Éri Ildikó
Someone like me
Translated by: Sylvia Huszár
Director: Zoltán Balázs
The latest play by Roy Chen, a playwright and permanent author at the Gesher Theater in Jaffa, interprets the issues of psychiatric disorders that are still considered taboo even today in the form of an honest confession, creating a raw and humorous stage reality for its characters at the same time. The socially sensitive work gives an unshielded insight not only into the souls of the patients and doctors, but also of the parents.
The Israeli author’s work depicts the lives of young people with mental disorders at a psychiatric institute preparing to present their own theatrical performance led by the new educator, Miss Caroline.
The psycho-patron performance of the Maladype Theatre contributes to the knowledge of the healing processes of autognosis competencies - reintegration, rehabilitation, resocialization - through playing with the “theatre in the theatre” motif in an extremely complex way.
Cast:
Dr. Dorian: Gáspár Mesés
Caroline: Edina Bajkó g.a.
Mia: Brigitta Erőss
Tamara/Tom: Andrea Lukács
Max: Kornél Ádám
Gabriel: Zoltán Pál
Esther: Erika Vincze
Mom: Lilla Zsenák
Dad: Gedeon András
Creators:
Director: Zoltán Balázs
Literary adviser: Zsuzsanna Juraszek
Scenography: Zoltán Balázs
Costumes: Anikó Németh
Leader of music: Brigitta Erőss
Creative producer: Sylvia Huszár
Production manager: Katalin Balázs
Opening night: March 17, 2022, Eötvös10, Chamber Hall
Running time: 70 minutes
Collaborating partners: Eötvös10 Community Center, The Israeli Cultural Institute, The Hanoch Levin Institute of Israeli Drama, Connecting the Dots.
With the support of EMMI, Embassy of Israel in Budapest
The play is represented in Hungary by the Hanoch Levin Institute of Israeli Drama.
Fearseekers
Director: Zoltán Balázs
In many tales, we read about heroes who feel the need to learn to be afraid. Their stories gradually shape our psyche, fostering the development of our consciousness: in order to become a mature personality, we must end our repressions in the final phase. We have to accept that fear is necessary because it prepares us for situations and events that require higher neural activation. We’ve overcome most of our childhood anxieties by adulthood, but there are some that take root in us that we’re not really able to deal with, and we’d rather accept them than do something against them. However, one who strives for freedom and a higher level of self-realization cannot be a slave to either the instinct self or the superior self, it must mobilize its defensive capacity to ensure its survival. For this process, we need stories that provide guidance on the most important issues in our lives and also put the shadowy side of our personalities in the foreground.
Zoltán Balázs's directing is based on the brute force and extensive fantasy world inherent in Grimm's tales, focusing on the associative aspects of the unconscious. He interprets the infantile projections of fairy tales as models of human behavior that, - as Mircea Eliade puts it -, bring meaning and value to life. Inspired by fairy tale fragments, the type-game, which presents even the most amazing encounters in a relaxed, casual style, shows the process of self-integration, the symbolic rebirth of the self-image of the players. The struggle for self-realization can also be interpreted as an initiation procedure in which viewers can observe how the actors relate to their own dreams and desires, how they deal with their problems. The stage coordinates articulated in the performance place the kaleidoscope-like story not in the space and time of external reality, but in a particular state of mind, so in order for the multi-threaded action to gain its importance, the associations of the spectators are also needed. Immersed in the special atmosphere of the performance, the world of unconscious substances is revealed to the audience, the content of which is both mysterious and familiar, dark and fascinating, and at the same time arouses in us the wildest anxiety and the greatest hope.
Players:
Zoltán Adorjáni Nagy
Gedeon András
Edina Bajkó g.a.
András Lehel Barti
Noémi Becsey-Imreh
Előd Jancsó
Kata Milla Kovács
Tamara Pascu
Boróka Vajda
Erika Vincze
Creators:
Director, scenography: Zoltán Balázs
Musical leaders: Edina Bajkó and Erika Vincze
Opening night: 5. december 2021. University of Arts, Târgu-Mureş, Studio Stage
Tour:
Festival of Hungarian Theatres in Kisvárda, Kisvárda - 2022
SIBFEST International Theatre Festival, Sibiu, Romania - 2022
Unscene - Festival of Universities of Arts, Miercurea Ciuc, Romania - 2022
Szín-Tár International Theatre Festival, Kecskemét - 2022
Bence Varga: The good spirit of man of all times
Anyone who has seen a single performance from the Maladype Company, hallmarked by Zoltán Balázs, will hardly get rid of what he has experienced there. We say the experienced and not the seen or heard, because it’s the fundamental nature of their plays that they question everything we think about the theater.
