It is often said by the audience and theatrical scene that there are only a few truly talented actors and directors amongst young people. My conversation partner, Zoltán Balázs, member of the Bárka Theater, is a refreshing exception, as he makes his mark through his creations on both fields. Work matters.

You graduated from college, acting department. Where did you go after the diploma?

I was just a “rookie” actor at Radnóti (Timon of Athens) and Szolnok (Les Enfants Terribles, A view from the bridge) when János Csányi, the executive of the Bárka Theater at that time, made me an offer, which for a young actor-director meant the freedom of long-term work.

You are performing and directing at the same time. Is this shift-work a problem?

Somehow, in college, I got mixed up with different tasks and I had a lot of fun with my bipolar lifestyle. If they weren’t in balance, they would not provoke or excite each other, and I would not be able to express myself as Hamlet, Captain Macheath or as the director Empedocles, and it would be impossible to run a company of ten actors.

You have founded a successful team under the name Maladype. How did you start it? Does this company have a future or will it merge with the Bárka?

Without bypassing the answer (about the founding), the curiosity of the actors towards each other and towards me has created and kept alive this developing company ever since. There is no mention of assimilation, but rather a community with parallel, independent, and different ways of seeking, so no one has to give up their needs, taste and plans. So important the Maladypes’ fate is that this year we have been able to provide our actors constant training (movement, vocals and speech) so that the stolen times and the overflowing energy of the rehearsals could be replaced by this constantly changing coexistence. This is what we’ve agreed on with Róbert Alföldi, and after a year we will draw the conclusions and lessons and we will rethink the possibility of working together.

Last season you stepped forward with a completely different Hamlet in the direction of Tim Carroll.

There is rarely such an opportunity in an actor’s life with such a role, with such director, with such a concept, so it’s one of the greatest gifts- if not the greatest- that I could ever get. I’m happy to perform it and that it is still on the repertoire after ten performances, compared to other Hamlet performances, and not to mention, we’re now starting the second season.

The Beggar’s Opera –which is a real curiosity- had/will have a premiere at three different times. How much did the performance change since the premiere?

The production was born at the intersection of a strange line of forces (end of a season, change of the executive, the Gyula coproduction) therefore it could not confirm itself. This official premiere will be quite different from early June one. The experiences accumulated at the end of the season and in Gyula will surely had and have shaped the final image of the piece.

I know you don’t like the subject, but it’s inevitable. You got a lot of honors last season. Does this matter to you or your work is more important?

Of course, it is important, but no one will be more talented with the prizes. So we are left with the works.

What are the tasks ahead of you this season?

In the 2006/2007 season, besides being in Hamlet and The Beggar’s Opera, I mainly accepted to direct: Gilbert and Sullivan’s: The Mikado-University of Arts; Rostand: The Eagle -Debrecen; Kleist: Katie of Heilbronn-Bárka. The most exciting is the Wyspianski piece for Maladype, Acropolis, which we co-direct with Sándor Zsótér.

Tamás Gaál, Súgó
Translation by Brigitta Erőss

- The tragicomic life of Samuel Finkelbaum -

Co-production between Csokonai National Theatre Debrecen and Maladype Theatre in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust

Translator: Zsófia Rideg
Director: Zoltán Balázs

The author Gilles Ségal, who was born in Romania and lived and worked in France, exclaimed when he finished his drama The puppetmaster: "I wanted to write something light." Compared to this, his work has become anything but light-hearted writing: his protagonist, five years after World War II, the world-famous puppeteer Samuel Finkelbaum, a Birkenau refugee living in divided Berlin, does not believe that the war is over and that he no longer has to hide, despite many people trying to convince him. Thus, he lives his days locked up in a boarding house with the doll of his wife and never-born child who was lost in the concentration camp, and prepares for the great performance of his life, which is entitled: The Tragicomic Life of Samuel Finkelbaum.

The alternative reality of the puppet protagonist is thus framed on the one hand by a classic theater-within-the-theatre solution, and on the other hand by the arrival of a friend whom Finkelbaum might still be able to believe: the war is over. Or not? It can be seen from the direction of Zoltán Balázs.

