Catchy music, amazing dances, spectacular stage scenes, stunning costumes and last but not least, transcendent acting. This is how the musical Nine, which was performed at the Budapest Operetta Theater over the weekend, can be described. We can say without exaggeration: director Zoltán Balázs dazzled the audience with a large-scale, all-arts performance that would stand its ground on any stage in the world.

Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston's musical Nine has been known to the Hungarian audience through Rob Marshall's highly successful film. But we had to wait for the Hungarian premiere of the theater performance until last weekend. It was performed by a triple cast in the Budapest Operetta Theatre under the direction of the Jászai Mari- Prize winning Zoltán Balázs.

During the nearly three-hour performance, we fell from one amazement to another. Mainly because of the spectacular, monumental staircase, stunning costumes, catchy melodies and amazing dances.

Zoltán Balázs flew us to Folies Bergère, one of Paris’ and the World’s most famous nightclubs, while in other scenes a whole carnival cavalcade came to life on stage with various acrobats.

And when the orchestra started to play one of the most famous songs in the performance, Folies Bergère, the applause broke out. Instead of telling the story, the director focused on conveying feelings. And how well he did it! After all, in addition to evoking the age of innocence, childhood, he was able to create something very unique, very breakthrough, and show the spiritual depths and heights. Thus, we can say without exaggeration: a large-scale, all-arts production was born that would stand its ground on any stage in the world.

According to the story, Guido Contini is suffering from a creative crisis, and while he is researching the theme for his upcoming film, women who play an important role in his life surround him and tangle his life and feelings even more. The piece perfectly depicted the role these women - from the wife to the muse - played in Guido’s life, what relationship he had with each, and what he could learn from them.

Of course, Attila Dolhai, who played Guido, did not disappoint us this time either. His stage presence and singing were confident, but he was not one I was the most impressed by, but by three actresses: Ágota Siménfalvy, who played her producer, Petra Gubik, who impersonated her lover, and Anna Peller, who shaped the character of the prostitute.

They not only moved incredible energies as they sang their songs, but they also became completely one with the role. All three showed their side on stage that we could see a few times only. In addition, all the actors deserve huge recognition for learning to walk on the dangerous stair system. Plus, they were doing it in a way that made it seem as if it was easy.

We still have to talk about three things: Éva Szendrényi's unique set, Anikó Németh's costumes that fit into fashion magazines, and the catchy melodies. These are all important pillars of the performance. Several iconic hits (Cinema Italiano, Take It All, Guarda la Luna) were performed in the musical, but it became quite unique because each song had a different character: in addition to the wide-ranging lyrical songs, we also heard swing and Latin music.

Zoltán Balázs vividly portrayed the protagonist's struggles, and placed at least as much emphasis on the milieu around him. On the other hand, we can state beyond a shadow of a doubt that the abundance of sparkle, and all that we have seen on the surface, has not become forced or tasteless for a moment. But in order to decipher the deeper layers of the piece, its message, it is worth several watching. So whoever can, watch the performance in all three casts.

Gabriella Petrovics, Magyar Nemzet, 2021

Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek

The musical Nine at the Budapest Operetta Theater is like a visual orgy. However, the impressive cinematic scenes often remain mosaic-like.

The Budapest Operetta Theater wanted to throw a lot in and really achieved serious partial victories. It is already unusual for a director fundamentally working in an independent theatrical sphere to be asked to direct the musical version of Fellini’s film 8 and ½. Zoltán Balázs, who is also an actor and has also run the Maladype Theatre for a long time, has now been able to try himself on the musical grand stage. He also set a lot of things in motion.

The Nine operates primarily with its sight. The whole stage is full of asymmetrical stairs. (Set design: Éva Szendrényi.) Walking through the almost floating huge structure is not an easy lesson for the actors, there are those who, easier, others find it harder to cope with the task. It instils levitation, uncertainty, and change. The costumes appear cavalcade-like. By the time we get engaged into one formation, we are already given a completely different one. It's all like a visual orgy. (Costume designer: Anikó Németh). Many times I felt that the multitude of headgears and other garments are rather self-serving. But the overall effect is still extremely effective. The quick shifts are cinematic, slamming from one scene to another. Unlike the Broadway version, the Operetta also features some of the film’s iconic hits - Cinema Italiano, Take it All and Guarda la Luna. The dances are characteristic, other times more drawn, more grotesque. (Choreographer: András Szőllősi).