With their seductive and at the same time frightening formal solutions, they almost completely break down all the conscious and less conscious expectations and preconceptions with which the spectator enters a performance - and thus there is nothing left but to learn to orient oneself in a world that has suddenly become foreign to us. This, by definition, produces a strong effect that, depending on the recipient, remains a cathartic or simply bad experience, as is the case with most form-breaking works.
The same can be said for their latest play. This time, the company staged Tankred Dorst’s monumental drama, originally scheduled for more than eight hours, entitled Merlin, or the Waste Land. The performance in Eötvös10, which is a little over two hours long, is based on a very complex and dense material, in which the original text had to be condensed. The basic vase of the story evokes the story of the Knights of Artus (Arthur) and the Knights of the Round Table.
On the small stage of the Eötvös10, the scenery welcomes the audience, with a small house in the center, from which a metal ladder leads high. Here is born Merlin, blessed - or beaten - with visionary abilities, who will soon take his place at the top of the ladder above the head of mankind to find an answer to the biggest question: how to create harmony, equality and peace in the world. And the concept will soon be born as a vision: it will be the idea of the round table that King Arthur will be accomplishing.
However, the play is far from romantic in the history of knights and kings, but rather a kind of postmodern overview of the history of Europe. And this review is not diachronic, nor retrospective, but like a vision in which past, present, and future appear simultaneously.
This vision is reflected in the incessant alternation of scenes and time planes, between which is the figure of Merlin, who is more than a simple wizard — the good spirit of man of all time. The spirit whose desire is unchanged is to create a just world order based on each other’s love. As we know, countless attempts have been made to create this world order, with little success. This gives the drama of the piece, the relentless confrontation with the impossibility of the task, the futility of redesigning and redesigning the methods and how. The characters in the play all appear in a strange, futuristic costume, which further reinforces the feeling that the problem raised will not be solved in the future.
At the same time, the piece is ironic, as it is not surprising in a contemporary performance. For the man of the modern age has already recognized exactly this diabolical dialectic. This is the only thing that is permanent.
The director emphasizes the slippage of the dimensions of time by creating synchronicity, suggesting that even the most different eras of history actually rhyme with each other. In line with this, the characters from time to time speak simultaneously, reciting long monologues together, which amplifies what is being said and makes it feel as if the spectator is listening to the judgment of all mankind.
As soon as the spectator accepts this special world, it is no longer surprising that John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear on stage, whose songs, the piece suggests, are no different from the concept of the roundtable. And Mark Twain appears as a duplicated personality, with a strange speech mixing Hungarian and English, while Beatles songs are also performed more and more frequently in the actors' performances.
It all shows up on stage in a dizzying way. Zoltán Balázs puts a lot of work on his actors, all of whom do amazing work. With the exception of Gedeon András, who plays Merlin, everyone is hiding in the skin of several characters, and their roles are constantly changing. And sometimes a mask, a wig, a puppet, and occasionally completely ordinary items are enough for these changes.
The Maladype Company’s Merlin guts out the viewer with reality. As if he lacks the stage dramaturgy, the performance begins with absolute emotional and intellectual excitement, and it doesn’t leave you for a moment during the entire playing time. The spectator needs full, unconditional attention and understanding. Without this, we can’t even enter the fascinating world of Tankred Dorst. It's worth it.
Bence Varga, Magyar Hírlap, 2022
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek
Serious clowns - Interview with Zoltán Balázs and Kata Janza
They swing completely on the same string. Who would have thought? I was already surprised that the director of Maladype Theatre, an alternative, independent company, and the popular diva of the Budapest Operetta Theatre met on the same stage. The musical Nine interpreted from Fellini's 8 and 1⁄2 was a wonderful journey for both of them. I talked with the two artists a few weeks after the premiere.
- From where are you running in such a haste?
- Zoltán Balázs: I arrived from Kosovo this morning and will continue to travel to Israel tomorrow, I have just arrived in Budapest. My company and I have been touring around the world for many years, including America, Asia and Africa. We are lucky because the whole company and thus our entire repertoire travels with us, so we always get the performance that the theme of the current festival requires.
- Kata, you're coming from a rehearsal. Are you ready for your next premiere?