Cast:
Finkelbaum: Máté Gergely Kiss
Ruchele: Ruth Nache Lopez / Elise Paris Turco
Proprietress: Kinga Újhelyi
Popov/Spencer/Weissfeld/Doctor/Schwarzkopf: János Mercs

Creators:
Director: Zoltán Balázs
Dramaturg: Zsuzsanna Juraszek
Set designer: Zoltán Balázs
Costume designer: Anikó Németh
Composer/Music director: Adrián Kovács
Vocal coach: Kinga Tóth
Motion sculptor: Zoltán Balázs
Assistant of director: Erika Ozoroczki
Creative producer: Sylvia Huszár
Production manager: Katalin Balázs

Opening Night: 
10 January 2025, Csokonai National Theatre Debrecen, Árpád Kóti Hall
27 January 2025, Rumbach Synagogue, Budapest

Running time: 75 minutes

Sponsors: MAZSÖK, Government of Hungary, MAZSIHISZ, KIM, Bethlen Gábor Foundation, Hotel Roombach

Translated by Géher István
Directed by Zoltán Balázs

Penelopiad is Margaret Atwood's unique myth adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, the Trojan War, and the queen of Ithaca, Penelope, the embodiment of female fidelity: a modern-day echo and reflection of Penelope's story, transposed into a dramatic structure. The highly successful novel written in 2005 (translator: István Géher) is an extension of the tragic fate of Penelope in the captivity of Hades, a projection of the pain and guilt felt by the cruel murder that claimed the lives of the Handmaids.

Zoltán Balázs's direction retells the well-known ancient story from the personal perspective of Odysseus' experienced, brave and resourceful wife, amplifying the female aspects of the myth. The director's concept sensitively integrates into the multifaceted fabric of the performance the mysterious story of the twelve handmaidens hanged by Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, and the moral aspects of their killing. The protagonist of the story dreamed up for the stage for the first time in Hungary: Gabriella Varga. Nelli Orbán brings her cousin Helen to life while Edina Bajkó will play the Maids.

The latest Hungarian-Macedonian-Polish co-production of the Maladype Theater promises an all-arts production in such a variety of theater genres that it gives the audience the possibility of a kaleidoscope-like play experience that can be experienced both in personal and collective recognitions. The director's idea, based on an unusual dramaturgy, creates a unique performance system based on the virtuoso presence of the actresses through the specific content-form units and the verbal, acoustic and visual stimuli formulated in an exceptional combination. The music for the overall work of art is written by the composer Adrián Kovács, whose name is associated with such emblematic performances as Liliomfi, Who is no longer under the sky, The Dictator, The Legend of Pendragon, The Great Gatsby, Dangerous Relations or the City of Loves.

Cast:

Penelope: Gabriella Varga
Helene: Nelli Orbán
Handmaids: Edina Bajkó

Creators:

Director: Zoltán Balázs
Dramaturg: Zsuzsanna Juraszek
Set designer: Zoltán Balázs
Scenic: János Katona-Koós
Costume designer: Anikó Németh
Composer/Music director: Adrián Kovács
Production manager: Katalin Balázs
Creative producer: Sylvia Huszár


Budapest opening night: 31/05/2024, The Third Place
Gyula opening night: 22/7/2024, Gyula Castle Theatre, Chamber Hall

Running time: 90 minutes

Tour:
ZIZ - Art and Social Area, Cluj-Napoca, Romania - 2024
Studio 2 Theatre, Târgu Mureș, Romania - 2024
Csíki Játékszín, Miercurea Ciuc, Romania - 2024
BEZ GRANIC International Theatre Festival, Cieszyn, Poland - 2024
STOBI International Antique Drama Festival, Veles, North-Macedonia - 2024
All-Arts Festival Gyula Castle Theatre - 2024

Awards:
Őze Lajos Award for the portrayal of Penelope to Gabriella Varga

Co-production partners: A Third Place, Gyula Castle Theater All Arts Festival, "STOBI" Antik Drama International Festival (Veles, North Macedonia), "BEZ GRANIC" Medzinarodowy Festiwal Teatralny (Czieszyn, Poland)

