in Dante’s era, the political fight, which has been going on for more than a century, between the Guelph (followers of the pope) and the Ghibellines (followers of the emperor), which can effect again in our everyday life too. As anytime can be two political power against each other, when none of them is as clean as the snow. So by rereading, re-watching Dante, we can find ideas, which can be said to our modern time.

So now only the text itself has to be reedited. By the work of Judit Góczán, dramaturg, some parts of the texts by Thomas Mann and Paolo Santarcangeli can get into it, and Ádám Nádasdy’s new translations, which have been made especially for this performance. However a practiced theatre goer might not even recognise it, as even if between the familiar statements by Babits, very modern parts appear too – for example, Beatrice’s long and modern list about the fact why she hates people. And at the end of the list, she tells broken – that that is why she loves people.

The text seems to be almost prose, as Zénó Faragó (Dante) starts telling jerkily the familiar statements, and sitting on a throne, which makes us remember a Robert Vallejo’s graphic or even a try by death-metal bands, he starts his tour in the inferno. Beatrice (Kamilla Fátyol) follows him as an angel, and Ákos Orosz, as a modern Lucifer gives the counterpoint to him.

But let’s the guide, Vergil! Andrea Ladányi is a guidebook with many texts. He is the strict guide for Dante, who is annoyingly curious, who wants to understand himself, meanwhile he understands others’ failures, sins, miseries and shames. Vergil is a cruel master with aesthetic outlook, who is a role model. Ladány appears in short tailed black coat, tight-fitting trousers on the stage, with her flat short hair, she is similar to a German money-aristocrat’s child, who is over bred (with confused gender identity) of the 30s. The late poet descendant cannot expect any forgiveness of sympathy of him.

As we are rushing through the past without Christianity, the accidental shadows, the statists of the performance, get their own roles, the nameless ones, who have very important role – so the damned souls. Their movements (it is the wonderful work by the designer of movements, by András Szőllősi) can make them real bio-set: and this word must be handled from a very positive point of view now. They are the boiling swamp, the wild sea, which surrounds Ulysses, they are the embodied binge around Ciacco, who has fallen into the sin of gluttony. And if we get deeper into the inferno: they are the grove of vivid trees, of the jealous ones.

Then the more horrific ones come circles by circles: the tyrants, killers, robbers, murderers, blasphemous ones, hypocrites, unnatural lechers, usurers – finally the cheaters and traitors. Around all of us, the appearance of the coated-hooded souls, their marching, falling, collapsing can make the place to be the horrible world of the Inferno.

We can hear them differently on the stage, but Babits’ words are the most beautiful ones, which can be told about any soul that gets into the inferno: “all of them has the same sin, the ugly life”. So the Comedy has one scene, the sin of which Dante convicts, but the beauty of it, does not make us remember the Inferno: the story of the dead ones of love. This is Paolo and Francesca’s famous love. The man asks for his (ugly) brother – for political reasons, to get the piece of weapons – the beautiful girl from Rimini, but finally they fall in love with each other, and the idyll is stopped by the sword strike by the brother. The two young ones’ circling and going around, the hanging of their arms to each other, can give wonderful moments to the viewers.

Zénó Faragó’s Dante rarely leaves the mental-cold time machine. He is going around in it, as he is blown by a tornado. He asks tirelessly the newer and newer subjects of his interviews, even if he dies because of them. The punishing dance of the inferno goes on around and in front of him. From the two sides of the throne, which is decorated by skulls, Beatrice and Lucifer do not get very far. They seem to live in a shell, they are separated from the world of shadows by top lights. Dante is only a visitor. Vergil, as some kind of main hunter, he guides and judges, while standing on the top of the back of the throne. Andrea Ladányi’s all tensed standing on one point, even her steel sharp voice too: all these are frozen dance. They are wonderful.

The roles, which are marked by many names, here performed by five actors: Zoltán Lendváczky, Judit Kovács Ligeti, Zsolt Páll, Erika Tankó and Ádám Tompa. They take me with themselves. There are not any fake movements, dissonant voices. By the way: the voice. In spite of its monumental and monotonous nature, the Japanese taiko drums, with their many sounds, and the other percussion instruments are played (stylishly) incredibly well by Ákos Kerényi and Kornél Mogyoró.

Zoltán Balázs treat with definite arms the greatest text of the 14th century – and since than of the world literature. It is not sure, that he does it respectfully, but with powerful conception anyway. The result confirms him: he can make a performance for the modern time. However, it is good if the viewers can prepare before from the original work, as without it, they can just move their heads, while those great amounts of names and references are told. However, it could be similar, in case of Dante’s peers too...