- Kata Janza: Yes, the day after tomorrow The fiddler on the roof will have its premiere. I play Golde, the milkman's wife. The parents are usually depicted as old, but we, Zsolt Homonnay and Yvette Bozsik, came up with the idea of forming a youthful couple. A couple for whom not only the future of their daughters is at stake, but also their own relationship. In real life, we have children of the same ages while our lives are still in full swing. A beautiful moment happened during the first rehearsal. Tevje turned to me and we both knew what was going on in the other’s soul. I felt that Zsolt thought that if Janka was about getting married, he would be there. In response, I said with my gaze: if Zsombor gets married, I will be there too! Our tears started to fall. Zsolt and I got married at the same time, divorced and raised our children at the same time. It’s a huge gift to be able to live on stage in advance, what if Janka stands in front of me one day: mom, I’m getting married. It can happen at any minute.
- Z. B.: I really like listening to Kata! She is an extraordinary artist who not only lives an intense inner life, but can also put her emotions and thoughts into words. One can immediately relate to a sentence. I also love the way she looks at her partner. She sees into his soul, almost melts into him, as when a child stares at the sparks of fire and does not even notice it, through concentration he slowly slips into a more elevated dimension. Kata's giving nature also energizes her partners. The way they looked at each other with Zsolt in the Fiddler, was the same as with Gyuri Szomor at the rehearsal of the musical Nine - he plays Guido Contini, Fellini's alter ego - and then sang their duet with intimate naturalness. Then the air freezed for a moment... I think a director needs to notice these unique manifestations and special personality traits.
- I'm surprised you, the daredevil of theatre, who loves to push clichés aside, have now tried himself in a popular genre. It's not like the end result isn't impressive.
- Z. B.: I am an adventurous creator, I was excited about the challenge. Plus, I’m a big Fellini fan, and Nine was born out of the master’s self-confessed work. It was a huge innovation in 1963 that through Mastroianni’s person, he testified about his own creative crisis in his film 8 and 1⁄2. I think it’s a huge gift for a director to come into contact with Fellini’s intellectual heritage in some form. We almost met once in person, in Rome. I worked there with the set and costume designer Judit Gombár, who knew Fellini and his wife, Masina. One day she took me to their apartment, which is a completely average two-story house in the center of Rome, but unfortunately they did not open the door because they were just in Paris. I will never forget the way Judit pressed her face to their nameplate with endless love and stroked it. Returning to Nine, the musical was born twenty years later, in 1982, and was a huge success in New York. It was awarded twelve Tony Awards. I wouldn’t even call it a musical, but rather a kaleidoscopic piece of music with a thousand layers, colors and patterns, which is why it’s a great opportunity for a director seeking complexity.
- Weren’t you afraid they'll eat you for breakfast at the Operetta Theater? Because everyone is used to the rivalry light there, and there are huge personalities on the stage.
- Z. B.: Many people were scared by this, but I met a humble artist with a childlike spirit, open to novelty. What was amazing about this trip - and to be more accurate, still is, as the performances will continue in February - was that the actors, the dance troupe and the technical staff also believed in my concept from the beginning. The performers in Nine are indeed predators of great appetite one by one, but their desire to innovate and their healthy maximalism have served the production very well.
- K. J.: It was a great experience to work with Zoli! When we sat around during the first rehearsal, he had a sentence that shocked me. He told me, “I have been following your life, the work you have done so far. You have the ability to care about others. About in which state of life they are, what they are feeling, and if you get next to each other after a while, you will continue from where you last left off. And they can always count on that ... ”Well, here I felt like I was going to cry. It’s been so long ago, I’ve experienced that a director is genuinely curious about me, he knows who I am, and I don’t have to start from scratch. It felt very good. And Zoli said something else: he is not curious about what the world around us is already delighted with. We should get on stage with so much more because he came to us with more. He managed to free my playfulness so that I forgot all my routines and tiredness of the last twenty-five years. And that’s not just me, the other actresses, the “predators with huge appetite,” all told that. Under Zoli’s control, we became rascals again, serious clowns playing till death on the stage.
- Is that how you always do it, Zoli?
- Z. B.: Yes. I think I can be credible if I take my playmates with whom fate brings me seriously. It is very important to map out the nature of the actor, to get to know one's life path before we start rehearsing. I try to stay in touch with the changes in the world, I try to pay attention to what is happening with who from a distance, because if we work together, this knowledge will help us to build trust between us... In these nine months - because of the quarantines, it took us that much to finally carry out the premiere of Nine - in fact, we spent very little time together, yet significant, close ties have developed between us. That's why it matters to me now what's going on and how their careers are going, sometimes I call or send encouraging sms to the actors. And I'm sure there will be a continuation.