Sponsors: KIM, Embassy of Hungary in Skopje, Liszt Institute Warsaw, Waclaw Felczak Foundation

Co-production between the MESS International Theatre Festival, SARTR Theatre, Maladype Theatre and the Budapest Spring Festival

Translated to Bosnian by: Senada Kreso
Translated to Hungarian by: Dorka Porogi

Director: Zoltán Balázs

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, at the 63rd MESS International Theater Festival, on 10/01/2023, Susan Sontag's absurdist play Alice in bed directed by Zoltán Balázs was presented. The joint performance of the MESS International Theater Festival, the SARTR - Sarajevo War Theater, the Maladype Theatre and the Budapest Spring Festival celebrating the birth and death of the American writer, was the opening event of the international theater festival held between the 1st and 9th of October in 2023.

Alice in bed is a free-flowing 'phantasmagoria' commemorating the brilliant sister of William and Henry James, Alice James (1848-1892). At the age of nineteen, Alice fell into a deep depression, suffered from various obscure and debilitating illnesses, stayed in bed, tried to commit suicide, wrote a diary, and finally died at the age of forty-four. In Sontag's play, Alice James merges with another great Alice of her time, the heroine of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The dramatic work with a special structure is the apotheosis of the cyclic projections of despair, hopelessness and rage, the failures and victories of imagination. The twisted, multi-dimensional story reveals the mazes of Alice's damaged soul and the causes of constant family conflicts. Susan Sontag writes about her work: "I think I have been preparing my whole life to write Alice in bed. A play about women's concerns and emotions, and ultimately, a play about the imagination. The reality of the prison of the spirit. The triumph of imagination. But imaginary victory is not enough.”

Susan Sontag, the literary, feminist and pacifist icon, was passionately searching for the truth throughout her life. She spoke out against the war in Vietnam and Yugoslavia, and also carried out significant humanitarian work in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In besieged Sarajevo, she directed and staged Samuel Beckett's existentialist drama Waiting for Godot with Bosnian actors who rehearsed and performed by candlelight amidst the bombings. The large number of audiences present at the performances, despite the constant danger to their lives, became a symbol of commitment to peace and unity. The jubilee direction of Zoltán Balázs also pays tribute to the legendary performance presented thirty years ago, as well as to the premiere of the writer's play Alice in bed, which was also seen by the audience for the first time three decades ago as a production of the New York Theater Workshop at the La MaMa Theater in New York.

Sontag, one of the most influential philosophers of the last century, whose books have been translated into more than thirty languages, wrote short stories, historical romance and fantasy novels, as well as four plays, the best known of which is “Alice in bed”.

Zoltán Balázs’ Sarajevo direction of Susan Sontag's cult play imbued with deep humanity is not without dynamism and playfulness, multifaceted synchronicity running on several levels and strands, storytelling combining specific content and form solutions, and the emotional execution that is completed through verbal and non-verbal signs and intellectual enhancement.

Cast:
Alice James: Snežana Bogićević
Mother/Nurse: Ana-Mia Karić
Alice's father "Henry": Kemal Rizvanović
Alice's brother "Harry": Sanjin Arnautović
Margaret Fuller: Matea Mavrak
Emily Dickinson: Hana Zrno
Young man: Enes Kozličić

Creators:
Director: Zoltán Balázs
Dramaturg: Zoltán Balázs
Set designer: Zoltán Balázs
Costume designer: Ljiljana Majkić
Mask: Sanela Aličković Ćatović
Music director: Tijana Vignjević
Editor of sound: Nedim Zlatar
Sound: Irhad Hodžić
Light: Armin Berberović, Džani Dimovski
Assistant directors: Ajla Medanhodzić, Minja Novaković
Production assistants: Lejla Hsanbegovic, Belma Jusufović
Production managers: Katalin Balázs, Maia Salkić
Producers: Sylvia Huszár, Nihad Kreševljaković

Venue: SARTR - Sarajevo War Theatre, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Opening night: 10/01/2023

Duration of the performance: 90 minutes

Awards:
Golden Mask Award - 63. MESS International Theatre Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - 2023

Sponsors: Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Ministry of Culture and Sports of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Director: Zoltán Balázs

Just as the Italians have Dante, the English have Shakespeare, the Spanish have Cervantes, the Germans Goethe, geniuses whose work sums up an era and the soul of a nation, for the French La Fontaine is one of the great writers who are truly representative of national psychology, apparently harmless author of fables, but, in fact, one of the most lucid and relentless critics of society of his time.