Zoltán Balázs wanted to create theatre from the story at all costs. He worked with a huge apparatus, rehearsed with a triple cast. In the first cast, Attila Dolhai’s film director has not been convincing enough. He’s looking for his muse, he wants inspiration, so he walks over everyone. However, many times he can’t convince us that it’s worth going into the fire for it. He depicts the selfish creator who has drifted into crises, and he isn’t really going deeper than that. In the role of wife, however, Flóra Széles is a real surprise. She builds up the figure gradually, who tolerates for a while, and only later she gets tired of the abundant, shameless tyranny and ethical bankruptcy of the artist who refers to the importance of the work. The performance of the breakup song is the highlight of the production. Ágota Siménfalvy, who plays the role of producer, also brings a characteristic color to the musical. When she interacts with the audience, she shows the essence of the philosophy of entertainment. The women around the protagonist - Petra Gubik, Nikolett Füredi, Bernadett Vágó, Anna Peller - dance around the great director in rotation, but their presence remains mosaic-like. Guido's mother is played by Zsuzsa Ullmann, the visionary scenes strengthen the poesis of the play. Conductor Tamás Bolba is energical as the head of the orchestra of the Budapest Operetta Theater. Circus performers also appear in the revue, yet their presence is rather indicative.

Nine is made up of strong flashes, but it is often eclectic and dispersive. With its visuality and its especially rich musical material, it can still be an important milestone of Nagymező Street.

Gyula Balogh, Népszava, 2021

Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek

He has been the founder and director of the Maladype Theatre since 2001, and regularly undertakes guest directings abroad. He consciously seeks out for the unexpected opportunities and irregular acting solutions provided by theatrical and non-theatrical spaces. In the fall, he prepares for another heroic venture: he sets the musical Nine on stage, a stage adaptation of Federico Fellini’s film 8 and ½ with Arthur Kopit’s libretto, and Maury Yeston’s music and lyrics. The premiere of the performance will be held on September 25 at the Budapest Operetta Theater. We talked to the Jászai Mari Prize-winning director Zoltán Balázs about the unusual performance.

- You have been interested in Nine for a long time. Why?

- Because it is an ensemble-building work and provides a wide playing field for all actors. Its complexity and unique structure do not allow the director and his co-creators to build their concepts on classical musical traditions. It is also an extra challenge for performers to be constantly present on stage. In this story which is running through many threads, the questioning of the nature of reality is guaranteed by magical realism. This style organizes the game, the use of space, manages time cyclically, and merges the narrative present of situations with unusual aspects. The “stratospherical” imagination, drawn from the protagonist’s memories, desires, and dreams, here desperately needs scenic solutions and visual effects that help move specific characters and events to another dimension.

- How was your encounter with the company?

- Our creative relationship deepened during the chaotic and crisis period of the pandemic, filled with curiosity and a desire to learn. This is also due to the fact that the artists of the Operetta Theater have retained their openness, their childlike spirit. They are just as insecure and vulnerable as members of any other company who want to give the best of themselves, the most, and they desire for trust, for artistic reinforcement. They are grateful if, as an expression of respect for their sovereign creative personality, the director initiates them into the details of his concept and understands with them the causal connections that move the intentions and actions of the given roles. They appreciate the organic attention of the director, the time devoted to analytical rehearsals, the workshop-like construction, and the need for analytical thinking.

- Where did the idea for the strange floating, rhythmic space come from?

- From Fellini's works. In almost every film, the Master features variations of spaces outside the locations of specific social life: symbolic mirrors of the spaces in which real life takes place. This kind of symbolic use of space reflects the protagonist’s state of mind, the atmosphere of the whole broken world. The lack of site identification causes different action pulses to occur between ever-changing landscapes and time zones. Also, the spa in which the story in question takes place is merely an allegorical venue for the protagonist’s external and internal transformations. Therefore, with Éva Szendrényi, the set designer of the performance, we tried to create a visual world, a space composition in which the gradually coming to life images of consciousness keep the viewer's attention in constant motion, inviting them to active participation. Nine’s rhythmic space combined with Japanese minimalism also evokes the thinking of scenic innovator Adolphe Appia, Edward Gordon Craig, and Josef Svoboda.

- How would you describe Guido's figure?

- I consider him extremely talented with every losing moment of his. He’s like a “crash test dummy” who goes with its head against a wall to draw attention to himself. Guido is both a perpetrator and a victim of his neglected actions, superficial and arrogant manifestations. The world he knew is disappearing; he is left alone, and the dark forces that have accumulated in him begin to devour his creative energies. There is nothing in it that opens the gateway to recognition. From the subjective consciousness of the director struggling with inspiration, despair brings to the surface bilocation experiences that allow him to find himself in two places at once: in his childhood as a child Guido and in the abstracted present as a 43-year-old guy. Encountering yourself is inevitable. You have to break to zero to be able to thrive again. Like any artist looking for new ideas, wanting to innovate, he must let go of frills, clichés, nerves. According to Fellini, a good idea has three components: efficiency, elegance, and robustness. Guido is looking for these three components. With her nine-year-old child-self, he explores these in a clear, magical, and inspiring world of his childhood.