- The musical features several women, wives, lovers, producers and prostitutes. Kata plays Fellini’s muse, Claudia Nardi. Did you feel the figure close?
- K. J.: Absolutely. Claudia is the actress, the idol, the star who wants to be both a woman and a mother. This duality is present in my life as well. I take my child to school in the morning, I rush for him in the afternoon, I cook, I wash, but in the evenings I can finally stand there on the stage that represents the world, and that’s my own time. By then, my nervous system has to be adjusted. It’s not easy, but I’m used to this variety of operations. What this role has given me is that I realize I don’t want much anymore. That these few sentences are enough for me to condense into all that Claudia carries within her. The point is to be able to say those five sentences so that her whole destiny will shine in it. Of course, there are many years of work involved in making everything that simple.
- Thirsty for love, the protagonist commutes between his wife, his lover, and his muse, noticing he deceives them all. If I am right, you know a lot about men like that.
- K. J.: Hajaj...! In the meantime, I know they’re not bad, they’re just like that. In a way, in addition to my theatrical partners, I have played the role of the second wife all my life. Where are they messing it up...? Zoli once said that something happens to a person as a child and stays there. He told me then - I don't know if I should say this - that when he was twelve, his family moved from Transylvania to Hungary, and that little boy has been sitting on the bench of the train station ever since... Maybe the men should go back for that lost child and talk to him.
- Z. B.: Guido does the exact same thing. You can only awaken the inner strength needed for creation and creative work on your own by arranging your divisive relationships. To do this, however, you must return to your childhood, the creative world of cognitions and receptivity. It is a cruel confrontation, but it cannot be missed out. If Guido is unable to rebuild himself from his current life, he will be stuck in the world of memories, dreams and desires forever... As for my story, as a little boy I lost a country, my first love, my friends, and then I felt that I had nothing left to lose. I tried to let go of the associated innervations. I hitchhiked all over Europe, some took me for ten kilometers, others were getting me farther and closer to the city of my dreams, Paris. Then I founded the Maladype Theatre in 2001, and we soon became international. It doesn’t matter if I’m directing in Warsaw or Chicago, I’ll take this irregular guy who is manic of freedom with me everywhere.
- I saw an amazing glistening on stage, that many styles, dazzling clutter evoked the circus for me.
- Z. B.: Not by accident. Like Fellini, I am crazy for the circus. At the age of six, I decided to become an acrobat clown and hung out with a traveling circus. But unfortunately my grandfather brought me back with the police the next morning. Then I felt like they had taken my dream away from me. I didn't talk to my family for a month. I still don't think I've managed to come out of that trauma. The profession of theater-making was then an almost natural choice.
- In the performance there are all kinds of music played from Mozart to swing. How do you bear it with voice, Kata?
- K. J.: I sing from feelings. My colleagues always ask: Kató, what is the sound like here or there? But I never deal with that. It’s not the trill that matters, for me, these are inspired moments in which emotions filter through. It is also a misunderstanding that
the songs separate from the scenes. On the contrary, they flow into each other.
- Christmas is coming. I think you will rest a little.
- K. J.: I will perform with Attila Dolhai during the holidays, but since we do this every year and he is a playful puppy like me, we have learned how to celebrate with the audience. I decorate the tree at home in the morning and also bake a cake because my kids teased me so many times until I started baking during the quarantine and I’m trying to reproduce that now. Anyway, we will play board games a lot. I invite my friends and we will play Activity. I'll be the game master. I love it!
- Z. B.: I will fall under the tree. This year, for the first time in many years, I am having Christmas at home with my family. I roast an orange duck and then just watch out of my head. Next year, four mega-productions like Nine are waiting for me, so I probably won’t be able to stop my thoughts even at Christmas, but of course I’ll try to relax as well. Really looking forward to it!