Jean de La Fontaine (1621 – 1695) creates an original work of extraordinary variety and vitality, full of humor and wisdom, constituting both a panorama of human vices and defects, of social injustice and oppression, as well as a compendium of a morality based on common sense, temperance and caution.

The verve, naturalness, irony and humor of these little spiritual masterpieces, in which evolve allegorical characters, chosen especially from the animal kingdom, remain valid even today, although they were written almost three centuries ago. The relationships between men and women, with their secrets, are also reflected in this kaleidoscope, “a grand comedy in one hundred different acts, on the stage of the universe", as La Fontaine himself defined his work.

The versatile and multifaceted artistic language of Zoltán Balázs offers the audience a complex theatrical experience, in which movement and music are elevated to the same level as words.

Players:

Conrad Mericoffer
Alina Berzunțeanu
Mădălina Ciotea
Sabrina Iașchevici
Ioana Mărcoiu
Crina Mureșan
Cătălina Mustață
Paula Niculiță
Simona Popescu

Creators:

Adaptation: Zoltán Balázs
Costumes and set design: Constantin Ciubotariu
Selection of music: Zoltán Balázs
Movement: Zoltán Balázs

Premiere: 03. 11. 2022. Odeon Theatre, Main Stage, Bucharest, Romania

Duration: 85 minutes

 

Director: Zoltán Balázs

On the 6th of October in 2022, the Jaracza Theater in Olsztyn presented Part II of Adam Mickiewicz's dramatic poem Forefathers’ Eve directed by Zoltán Balázs. The premiere of the performance, realized in a special concept, will be the opening event of the Via Carpatia All-Arts Festival held annually by the theater. The topicality of the premiere is enhanced by the 200th anniversary of the first two parts of the work of art, published in 1823, which the Polish literary and theatrical community will celebrate next year.

Mickiewicz's "reconstructional" work, consisting of fragments written in several parts, which received a truly definitive form through theatrical traditions, is constantly being rewritten. The poem, which is an inexhaustible source of inspiration, has already become an example of the truth inherent in art for many artists and a source of inspiration for expanding the boundaries of art. The Forefathers’ Eve is the actual starting point of the "mythology of the Polish theater". Wyspiański, Schiller, Kotlarczyk, Swinarski, Kantor, Grotowski, Warlikowski and Nekrošius also set the goal of integrating the content-form unity of the romantic work on stage. During the creation of their directorial vision, the biggest challenge for all of them was finding the right way to express themselves on stage. Grotowski concentrated on the moments of the rite, the possibilities inherent in Mickiewicz's text helped him to perfect the form of the avant-garde theatre. Schiller tried to bring to the surface the hidden mysticism of the dramatic text, and his monumental staging was characterized by the synthesis of various art forms. Kotlarczyk was interested in the image of a nation confessing its sins, Polish martyrology, Swinarski in the relationship between national history and myth. Three women dressed in folk costumes entered Warlikowski's Plexiglas and chrome stage...

Zoltán Balázs's direction is devoid of the messianic myth and the political thread, his adaptation of Forefathers’ Eve is another attempt to expand the stage and blur the boundaries between theater and reality. The head of the Maladype Theatre is interested in universal cosmology. His collective artwork focuses on the ceremonial motifs of the Forefathers, the creative energies of "untouched cultures", and the negative processes of the declining relationship between the living and the dead. His vision as a director emphasizes the values ​​of completeness through fragmentation and the "dance of death tailored to its phases". One of the main goals of the stage production, which stirs extraordinary energy, is to bring the "primordial theatricality" and the ancient imagination closer to today's spectators.

Players:

Olga Borys
Joanna Fertacz
Jakub Gola (g.a.)
Agnieszka Giza- Gradowska
Radoslaw Hebal
Cezary Ilczyna
Marcin Kiszluk
Alicja Kochańska
Marta Markowicz
Ewa Pałuska-Szozda
Barbara Prokopowicz
Kamil Rodek
Wojciech Rydzio
Agata Zielińska

Creators:

Dramaturg: Zoltán Balázs
Scenographer: Zoltán Balázs
Costume designer: Agata Uchman
Composer: Marcin Wawruk
Leader of choir: Malgorżata Wawruk
Movement: Zoltán Balázs
Lights: Jerzy Świtoń and Zoltán Balázs
Sound: Marek Kwadrans
Head pieces: Justyna Banasiak
Prints: Ola Czajor
Interpreter: Jolanta Jarmołowicz
Costume designer assistant: Justyna Korzonek
Director assistant: Agata Żuczkowska
Production assistant: Aurelia Poczopko
Creative producer: Huszár Sylvia

Premiere: 06. 10. 2022. Jaracza Theatre, Main Stage, Olsztyn, Poland

Duration: 90 minutes

Supporters: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Poland, Waclaw Felczak Polish-Hungarian Cooperation Institute, Liszt Institute Warsaw

For 20 years, Hungary’s Maladype Theatre has sought to maintain independence within an increasingly authoritarian political landscape. Nick Awde talks to producer Sylvia Huszár and director Zoltán Balázs about creative integrity, international touring and turning adversity to advantage.

On the 6th of October in 2022, the Jaracz Theater in Olsztyn will present Part II of Adam Mickiewicz's dramatic poem Forefathers’ Eve directed by Zoltán Balázs. The premiere of the performance, realized in a special concept, will be the opening event of the Via Carpatia All-Arts Festival held annually by the theater. The topicality of the premiere is enhanced by the 200th anniversary of the first two parts of the work of art, published in 1823, which the Polish literary and theatrical community will celebrate next year.

It wasn't our first meeting, and I hope it won't be the last either: talking to Zoltán Balázs is like getting a lesson on what true freedom and independence are like. The actor-director who has led the Maladype Theatre for more than twenty years is perhaps the most unique creator of Hungarian theater life. Their latest performance, Merlin, tells the story of the greatness and horror of man in the company's usual bold style.

- Tankred Dorst's drama Merlin or the Waste Land is a rarely performed play, what interested you so much in it?

- The dual nature of man of all times, which emerges in Dorst's visionary work from the monumental summation of the historical and metaphysical experiences of the 20th century. The epic drama, written forty years ago, has only been presented four times in Hungary: in 1984 at the Comedy Theatre, in 1995 at the Új Theatre, in 2012 at the Örkény Theatre and in 2021 at the Maladype Theatre. It is no coincidence, since the structure, based on a specific dramaturgy, consists of ninety-six scenes that are extremely diverse in terms of genre. The staging of the multi-actor play, running on a thousand threads, requires an exceptional creative vision and a decisive and complex directorial concept in terms of content and form. I don't have a troupe as big as the mentioned theaters, but I have a nine-person ensemble in great shape, whose members are actor individuals who are capable of virtuosic transformations and kaleidoscopic, focused teamwork. The defining element of this ever-changing game is also the minimalist set, in which there is a house that can be used in many ways - it can even be turned into a round table - and can be folded in and out. The attention of the actors of the show, which is based on complicated artistic and technical solutions, with a whirlwind momentum, cannot wane for a minute...

- Neither does the spectator. I can say from experience that the Maladype performances work the audience thoroughly.

- The cathartic moments of recognition require devoted and in-depth attention, the process cannot be rushed. Otherwise, the theater experience remains just an affected version of an excellently written speech. The audience fulfills its role when it organically merges into the events on stage and becomes an active part of the given story without being noticed. Instead of contrived messages, the Maladype troupe wants to present spectators who are open to special adventures with the experience of initiation. We try to create this mostly by consciously avoiding theatrical clichés and direct statements for our fellow players in the auditorium. It is not the job of any creator to tell anyone what to think and how to feel. I abhor any stage message that lacks empathy. It is worth paying attention to the fact that people from different religious, linguistic, cultural and social backgrounds are sitting in the auditorium every evening, who may be more sensitive to certain topics due to their age, upbringing and personal experiences. Our encounter will be truly lasting if the story or the personal impulses expressed by the characters evoke different associations in everyone.

- However, there is always a main point that can be decoded by everyone, just as there is always a reason when a director selects a play. What was the reason for Merlin?

- A few basic themes have determined my choices of plays since the beginning, their presentation on stage in new aspects accompanies my career as a director. For me the interest in the relationship between individual and the community, the individual and the power is almost monomaniacal. Recently, I'm mainly interested in people thrashing around in the trap of civilization, the procedure, how we are engulfed by modern conditions. We have provided our planet with knowledge and information, we are connected, so we need a new kind of awareness - and not only in the field of climate change. It all depends on how we relate to the change itself. The world we knew is disappearing, our certainties are losing shape at lightning speed. In this mad chase, the man who is constantly scratching his head longs to be able to hold on to something. In God, in ordinary happiness, or in an idea that leads him to the right path and gradually reveals his dual nature. In Merlin, as in Mickiewicz's verse drama, The Ancestors, which I am currently directing in Poland, I am trying to interpret the paradigm of the pagan-Christian relationship system using theatrical tools. It is an extremely exciting question whether in the 21st century it is still possible to talk about an identity based on common cultural references and values ​​between people living in different parts of the world...

- And is it possible?

- My experiences abroad show that the majority of artists are in despair due to the large-scale "secularization" of their craft and are showing signs of "artistic sclerosis". This is especially the case with those who have been deprived of their resilience by the compulsory process of assimilation into the consumer society and turned their talents into mediocre ones.

- Why?

- Because before, their position and behavior were determined by the traits that spontaneously arose from their guts, which separated them from the materialistic society, and from which autonomous forms of stage action were born. Many people feel that their profession has lost its dynamism and avant-garde character, that the theater has become an institution and the actor has become a clerk. Artists consider performances less and less as an event and the mental-spiritual connection with the audience as an unrepeatable flow of energy. There are those who experience the interpretation of stage texts as a public humiliation caused by words. There is a lack of real reflections, demanding, direct discourses between creators and receivers. In Romania and Poland, the standing ovation after the performances has become a reflex, in Hungary the standing ovation. The state of creation, the organic cycle of creation has broken down, so the majority of theater makers are forced to represent an artificial model of artistic attitude based on extreme pragmatism, efficiency and automatism.

- Why was this close relationship with the audience lost?

- This is strongly related to the fact that the creators, with respect to the exception, exchanged their long-term relationship with the theater for a casual relationship: they are looking for an easy and superficial adventure. They no longer respect and love with the same passion as at the beginning of their relationship, they use it according to their own interests. They see a career, money, fame in it. They forgot that theater art is not a concept or an object, but a person. A mysterious and capricious creature with a complex nervous system, who has to be conquered step by step and can only be approached again with caution. Unpredictable, cruel and vindictive, at other times generous and noble. Certain creators are just as detached from the audience and the truth of everyday life as they are from more complex forms of theatre-making, and their human-artistic expressions lack curiosity, dignity and generosity.

- Simply put: humility?

- Yes. From time to time, it does not hurt to remind ourselves that we are part of a centuries-old theater evolution, and that many people invented Spanish wax before us. We also need to be aware that theater revolutions naturally freeze and become parodies of themselves over time. Our fear that during our artistic development the creative act sinks into a conventional practice can only be overcome by deliberately undertaken risk, adventure and rebellion. Constantly updated knowledge, analytical thinking and openness to the unknown help in this. We should not back down even if we sometimes feel that we are neutralizing the old with the new knowledge. Knowledge that has been used many times becomes the foundation of conformity, indifference and apathy. It is enough to think only of those actors who, at the beginning of their career, represent something very original and exciting in their acting, then less so, then terribly, and finally so irritatingly that the audience tenses up awkwardly. If artists are not encouraged by their own environment to develop and find extreme truths, they must take care of it themselves, otherwise their personality will fade, their talent and knowledge will wear out...

- Who did you learn this from?

- Mainly from my family. Later, from my teachers and professional role models. My grandparents always said: if we want to remember who we are, we should remind ourselves of who our role models are. They were right. Ilona Béres and László Sinkó shaped my vision as much as Robert Wilson, Tim Carrol or Anatoly Vasiljev. I learned from them that I can only remain authentic if I follow my own path consistently and persistently, follow my inner voice and do not conform to any fashion or trend. Their teaching seems to last a lifetime, my curiosity remaind unbroken and I am still passionately interested in man. The "monstre sacré", who fascinates me with his humor, his talent, his love of life, and who horrifies me with his desire to destroy, his nature incapable of lasting peace and harmony.

- Four years ago, you brought almost an entire class with you from the University of Arts Targu Mures, and since then, starting a new era, they have formed the company of Maladype. Do you feel that you’ve succeeded in conveying this kind of open thinking in the best sense of the word to them?

- I think yes. We invested a lot of energy in joint work, in the theoretical mapping and practical implementation of the methodological program called the Five Gates. Our performances require not only a complex acting presence, but also a personality receptive to improvisation and interaction from the members of the company. Everyday creative work is based on the continuous reconstruction of childhood memories and their verbal and non-verbal stage processing. The actors of Maladype do not only play for a Hungarian-speaking audience, so it is important that their thinking is integrative, their expression is diverse, and their adaptability and reaction time are fast. As a trupp touring around the world, they always have to give their best form, whether it's a performance in Montenegro, Tunisia or Vietnam. The local audience does not know them, they are not forgiving with them, so the given performance is worth only one shot, it must be a maximum score. One of the trademarks of the Maladype ensemble is the liberated acting and the relaxed attention ready for change, which is ensured by the disciplined and precise teamwork of the actors.

- Not only Maladype is at home in the world, but also you as a director: from Poland to Chicago you are invited if they want something surprising that shakes up the local actors and audience. In the light of your many experiences abroad, how do you see acting in Hungary?

- With us, with the exception of a few forward-looking significant exceptions, the art of acting out is still authoritative. This is understandable, since our theater culture is rooted in itinerant theater and fair performances. The artistry of figurations, the spread of naturalistic and realistic theater style does not leave much room for more minimalist, abstract or poetic theatrical thinking. We should learn the kind of desire for renewal and flexibility from our greatest school-creating masters, with which they were able to rise above their own methods. Paradoxically, it was Stanislavsky who carried out the most reforms in his own method, but this is not usually mentioned in relation to the father of "psychological realism". Yet this could be one of the most important lessons and legacies of their work. We somehow do not want to learn this form of mental plasticity from them. A more caring theater society would also pay attention to this...

- You said that it is mainly foreign invitations that keep Maladype alive, but of course you have to get to the point where you are given from hand to hand. What kept the faith in you not to give up? Not even when your permanent rehearsal and performing venue in Mikszáth Square got soaked in 2019, which has not been stably replaced since then.

- I am a positive person and I have a strong sense of inner belonging. A sense of humor also helps a lot, as does the circle of civil and professional friends who have supported our journey in the theater since the beginning. Also, there's Fran Lebowitz's life advice: Think first, talk later! Read first, then think! Then you can think about things that didn't pop out of your head... I learned to appreciate, enjoy and respect life. I strive for the same with the theater. I will never know what the recipe for theater making is, but I feel the need to move towards more and more perfect content and form from performance to performance.

- Can there be a perfect theater at all?

- Perhaps the mass is the closest to it. Or a circus production. As a child, I had my most lasting theater experience in the church. The liturgy is enchanted as much as the universe of the circus. The two worlds are not as far apart as we might think at first: both have their own iconography, where hand and head postures, colors and shapes have meaning. They are the teaching tools. If we look at them for a long time, the impact of complex messages will be unavoidable for us.

Anita Farkas, Mandiner, 2022

Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek

It wasn't our first meeting, and I hope it won't be the last either: talking to Zoltán Balázs is like getting a lesson on what true freedom and independence are like. The actor-director who has led the Maladype Theatre for more than twenty years is perhaps the most unique creator of Hungarian theater life. Their latest performance, Merlin, tells the story of the greatness and horror of man in the company's usual bold style.