- As an artist, do you go back to your roots?"

- I only feed on my childhood experiences. If we want to find back to something essential, we sometimes have to bathe in the lake of childhood. We must allow the joy of accepting simplicity, the beauty of our banalities, freshness, personality and playfulness to permeate us again. We need to remind ourselves of our frivolous selves and also dare to integrate theatrical solutions to be articulated in the spirit of naive art into our works. If we give up all this because “our oeuvre obligates us” and do not encourage the provocative and mischievous parts of our personality, we are saying goodbye to the fragile moments of recognition, the nervous system awareness of the anatomy of creation.

- Do you have any desperate moments like Guido?

- A lot. For today, however, I have accepted that these weary moments are also part of my human, masculine, artistic development, without these there would be no progress. I had to learn to use them to be valuable building blocks for a creative method based on heterogeneous dimensions.

Klaudia Nagy, Pesti Műsor, 2021

Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek

Director Zoltán Balázs, who comes from the world of alternative theater, takes everyone to the top. At the Budapest Operetta Theater musical Nine is truly counts as a blood refreshment.

Not only were the actors “squeezed out” by the leader of the Maladype Theatre, he also worked the seamstresses well above average. The actors of the three casts got different costumes to match everyone's personality, the clothes were designed by Anikó Németh. Probably no production has needed that much costume here yet. With their cavalcade of colors and shapes, they would garner recognition at any prestigious fashion show. They immediately create the lifestyle that Fellini's masterpiece 8 and ½ radiates from itself, based on which musical Nine was written by Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston. On the other hand, Éva Szendrényi's set does not transmit the Mediterranean world, which swells with life, the stair system, which keeps the actor in check, can be said to be Prussian. The movement becomes limited, the actors have to pay attention to their inner energies and their partners. This is frighteningly static for me in the first quarter of an hour, but then it turns out that the wooden-colored podium system, with its colorful clothes and the characters becoming more and more alive, allows for amazing boards and revue pictures.

The Film is autobiographically inspired. The aging Fellini, obsessed with women - Guido Contini in the play - is afraid of burnout, trying to get inspired again, to put his life in order. Attila Dolhai shows the struggle, the torment of the work, and shows the masculinity, together with the sex appeal of talent. Flóra Széles plays a wife who revoltes over her neglect. Petra Gubik is the demanding lover, Nikolett Füredi is the muse who also demands her own. Bernadett Vágó's journalist is not left cold by the man, who would foam life and work with them, but he feels that it is not going the way it used to. The net sequel to the foaming of life is the scene set in the famous Folies Bergere nightclub. Although there is room in front of the stairs for the more and more sensual dances choreographed by András Szöllősi, almost every corner of the stage is filled with the large cast and the magnificent costumes. Toulouse Lautrec, the painter of nightclubs, would also envy this abundance.

As the star of the club, Ágota Siménfalvy comes out in front of the rivalry and flirts with the men sitting in the auditorium. She addresses someone seductively, makes striking, sneering remarks at the answers she receives. These are full-blooded acting manifestations, of which there are relatively few can be seen. The prose scenes are not always overheated, nor is their atmosphere rich. Then comes the songs and dances, when everything shakes up again. As the mother of Guido, Zsuzsa Ullmann sings with painful beauty. The child is played by Botond Devich: he is eagerly curious, devouring this strange, busy world with his eyes. Anna Peller’s prostitute, with her irresistible femininity and unbridled energy, almost blows the stage. Under the conduction of Tamás Bolba, the band is in explosive form throughout.

It was a pleasure to see that this time everyone gave their best in a production that was unusual within these walls. The premiere audience honored the remarkable performance with applause and standing ovation.

Gábor Bóta, 168 Óra, 2021

Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek

Musical in two acts
(Based on Federico Fellini's movie entitled 8 és 1/2)

Libretto: Arthur Kopit
Music and lyrics: Maury Yeston
Adaptation from Italian: Mario Fratti
Hungarian lyrics: György Szomor
Conductors: Tamás Bolba, László Makláry
Director: Zoltán Balázs

Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning masterpiece 8 and 1/2 is the first directorial self-confession in filmhistory, a brilliant and innovative oeuvre, that has had a big impact on other artists so far. As usual, the theme appeared on the musical stages in the early 1980s, with the adaptation of Mario Fratti, a libretto written by Arthur Kopit with lyrics and music composed by Maury Yeston. The musical was titled Nine. The play was performed on smaller country stages for six months after its completion, until it finally arrived to New York, on the Broadway on 9 May, 1982, where it became a big success not only for the public, but also for critics: Nine was awarded 12 Tony Awards, including best musical, best original music and script, and best costume design. The performance has been performed there 729 times over the years, and in the meantime, it has embarked on an international journey of conquest: it has been staged throughout the United States, then in South America, London and in several countries of Europe. The musical's music draws from a wide variety of genres, creating a truly colourful, immersive soundscape, and several real hits are performed in the play.