Lilla Koronczay, Nők Lapja, 2021
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek
Fearseekers - Zoltán Balázs directed in Târgu Mureş again
Emma Rosznáky Varga: Imedzsin
It’s hard to give a comprehensive picture of the more than two hours performance as a whole, Merlin is an extremely complex piece of work, with a diverse design language. The house dreamed up by Zoltán Balázs is a central set element and is already multifunctional: rotatable, adjustable upside down, openable, simultaneously displays Merlin's home, the rock hiding the Excalibur, the round table, virtually anything. The set eventually reflects the world of Maladype’s new performance: a captivating brainstorming session in which no element performs the same function twice, a changeable and ambiguously extravagant world from glove puppets to tin cans. The other key, with which the performance can be summed up somewhat, is Merlin herself, who is aware from the first minute of her birth of the circumstances of her own death, the past (Trojan War) and the future (heart transplantation); Merlin also gives a mixture of historical facts. However, the director interprets universality and the historical panorama by quite modest means: it is a world that also exists in its own unreality; the performance conquers with its grandiose ingenuity.
The company plays wonderfully, tuning in to each other, keeping the composed world together, all of which require terrible attention from the players, real collective work. In the performance, so to speak, historical figures outside the legend become an inexhaustible source of humor. The twisted Mark Twain, whose language is kneaded from English and Hungarian, does not get tired for a moment, and the knights of the round table with their defected speech also shine. Mark Twain is connected to events as a kind of political-cultural parable, and the dalliance of John and Yoko forms an interesting parallel with the lovers of the legend.
The performance features several musical styles: in addition to the aforementioned jazz, pop, choral work and rap are also performed (almost always acapella), but mainly Beatles, and most notably John Lennon's song Imagine. The directing of Zoltán Balázs is a bold work, in which creativity, professionalism and especially humor will become an exciting unity, it was good to encounter with.
Emma Rosznáky Varga, Kisvárdai Lapok, 2021
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek
Flóra Molnár: A prison grid or a ladder leading to the sky?
How can a person trapped between being and non-being travel the world and the depths of her own spirit if her bedridden state deprives her of experience?
Zoltán Balázs and the acting students of the University of Arts in Târgu Mureş graduated in 2020 submerged into the world of Alice James to create a sharply sparkling performance on the university stage.
Special set design in the middle of the stage. Alice sits on top like the ruler of the space. And even though the outside world treats her with a kind of condescension, Alice still watches things from a height. Her immobility not only puts her in restraint, but also gives her freedom. Time to think, self-improvement, time to really get to know herself, to constantly color her inner world. She is in such a privileged position that she can deviate from the traditional way of life for women without being excluded from society (it is true that her state of health plays a role in this), some parts of which are promising, but others repel her. Because she basically spies on her surroundings from above, she sees everything clearly, but human proximity is unknown to her. Alice is an extremely exciting, courageous and self-aware personality, thinking exceptionally about life and human relationships, but when she meets real, flesh-and-blood people, she handles the situations peculiarly. She gets bored of her visitors because she doesn’t like the self they see, but when she meets a stranger, a burglar, she finds herself in a whole new position. How much do we create our world, how much does our world create us? How do we shape others through our attitude towards them? Along these issues, the performance elaborates on Susan Sontag’s drama translated by Dorka Porogi, which is represented by dynamic and at the same time highly concentrated acting performances.
The rebel Alice James is sensitively played by Anikó Rákosy L., she dominates her world, keeping the attention of her entire audience, without a single inaccurate breath, without a single undeveloped movement. There are no unreasonable breaks in the performance, the actors help Alice with tireless energy to the decision of the last scene, move some elements of the set, hang on it, climb on it, perform strange stunts, all this while speaking. And the characters not only fill Alice’s world, they also build it. They shape, moreover in part form the model in which the girl is forced to live and in which the ladders sometimes become gratings. I am thinking in particular of the free-spirited, yet hesitant, success-oriented father (Loránd Czüvek), the mysterious brother (Kornél Ádám) who encloses his sister, or the superficial and unfriendly nurse (Judit Réka Barkó) who clings to appearances. With their spirituality, with their vulgar will, they shape the atmosphere and, to some extent, Alice’s image of herself. It is a false world, defined by protocol, society’s expectation system, vanity, and function, in which if a woman is unable to give birth or become successful, she simply becomes dysfunctional. However, Alice thinks differently, so it’s no wonder she prefers the company of “ghosts”. Emily Dickinson and Margaret Fuller (Fanni Zádor and Bernadett Vadász) are experienced and successful women whose dream-images visioned by our protagonist provide company for the girl. Alice looks up at them because they can live a life she has no chance of. She longs for the experience, but such as her illness, her person is also misunderstood, and when the experience with the outside world comes to her in the form of a burglar (Zoltán Pál), the expected encounter drowns in confusion. Is it worth the physical and mental pain to live ourselves, to feel what is happening, or is it enough to think about what might happen? Alice struggles - not only with her illness and the sarcophagus-like prejudices forced on her, but also with her own mental limitations. She’s not at all sure she can make something better, more valuable, or she’s worth fighting for. And yet, there is something that, in the last scene, exudes endless hope and faith: the image of Alice stepping out of her frame, despite all her hopelessness, climbs out of her dark tower and takes on her fight despite her fears.