István J. Bedő, olvassbele.hu, 2011

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)

At the half of human life, a muscular, half-naked rocker leaves for the empire of the other world. He gets as his followers a silver painted seat of a spaceship, a female terminator, a leopard in lace dress and a Lucifer in frilly skirt. Dante’s Inferno starts in the Trafó with a slow swirl.

The troupe of Maladype accepted much more than that can be fulfilled. It is not enough, that by summing up their ten years old existence, they put on stage the least stage like vision of the international literature, but they use a linguistic feat too: they perform at the same time the first part of The Divine Comedy by Babits’ and Ádám Nádasdy’s newly made translation. To the lines by Babits, which sound on archaic language Nádasdy’s texts can give ironic answers, the two types of linguistic interpretation are changed lines by lines and sentence by sentence: sometimes the level of the text itself becomes a drama, as the dialogue is between the world views of the two translations.

This double nature goes on with the mixture of genders. Andrea Ladányi performs Vergil – over her high heeled shoes and tight trousers, she wears a short coat – her rigid face, sculpture-like movements, perfect muscles, can follow the poet on his way as a senseless fulfiller, while Ákos Orosz’s Lucifer is soft, weak, grotesque figure, who shows in lace and frill the inferno-like reflection of the cruel human world. Between the guilty souls, sometimes women, than men perform the mostly male roles, even their movements do not tell anything about their gender, just the text interprets them according to their own places. There are androgynous creatures, victims, who are closed into the prison of their bodies, they are those, who live in the inferno-like, desolate place of the inferno. The new place of this dual nature is opened between the actors and volunteers, who get involved into the performance, who have applied for the appeal of Maladype to form the moving, vivid mass of the “sinful souls”, with excellent choreography. (András Szőllősi, who is the leader of the movements, can rise them to be equal with the other elements of the view on stage.)

Zoltán Balázs’ staging does a lot to make the Inferno a liveable, sensible, familiar place for the contemporary viewers. He involves civilian performers and with their help he can make deeper the concept of suffering. He puts Dante’s way into a minimal set (Péter Polgár’s visual world is sometimes pop-art-like, then works with the fashions of interior design, but basically it works well), with the contrasting of the static central point and the mass, which is whirling around it, he can put movements into the scales of pictures of life. He makes the whole one vivid, with details, and makes alive the conceptual structure of a moral question. But this immersion, which is similar to space travelling, is so sterile, so similar to a robot, that at the doorstep of Inferno not only the hope bleeding but the flesh and blood reality of the man, who is walking in the inferno. Zénó Faragó’s Dante does not suffer through all his fight together with the Adam of the Tragedy. He remains untouched, he is a paying guest of an attraction on the other world, he is a pensive traveller, who sleeps well, when he returns to the earth. No more dreams can torture him, he will not remember Judas’ body, who was suffering in the pose of the crucified Jesus, the sinful ones, who spit on one another, the greedy popes, and the lovers, who try to hold on to the tornado. Beatrice’s figure does not float in front of his eyes, who Kamilla Fátyol performs with uncertain contours – it is not known, if the purity of the virgin girl, or the cruelty of the dominant woman, who takes revenge on the pain of the world, can take the stress. And Lucifer does not help either, with his own ironic and rational evil nature, just brings him on the road.

The progress and travelling are really illusive, as the spaceship, which is decorated with skulls, is a swivel chair in reality, Dante, Vergil, Beatrice and Lucifer hold on it, and they do not move during the two hours of the performance – but there are not any movements in the layers of existence, just the human stage is dynamic. The inhabitants of the Inferno are going around for a waving rhythm, as a hot pulsation from some kind of crater. The mass sometimes throw a story, a fate, a suffer onto the surface, and the actors of Maladype can express is excellently: Zoltán Lendváczky with his special moving culture, discipline and humour can rule the scenes, which become thick around him, Ádám Tompa with passionate moments, Zsolt Páll is powerful, effective monologues can surprize us, Judit Kovács Ligeti is a little bit theatrical, but she can bring well-formed figures. Next to the performance by the actors, we get Ákos Kerényi and Kornél Mogyoró’s percussion section, with the playing of the drum and gong they take power and structure into the scenes.

But what can we do with this hardly opening text? We can hear the cross-talks, the sentences, which refer to the scandals of social life, to the racism, to the untouchable nature of political elite circle. But the mythological references, some parts of the classical knowledge, which is thicken into short metaphors, the whole structured Dante-like picture of the world, which remain wrapped, untouched all through the performance. The scales of pictures, which are enriched with movements, sound effects, fine scenic elements, are for nothing, if the viewers, who are under thirty cannot decode this thick material of the text – here and there it is made to be more complex with ancient Greek and Italian letters. They cannot see in the powerless main character the poet, who gets through the pictures of the world, who is the symbol of the individual creation, they cannot interpret the vision of the creativity, which is afraid of death and forms the other world.

Eszter Götz, Kultúra.hu, 2011

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)