Cast:
Guido Contini - film director: Attila Dolhai, Zsolt Homonnay, György Szomor 
Luisa Contini - Guido's wife: Flóra Széles, Szllvi Szendy, Veronika Nádasi
Carla Albanese - Guido's lover: Petra Gubik, Mara Kékkovács, Annamari Dancs
Claudia Nardi - Guido's muse: Nikolett Füredi, Lilla Polyák, Kata Janza
Guido's mother: Zsuzsa Ullmann, Zsuzsa Kalocsai, Ildikó Bánsági
Liliane La Fleur - Guido's producer: Ágota Siménfalvy, Andrea Szulák, Enikő Szilágyi
Stephanie Necophorus - journalist: Bernadett Vágó, Éva Auksz, Katalin Benedekffy
The owner of the Spa: Sándor György-Rózsa, Attila Németh, Tamás Földes
Cardinal: Attila Pálfalvy, Hrisztosz Petridisz, Gábor Dézsy-Szabó

Creators:

Dramaturge: Zoltán Balázs
Musical director: Tamás Bolba
Conductor of choir: Mónika Szabó
Set designer: Éva Szendrényi
Costume designer: Anikó Németh
Light designer: Dreiszker József
Coreographer: András Szőllősi
Coreographer assistants: Mónika Czár, Tamás Kocsis
Director assistants: Márta Angyal, Márton Lenchés
Musical assistants: Péter Axmann, Zsolt Tassonyi, Adrián Kovács, János Mihalics, László Szekeres

With the featuring of the Band and Musical ensemble of the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre

Premiere:

september 24., 2021. - Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre
september 25., 2021. - Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre
september 26., 2021. - Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre

Translated by Imre Kertész

Directed by Zoltán Balázs

In 2021, the Maladype Theatre will present a production based on Tankred Dorst: Merlin or the Waste Land, directed by Zoltán Balázs.

Published in 1981, the work, in which T. Dorst adapts the Arthurian cycle and the legend of the Knights of Camelot from an original perspective, is an outstanding achievement of epic drama. Based on a specific dramaturgy, the structure consists of ninety-six scenes that are extremely diverse in terms of genre. The author boldly combines the dialogue and narrative parts with “hommage-like” quoted guest texts from the works of W. Rowley, M. Twain, W. Eschenbach, P. Calderon, T. S. Eliot, and F. Hölderlin.

The grandiose story dreamed up by one of the most remarkable German playwrights of the 20th century, set in early medieval England, begins with the birth of the intricately controversial protagonist. Merlin is a popular wizard of Celtic mythology, the Devil’s child, whom his father conceived as a human-like creature, so that he would be able to please his will and unleash the genuine nature of men: inherent evil. However, Merlin does not want to obey and in order to outbrave his father’s satanic plan, creates an alternative world order based on the principles of peace, equality and justice: the conception of ​​the Round Table, which in Dorst’s story will be accomplished by the young King Arthur.

The award-winning author recounts the stories of the initiation of the Round Table, the love triangle of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot, the young Parzival’s search for God, and Arthur’s illegitimate child’s, Sir Mordred, from an exceptionally present-day perspective, while he speaks about past, present, future and the eternal cycle of history. He scans the fallible mortal man, who often commits sin in this mad chase, while at the same time is hunger for forgiveness, love, and desires to cling to something as God, or the ordinary happiness in everyday life, or in a sublime idea, that will lead him to the right path while gradually reveals his dual nature to him over time.

The central question of the play, that overarches the ages: will man ever be able to create an ideal, harmonious society? Or will history give its winning cards to the devil?

Cast:

Gedeon András
Kornél Ádám
Brigitta Dőry
Brigitta Erőss
Andrea Lukács
Gáspár Mesés
Zoltán Pál
Lilla Zsenák

Creators:

Literary adviser: Zsuzsanna Juraszek
Set design: Zoltán Balázs
Costumes: Anikó Németh
Leader of music: Brigitta Erőss
Scenic: János Katona Koós
Creative producer: Sylvia Huszár
Production manager: Katalin Balázs


Opening night:

June 25, 2021, Castle Theatre, Kisvárda
January 28, 2022, Eötvös10, Chamber Hall

Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Tour:
Wunderbar Festival, Kölcsey Center, Debrecen - 2022


Performance by Maladype Theatre, coproduction with Castle Theatre and Community Center, Kisvárda

Thanks for the cooperation to Éva Duda Company

With the support of EMMI, NKA, Goethe Institue, Imre Kertész Institute, Castle Theatre and Community Center, Kisvárda