The stand designed by Zoltán Balázs, which is a tower of Babel condensed into a specific point in the space, an embodied analogy, provides an exciting and special context for the excellent acting. The edifice is more than a set, more of a living space that is constantly being shaped by the actors and the piece, like an anthill that is constantly being built and buzzing. In connection with the piece, I must highlight the beautiful and special costumes, which are the work of Măriuca Ignat. The sight perfectly expresses the visionary world of a sick woman, the medium of a girl longing and yet living in some kind of fear, with the characters she may have considered violent, strange, frightening.
Alice in bed is a strong, thought-provoking, concisely striking performance that sparkles the talent and versatility of the actors and the creativity and sensitivity of director Zoltán Balázs. I could see an exciting and border-crossing adaptation of an extremely saturated piece that could be played undeservedly little because of the measures caused by the epidemic.
Flóra Molnár, art7.hu, 2021
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek
A series of joyful accidents
- When I saw Hamlet with you in the starring role, Maia Morgenstern was sitting next to me. She was just as impressed by what she saw of you as any of us, average spectators. It’s been over ten years, but looking through your career, I still haven’t been able to figure out who this amazingly versatile young man is and what he’s up to in this world. Do you usually think about this?
- I prefer to focus on the present. Anyway, I’m so glad you’re starting our conversation with your Hamlet experience at the Bárka, because almost every week someone stops me on the street to tell how decisive my Hamlet was in Tim Carroll’s legendary directing. The truth, of course, is that I met the then chief director of the Globe Theatre in London at a good time, in a good place and, above all, in very good condition. The success of the “board game”, which is unusual in all respects, was also significantly influenced by my great partners. During the performance, which was based on improvisations, the biggest challenge was that as a Hamlet I had to exist at that moment at the same time and plan ten to fifteen minutes in advance. It was only after the many performances that the human and artistic power of the diversity of the interplay based on different acting solutions became clear to me. Because of the energies released by my self-burning acting presence
it also happened that I got tired, so I stopped and asked the viewers for a few minutes of silence. After the “public shock”, I reassembled Hamlet’s thoughts word by word, restoring the spontaneous and personal nature of the role-playing problem. I knew it was “not appropriate” to do this in a classic theater performance, but an inner voice tempted me at times...
- I wouldn’t call that Hamlet a classic performance.
- It was novel in every way. Anyone who was able to break with the instincts of traditional Hamlet adaptations could experience amazing theatrical adventures both as an actor and as a spectator. Through the performers ’unique and unrepeatable suggestions for role and text interpretation, situation management, creative contexts of thought and action, the audience also became part of new insights every night. This ever-changing game required a stable nervous system, special acting condition, and widespread attention on everyone’s part.
- You said at the beginning of our conversation that you were always self- and public-dangerous.
- Birth defect. My path searches out of curiosity were also approved by my current environment, so I always went head to head against the wall as a “crash test dummy”. Everything that makes up my human, masculine, acting, and directing selves stems from my daring to risk and at times question certain canonized patterns of action.
- Who allowed you and what?
- Many, many things, in many different situations. If we go back to the beginnings, it is primarily my parents, my grandparents. I came from a generous and integrative-minded family, and their attitude toward the development of the childish soul was unparalleled. I grew up in the last period of communism, so we often experienced house searches and the black car would take my grandfather. Being a Transylvanian Hungarian in Romania was a disadvantage, but our family took on being Hungarian for granted in all circumstances. Even the most difficult moments were made livable by serenity, meaningful and sensitive explanations. Today, a great amount of people use being across the border as a shield, which I find extremely repulsive.
- Honestly, I didn't know you were Transylvanian.
- I am happy about this because for me this kind of a timidly imbued inner belonging and self-identity which is a natural legacy of my family. My childhood was not defined by ideological guidelines and images of enemies, my upbringing was not infected by scapegoating and nationalism. I learned from them that truth is always a good Plan B, and the point is worth looking for is in the silenced word.
I was interested in all kinds of adventures, so I often got myself and my narrower and wider environment into impossible situations. I am a descendant of a noble family, dog skin was also associated with obligations and rules, so my willingness to cross all kinds of borders was clearly coded in my renitent behavior.
- Give an example!
- Although we knew it was forbidden, me and my childhood friend once ventured into an abandoned mansion waiting to be renovated. But at that moment, the floor tore under us and we ended up in a deep stack. An hour, two hours, five hours, ten hours passed, then it became dark and no one came.
We guessed they were already looking for us, but we didn’t know when and how they would find us. While we waited, we came to the conclusion that now at least it will be clear how much they love us and whether our prank will have a relationship-rejuvenating power. We pondered on this until dawn and then they found us. It was an age of intact discoveries in pure intentions and clear actions. It lasted until I was twelve years old.
- And then what happened?
- We left home because my mother saw our situation as hopeless. Then I didn't understand why. My friends, my first love, remained on Maramures Island. We went to many places in Europe and America, but in the end we ended up in Hungary, and I continued my studies here. My mother and I have experienced “seven-pound” situations many times, yet we have laughed a lot. My mother’s energies to this day shame my dynamism, watched in amazement by many. I inherited this kind of vitality, the love of life from her. I don’t know and don’t want to live my life with a bitter taste in the mouth, although there’s a lot of it that I’m not happy about, either humanly or professionally.
- What do you mean?
- The most depressing thing is that we have to live our profession in a very divided theatrical world. This is almost a task for Don Quixote. Cultural policy identification processes are taking place that do not allow young career starters or professionally driven artists to do their job as members of a more caring theatrical society. Neither I nor the theater I have been running for twenty years are willing to take part in this. We do everything we can to preserve the origins of our thoughts about theater and our creative intentions in order to remain literally independent.
We have one point of alignment, the exponentially changing theater itself. Although many used to want me for themselves, they also offered theaters and positions, I preferred to follow my own path, which always led back to the diverse complex possibilities of doing theater; I chose to be the creator of the avant-garde, Maladype - which still has a name on the international stage today -, and the special lifestyle that comes with it.
- What do you mean by the Maladype lifestyle?
- Soaring freely. We never had to compromise on artistic issues, and our specific experiments in content and form also found a high degree of understanding and recognition in different theatrical cultures around the world. This is one of the reasons why we were able to survive at home for twenty years, because they know what Maladype is from Vietnam to America, from Iran to France. This theatrical thinking, nourished by many cultures, is the reason that Hungarian theatrical traditions, theatrical and dramatic foreshadowing did not project a shadow over my personality and method. I could be objective in my own subjectivity.
I didn’t undertake and do anything that would make me remorse, and there’s nothing I would regret because I missed it. When I started running a company, I had to learn to take responsibility for others, not just for myself. Since then, I have had to walk ten steps ahead of the members of the company, and it doesn’t matter what development path I set for them, the morally, ethically, professionally atmosphere I have created for their daily work. Everything behind us - and, I hope, even before us - stems from this dynamism and passionate conscious, risky thinking. With all of our performances, we strive to ensure that neither content nor form impulses repeat themselves.
Therefore, it is not easy to put Maladype into a box. By the time our theater was proclaimed by critics as ritual or physical theater, we were already searching in another creative universe for a style to fit that particular work and director’s concept. Contributing to this multipolar process was the fact that I quickly reached the international scene with my company and as an individual creator. My personal experiences at various festivals, theater workshops, and genre-specific citadels around the world have had a liberating effect on my creative approach and have given me tremendous strength to find my way daily in the spirit of freedom. We have also incorporated another core value, generosity, into our artistic strategy, our long-term operation.
- What do you mean by generosity?
- Recognizing the changing factors as part of the anatomy of creation and giving space to new impulses that will shape and recreate our worldview in the future. It will always drive me.
- That's why you're not old. Because of constant development. You didn’t tell me what Maladype’s sense of life was.
- The word maladype means encounter in Lovarian. A kind of instinctive, unexpected and joyful feeling of life that has united us all since the beginning. Our lives do not always consist of festive moments, so we need to pay more attention to ourselves in everyday life. Proper mental condition is essential for this. Maladype’s sense of life also includes artists taking pleasure in individual and collective redesign. They don’t panic if rehearsals or performances don’t go the way we planned, they perceive the momentary change and are able to turn what has happened to their advantage.
During an American tour, at an audience meeting following King Ubu, viewers said our production was a series of “happy accidents”. I find this very apt and expressive. However, only those who are in constant training and like to take risks can stay in the context of the performance after the unexpected events and react smartly and easily to the changed situation. This particularly complex attention-based acting presence is very rare among Hungarian actors and is highly sought after.
At Maladype, we have well-articulated rules of the game that, when used properly, have a liberating effect on both actors and audiences. This typically Maladype-style approach requires playmates who intend to explore the special quality of theater with exceptional commitment, who over time become key players in a particular creative era. Maladype’s current company is made up of actors who, without sparing their time and energy, use their talents to represent the thinking that characterizes our theater at home and abroad. I met them at the University of Arts in Târgu Mureş when, as an invited teacher, I directed them an exam performance based on Bruno Schulz's short stories. Looking at them at work, it immediately became clear to me that they would have great mediums for everything I wanted to define as the Maladype of the future, so I contracted the entire class.
- So you also take on pedagogical role.
- This goes hand in hand with directorial and artistic leadership roles. I also have a methodological descriptions called Golden-Bug and Five Gates, which I regularly share and consult about with the actors of the company. These aspects, of course, only work if the actors really want to meet a stripped-down stage copy of themselves and vote trust for themselves, their peers, and me. I don’t want to train theater workers who work diligently like ants, but have no idea what they’re building, so I think it’s important to share with them the causal intentions behind a given task or goal. Maladype’s artists have not yet been seen by spectators sitting on a couch with a glass of water and easily exchanging words about the banalities of life, their acting toolbox activating the complexity of polyphonic-edited games. Being able to talk, sing and move at the same time is part of this unusual stage existence.
- What is most important to you in your current stage of life?
- Friendships based on authentic, honest, lived encounters. I am more and more impressed by the intricately flexible elephant memory and unwavering loyalty of the older generation of actors I respect and love - Ilona Béres, Erzsébet Kútvölgyi, Éva Almási. None of them forgets to mention their masters and what defining encounters shaped their careers and energized their artistic development. Listening to them, I feel the triumph of the bright spirit. Concentrating their experiences from many sources into haiku-like parables fascinates and inspires me, as a person and as a creator, to look even more for the point, the minimum necessary for the exact expression of what I would like to say.
- Your talent is a great gift, but as I listen to you, it is certainly a burden because you are particularly sensitive to the world around you.
- My sensitivity is also a kind of talent. I can live with it and abuse it. That is why I consider it important that, at a company level, we should nurture and develop our qualities consistently. The artistically advanced and well-powered company attracts real talent, positive and clean-minded playmates as a magnet.
- With what do you spend your time currently?
- I’m getting ready for Merlin’s premiere in Budapest and a stage adaptation of a contemporary piece by an Israeli author, Roy Chen, with Maladype’s company. With the graduating class of the University of Arts in Târgu Mureş, I am finally about to bring under the roof their exam postponed due to Covid, the Group Portrait with Lady. At the end of the season, I will be staging La Fontaine’s Animal Tales at the Odeon Theater in Bucharest, where we will soon be holding a plan-accepting reception. In parallel, I am working on Adam Mickiewicz’s romantic work Ancestors, which I will be staging in Poland next summer. The most important task, however, is for Maladype to find its own performing venue. If we succeed, we will finally be able to play regularly at home and we will be able to welcome our audience, our domestic and foreign partners under worthy conditions. We’ve put a lot on the table over the last twenty years, our results speak for themselves, which is why we have a hard time bearing the fact that we still work under unworthy conditions.
- How do you prepare to cross the second X?
- With work. Fortunately, the festival invitations started to flow again in the spring, but due to other things that have been congested in the meantime, they are not easy to implement. If we can keep up with the current pace and a new wave of the pandemic won't strike, our situation will consolidate pretty slowly. Plans for the anniversary season include a showcase-like review of our repertoire performances, roundtable discussions related to our anniversary premieres, conferences, a tour series, and the preparation of a book.
- What is your favorite city among the many you have visited?
- Ljubljana. I directed at the Mini Theater and loved it, it’s a wonderful city. For a long time, Paris was my favorite because I lived and studied there. Today, however, everything is connected to Budapest, this is my base, my home. I love nature, I love hiking, playing sports, I am fascinated by the sea, but lately, if I manage to take some time out, I feel really good at home, in my apartment. I love people, my family, my friends are important, but the experience of finally being able to shut ourselves off, take a book off the shelf and open it is quite special. I can’t wait to be retired and just read in a rocking chair for days.
Gáti Katalin Teodóra, Kultúra.hu, 2021
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek