The theatre profession is also significantly responsible for the current situation; instead of dialogue, personal conflicts and lobbying activities are predominant, and selection has been lacking among the troupes – says Zoltán Balázs, with whom we spoke about cultural politics, the role of theatre, and the company during the break between Christmas and New Year’s, in the middle of the rehearsal process for The Master and Margarita.

- Why is your next performance going to be in Sibiu?

- Romania is my homeland. I was born in Cluj-Napoca and lived in Sighetu Marmației until I was twelve. This shaped my whole life, just like the drift and whirlwind that followed after we left there. For a long time, I exiled Romania from my dreams because the noise of the railway stations haunted me. I never thought that I would return as a director, especially not to the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu, which is currently one of the best theatres in the country, receiving significant international attention, with a troupe that travels a lot. Through invited directors, the theatre presents new, unfamiliar content, forms, and styles to the actors and, through them, to the audience. When we first performed there in May 2011 with our Leonce and Lena production at the International Theatre Festival, the theatre’s leadership made us feel that we had a special place there. The successful debut and the ongoing negotiations culminated in the rehearsal process for The Master and Margarita now. The performance is a co-production of the Radu Stanca Theatre and Maladype Theatre – while this prestigious theatre could invite internationally recognized professionals like Brook or Marthaler to guest direct, its director, Constantin Chiriac, has still chosen to invest time, money, and energy in a small company of young Hungarian actors and a creative team with a different approach to theatre. This venture is part of building a "new theatrical civilization," something I truly believe in.

- What do you mean by building a new theatrical civilization?

- We are living in a new era of human civilization, where media and the internet force people to think and learn in different ways. In this culture-shifting, visual age, the focus is moving away from linguistic, conceptual thinking to creative thinking. Creativity and everything that machines cannot or can only do in a limited way are becoming more valuable. These skills are most effectively acquired through the various arts, including theatre. That’s why I think it’s important for artistic education to be increasingly emphasized, and that the "high culture" of theatre doesn’t lose its social weight. We need to acknowledge the change and turn it to our advantage. It’s not enough to simply consume and exhaust traditions and acquired knowledge; it’s wise to rethink them and write down our new discoveries in a new notebook. For this, we need new paper, new colors, new pencils, and new thoughts. A troupe can only stay viable if it constantly reevaluates and redraws its own boundaries. It’s important not to be afraid to demolish old buildings because even if they were structurally stable or forward-thinking in their design at the time, we can always build newer and bolder ones. The cultural shift questions established artistic canons, thus changing the role of art and the artist in society. The artists of Maladype represent a new type of artist with a fresh perspective on theatre, one that has a more vibrant, open relationship with society and everyday life, treating the audience as an equal partner.

- How do circumstances like money, or the lack of it, limit this idea?

- A partially secure financial background definitely helps. It’s good when the leader of a troupe knows how much to plan for the next season, whether they can count on the money allocated for operations, and whether it will arrive on time. Sponsors also trust us more when they see that the state is counting on our theatre, rather than when uncertainty surrounds support and payments. But I don’t want to repeat the facts because – as Woland says in The Master and Margarita – they are stubborn things, and they speak for themselves. Still, it’s not just about money. Creativity, strategic sense, courage, and a sense of humor are essential – above all, a sense of humor. There has been no solution for a long time other than finding alternative sources for survival, but an artist’s goal cannot be just survival. I have always believed in work, and right now, that work ties me to Sibiu with Maladype. If we hadn’t developed such a strong relationship with our domestic audience over the years, we wouldn’t have even come home to perform during the break between the holidays because financially, it would be absolutely unprofitable. If we only considered financial aspects, we could have moved our base abroad.

- Earlier you said that although you'll be abroad the most this year, you would work only in Hungary for a whole year if the conditions were right.

- This is natural because I am Hungarian, and I can express myself most personally in my mother tongue. I would like to work more at home, and I would be happy if our knowledge and our work were appreciated here, and if we were recognized with the necessary financial support for our long-term operation. Maladype represents Hungary everywhere in the world, acting as a theatre diplomat for the country. At the end of last year, as delegates of the Ministry of Public Administration and the Hungarian Fest, we traveled to India with Lajkó Félix and Ferenc Fehér, and at the end of January, we were in Iran, performing at the Fajr International Theatre Festival in Tehran. Currently, despite the not-so-harmonious relationship between the two peoples, we are rehearsing The Master and Margarita in a Romanian-Hungarian co-production. In Sibiu, a city predominantly inhabited by Romanians and Germans, where the Hungarian population is dwindling, a small Budapest troupe represents the innovative force. What is this if not diplomacy? It would be great if international troupes came to us, which would have an impact on our audience and the art of theatre in Hungary. The more sincerely and comprehensively an adult society talks about its own responsibility, its everyday and abstract problems, the richer a legacy it can leave behind for the next generation.

- How important is it within the profession that a troupe has a theatre ideal, a strategy, and what it has contributed, or is domestic theatre life organized based on other principles?

- The apartment is small, and many people live in it. Hungarian cultural life is angry, its participants are disappointed, at the mercy of their own emotions, panicked, rushing, trying to save whatever can be saved. Only rarely and by a few can proposals be made that are not only forward-looking for their immediate surroundings but for the larger whole. I see few defining personalities who could pull our cultural life out of this swamp, but many "opinion leaders." Much more real dialogue is needed, with thorough, reasonable, and credible plans to define and share tasks, but not through undermining each other and lobbying. What we need is a comprehensive strategy that would result in long-term collaborations between creators and creative groups. The current environment is not very suitable for this: personal battles and goals are the driving forces, which, here and there, with smaller or greater effectiveness, can get things moving, but they do not bring radical change and cannot bring radical change.

- What led us to this swamp you mentioned?

- We are all significantly responsible. For example, we allowed an overwhelming number of small theatre groups, each creating a production here or there, to flood and consume a significant part of the independent theatre space. The key and more innovative players in the sector did not manage – or did not want – to assert their interests against this phenomenon, and slowly, they all got worn down. We should have stood more firmly and radically for selection earlier – whether we liked it or not, the failure to do so is one of the causes of the damage we are now suffering. On the other hand, there is almost no analytical and evaluative dialogue between the independent and non-independent theatre sectors. Only a small percentage of critics are capable of understanding and interpreting everything that may have a positive or negative impact on our everyday theatre life. Thirdly, we hardly care about the wider world. We don’t know – and the professional press doesn’t write about it – what’s happening at theatres in Berlin, Paris, or Tokyo, we don’t know where Warlikowski is directing and why exactly that play. The topic of world theatre has ceased to exist; it is no longer part of Hungarian theatre culture. When Hungarians are abroad at a festival, instead of showing interest and engaging in a multilingual, rich conversation with an international community, they tend to retreat to a corner, factionalize, and repeat their own grievances.

- You say dialogue is the solution, but the environment is unsuitable for that. Does that mean the situation is hopeless?

- Everyone is trying to save their own skin, trying to keep alive what they consider valuable in one way or another. Maladype has no other option but to use and make use of its own past, knowledge, and network, and as long as possible, survive, grow, find new environments that are open to talent, and try to gather as many financial and intellectual investors as possible. Complaining, "telling it like it is," or unarticulated anger has never helped us, only focused work has.

- Is the managing authority interested in what we’ve talked about so far – theatre ideals, strategies – when deciding on Maladype’s support?

- Public interest is not focused here right now, the spotlight is not on us. Healthcare or education are much more problematic and frequent areas, which is understandable. Still, we understand theatre, and it is our job to take care of it and raise alarms from here. Countries that have experienced rapid economic development – Finland, Japan, South Korea, India, Germany – invested money and energy in the cultural sector, education, and the arts during their greatest crises, within their means. Every politician in a country that has undergone significant economic development knows that it is worth investing in education and artistic training because nothing can be more fruitful than intellectual capital. A country is only as valuable as the investment it makes in the mental condition of its population.

Kovács Bálint, Magyar Narancs, 2013

Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek