According to the director of the Maladype Theater, it would be worth to distinguish amongst the independent companies between the ones with serious past and early-stage companies.

The alteration of the Corporate Tax system puts the nearly 18-year-old company in a difficult position. At the same time, the theater director believes that the current situation creates a good opportunity to clarify the real professional questions, which have been swept under the rug a long time ago, and to radicalize the situation of the independent theaters. He finds this achievable on a strictly professional basis, taking in consideration real values and performances.

Can you remember what situation were you in and what was your first reaction, when you have been informed about the Corporate Tax decision?

We’ve been in a waiting position; we should have found out which companies will offer us the maximum amount of the Corporate Tax based on the number of the audience and income. The Corporate Tax support covers nearly two months of Maladype Theaters’ functioning. It is very important since as an independent theater with constant company and team of associates we have to maintain seventeen people. It was questionable, how we can agree with future backers, such as MagNet Bank, and when can we start the subsidy process. Then we received the news, that the Corporate Tax system will be abolished or changed, but we did not receive any information about the criteria’s of how all this will happen; unfortunately, the distribution ration is still unclear. We did not see the point of reacting to the initial rumors. We wanted to wait for unambiguous information. Since then, we know that the cost plan for theatrical support is ready and the cultural under-secretary of Ministry of Human Capacities, Péter Fekete, will be responsible for distributing the 37 billion HUF theatrical support budget.

What did you do about these unexpected situations so far?

Taking into consideration the changed situation, we tried to find a financing solution from alternative sources. We can handle the unexpected circumstances only if we are constantly ready for a change and we have multiple survival strategies. This can be a creative, puzzle game as well, but you can’t gamble with an artistically and structurally functioning company. A large part of our income it is from our foreign tours, our guest performances, and thanks to this are we still alive. It is a decisive question for us, that in the revised Corporate Tax system on what conditions will the payment happen, who will benefit from it, and will the independent and private theaters and cultural festivals have a place in this new package, and if so, what kind of place.

On your website, it says that you are a company that can always redefine itself, and you consider the actual changes as a natural process of theater making. Is this statement valid for the current situation as well?

As we know, some terrestrial life forms do not grow in a light and oxygen-rich environment, but instead they are found in hot water, alkali or acidic soils, nevertheless they live and exist. Translated to our theater situation: thanks to our adaptation, we are „survivors” among the independent companies and this gives us support and strength. If we would truly face the misuses and professional anomalies caused by the previous Corporate Tax, and the whole matter would be responsibly and prudently investigated, then this current situation could even bring positive changes by rethinking the entire support system of the performing arts.

There could be also a reconsideration in long-standing structural issues. For instance, selection between independent companies could take place and they could highlight those five truly independent theaters, that for many years have been showing earnest professional accomplishments home and abroad as well with little, incalculable financial support. I find it inappropriate that in 2019, the Maladype Theatre is in the same position as the start-up companies, that are often organized for a single event. This does not mean, that in the course of time these theatrical adventures cannot grow into a serious, considerable ensemble, but we, who have already been through this process, know from our experience, that a lot of things are necessary, first of all, long-term professional and operational concept and planning.

I do not believe that anyone could contest the almost eighteen-year-old Maladype with its innovative performances and special theater education programs for contributing to the current character of the Hungarian theater; which is why I feel that this secondary treatment that concerns us and other independent theaters similar to ours it is derogatory. It would be opportune reconsidering the value-based system of transparent financial and professional support and take accountability seriously.

What criteria do you think should be laid down for this?

Very concrete ones. The companies should present long-term functional plans built on genuine professional ideas, but not just on paper, but also in an effective and demandable way in the theater. They should be able to maintain and improve their function; they should be interested in the implementation of complex theatrical processes and in the restore of their achievements as widely as possible. They should have a place in their structural-intellectual strategy for innovative ideas and solutions, and a place in their communication, a straightforward, dynamic, and active tone addressing to a multigenerational audience.

However, the most definite measure of effectiveness is that, from a professional point a view, what can the company add to the canonized greater whole as a valid practical suggestion. Beside highlighting those five independent theaters that show proper function, it would also be important for these companies to have their functional support at the beginning of that particular period, to ensure planning and functional safety. Many suggestions have been written as a response in the previous years, but nothing happened. This is what the Board of Trustees, published on April 12, 2018, is about.

From this, I conclude, that there are people near the government who are well aware of this situation.

Yes, there are professional councils, curators, under-secretaries, and ministers who recommend the same thing year by year. To no avail. We all know within the profession which of the independent groups are really operable and which truly regular guests of foreign festivals are. The intention to change the Corporate Tax was, among other things, the fact that among the performing arts organizations were some, who misused the „whipped” data of the pseudo-spectators from foreign performances and thus received extra funds. The problem is that not only those, who caused this whole issue to explode had been affected, but also those who had done their job honorably compared to their own possibilities. The baby has been thrown out with the bathwater.

What could be the solution?

The most correct would be to account those responsible, and those, who were not part of this dirty game, would be given the opportunity to put a word in the reallocation of the Corporate Tax system. Now it seems, that following the example of the Film Fund, the Corporate Tax support of theater art community is also being resolved by distributing Corporate Tax offerings from a common pot. But what and who exactly this decision affects, we don’t know it yet. It is heard, those national and advantaged institutions will benefit the most. No one talks about us, the independents. It is also important to mention that the dust cloud swirling around the Corporate Tax was a good cover for the fact that the National Cultural Fund of Hungary’s production applications were not announced in the autumn of 2018. Also not to mention the fact that the announcement of the 2019/2020 operational applications is already in one-month delay compared to last year’s date.

How does the current situation affect Maladype in terms of premiers?

I hope that one of our two premiers planned for this season, Euripides Trojan Women will take place in the direction of István K. Szabó. In the midst of fateful wars, the play that focuses on different female principles is very relevant and a worthy task for the actresses from our company. Also, our audience can welcome Mária Varga as a guest artist in the performance. Witold Gombrowicz Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy would have its premiere at the beginning of April in my direction. The twelve actors of the company would play together in this performance, but the fate of this is still uncertain because of the mentioned reasons.

How do you find the silence of the theatrical scene?

We do not have a positive experience with different professional and interest organizations. We have also left the Independent Performing Artists’ Association a couple of years ago because we felt that it did not represent our interests at all. The fabric of theater society is also very damaged. Coming to a new age, a new dimension, I find it necessary to think and want to think together about the new theater life form, but I do not like the violent manifestation of criers and the those who call themselves „professional mouthpieces”. In my opinion, any ruthless and reckless statement about the common cause of our profession is extremely detrimental. For me, true professionalism means only one thing: the consistent and involved search and research work. How we are capable of artistic and human solidarity for the development of theater art, the launch of incentive and integrative creative processes and their widest possible completion and preservation. Do we strive for a greater understanding, consensus, dialogues of the past truths and the theatrical processes of our times. Today I feel timely the world-renowned Japanese writers, Mishima Yukio, an urgent call from the mid-twentieth once more, in which he draws the attention of artist to the risk of arts over-politicization: „It is time for artists to return to the art!” Maybe we should also think about why are we dealing with theater making; business and self-interest control our everyday theater activities or we have deeper, stratified connection with the essence of the Theater, which cannot be regarded as just a concept or an object. The FIVE GATES era-specific theatrical-methodology concept, which I started in September 2018, examines these theatrical and technical issues with seven young graduates.

It is also stated on your website that you support yourself from funding applications. The interviewees of this series of interviews so far have all said, that these funding sources are so small that they do not provide enough coverage for not even one new premier. How can you solve this?

With a lot of work and trained nervous system. We try to apply everywhere. Thinking responsibly, we have no other choice in the current rules of the game. Some other methods of obtaining money have also been developed, but for their validation deliberate supportive strategy and constant expanding contact network was needed. We have built our Maladype support programs with a lot of energy. For example, thanks to a part of the previous Corporate Tax support we could make happen the very successful poster campaign called I also watch Maladype. We are aware that we need to address new investors in order to stay alive. If everyone would contribute only a small amount to the projects of our company, that can get bigger. This, of course, does not solve our annual operating deficit at all, but it is convenient for gaining time.

Do you have somebody whose job is only this?

All of us are multifunctional because it is necessary, efficient and economical. Although the applications are not yet written by our actors (although I have seen an example of this kind abroad), and our staff did not have to perform, but it is important that our company members can turn their hands to anything and to have quick, flexible problem-solving skills.

In what way are actors’ moods affected by this situation? Do you perceive existential fear on them?

As constant members of an independent theater company, unfortunately, over the years, they have got accustomed to the regular presence of uncertainty about their future. They know that they are part of a problem-solving team, and if we already have valid information about them, we’ll share it in time. In the meantime, they concentrate on what is their main task on the rehearsals and performances. For this special form of life, it is needed plasticity and constantly renewing trust that distinguishes maladype actors for other companies actors’.

If you had to say today how long you see the future of Maladype, what date would you tell us?

By mid-march. All of this because we successfully managed to separate the costs for the seven young people we hired in September from the cost of the theater. Last summer we took a huge risk by inviting seven members of the graduate acting class from the University of Art Târgu Mureş to our three-year talent care/support program. However thanks to some of our enthusiastic backers, and especially the long-term cooperation concept with the director of the TRIP Ship, László Magács (director, theater director, initiator of Átrium –ed.) we managed to provide for this season the necessary resources for the research-work of our new actors. László Magács recognized the importance of the FIVE GATES concept and he became a professional mentor and patron of the juniors participating in the program.

Do you have any answer to what could be the purpose of the Corporate Tax action?

I have several possible answers, but I hope that the main aim of the change is to have a more transparent system to operate the target amount of the guaranteed aid to be distributed from the common pot. In my opinion, a Corporate Tax system that is selective and up-to-date cannot have the only starting point of maximizing the audience. The real change would be to determine the rate of Corporate Tax support for those concerned by other professional criteria, true values, and performances. Corporate Tax support for development could also play a very important role.

It is not clear from the government decree from December what the independent companies can expect.

Indeed. It should be taken in consideration the fact that there are beginners among the independents and there are teams that have been working successfully for several years, who have been able to prove their viability in hopeless circumstances. This fact itself could be a powerful filter for the long overdue and necessary reduction process. The operating and support conditions for the registered organizations should also be reconsidered.

Maladype is a theater open to the audience. Among other things, every performance is followed by a meeting with the audience where you talk about what they have seen. In the course of these conversations is the audience interested in what will happen to you?

They always ask about the company and us; it also happened that we had previously received some useful information personally from them and not from official sources. They keep an eye on us, on the changes. We also have some of them, who regularly supports our theater with a monthly transfer. We have always considered the importance to involve our audience in our creative processes and share the concerns we face on a daily basis about our function.

Is the old-time patronage system revitalized in Hungary today?

It is revitalized if there is a Prometheus of our time, who will share the flame between the patron gods and the creative people. Intelligence, sensitivity, empathy, professionalism, and last but not least, practical experience and relational capital. We can consider us lucky because in almost eighteen years we have met with such backers, and we are thankful for them.

If you had a situation where your company could not continue to function, what kind of personal plan do you have for the future?

We’ve been struggling for a long time to survive to be very experienced „situation managers”. We have different emergency scenarios. We flip through the pages and with little risk factor we try to bring it to effect. Certainly, this does not mean that we will survive this period under all circumstances because if there is no support and applications, this is simply impossible. Practicing theater directors know exactly what a long-term artistic concept is an indispensable prerequisite for stable administration and finance.

Without this in the 21st century, you can’t develop or improve; we cannot guarantee the rental cost of our permanent theater space, the infrastructural background required for quality work and the honorary payment for our artists. Our name is well known abroad and by our international appearance we can be active participants in the worlds theater events, but as we get closer to the jubilee year, I would like if Maladype would be appreciated at last at home as well, and to see our operating amount, based on our many years of operation and achievements. Simply because we deserve it.

Anna Rácz, Szinhaz.hu, January 26, 2019

The Odeon Theatre from Bucharest premiered the Gardenia by the contemporary Polish writer Elzbieta Chowaniecz directed by Zoltán Balázs. The performance had a debut in Tunis on 15th of December at the 20th Journées Theatraled De Cartage Festival which is one of the most important international festivals of the Arab-African region. The event presents very diverse genres (from prose to dance, form classics to contemporary) during the seven days full of professional programs and innovative performances.

Thanks to the success of the Gardenia and the personal and professional relation with the company the leader of Maladype Theatre got a recent invitation for the second part of the season 2018/2019. Zoltán Balázs this time will direct the contemporary Italian dare-devil, Pier Lorenzo Pisano’s play, the For Your Own Good. The premiere will be at the end of May - as the Gardenia - in the frame of the FabulaMundi Playwriting Europe international project.

In November 2018 at the FNT - National Theatre Festival Romania the direction of Zoltán Balázs got several invitations abroad. During the season 2018/2019 the Odeon Theatre will be present on festivals in Spain, Italy and Columbia.

About the Gardenia:

In the piece of Elzbieta Chowaniecz the roles are nameless women who are marked with numbers. The Gardenia is a detailed family story: the drama of Polish women of four generations, the elder was born in 1920, her daughter in 1942, her doughter in 1962, and the youngest in 1982. While they live through the whole history of the 20th century with warfare and peace, richness and poorness, their complex but still simple relations are revealed between the mother and daughter, grandmother and granddaughter, great-grandmother and great-granddaughter. How the inheritable vain and taught patterns influence (our) behaviour? Can we decolonize ourselves from the social circumstances? Can we back out of the pressure from the family’s tradition-innervation? Among others Elzbieta Chowaniecz’s drama seeks the answer for these questions.

I get in touch with the Odeon Theatre through the france based Romanian author, Matei Visniec’s visional absurd, the Dada Cabaret. The theater’s last leader the well-known actress and theater principal Dorina Lazar wanted to show the Dada - which had huge professional and public success - adjusted to the Romanian actors. Finally her purpose didn’t fulfil due to programming difficulties, but thanks to the meanwhile evolved personal and professional relationship I got an invitation as a director for the first part of the season 2017/2018. Few days before the contracting Dorina Lazar was unexpectedly changed to Cristian Sofron, who contacted me after his registry, by my surprise. The invitation went for the performance within FabulaMundi Playwriting Europe international project, and as an upshot in the end of May the Odeon Theatre presented the Gardenia by Elzbieta Chowaniecz in my direction.

Zoltán Balázs, the leader of the Maladype Theatre spoke about his silence in the past few months, about the past and future of the company and about the situation of independent theatre makers.

Zoltán Balázs, actor, director was awarded with the Sándor Hevesi prize for enriching the international reputation of Hungarian theatre at the Hungarian centre of the International Theatre Institution on the World Theatre Day. The artistic leader of Maladype Theatre is a permanent guest at diverse festivals and theatres around the world not only with his own company but also as a director. He directed in the US, France, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia and he is a returning artist in the very strong Romanian theatre scene.

On 31st of May 2018 the Odeon Theatre from Bucharest presented the contemporary polish writer Elżbieta Chowaniec’s Gardenia directed by Zoltán Balázs. As an actor he appeared in the title role of Shakespeare’s Richard III at the Theatre World International Theatre Festival in Brno, Czechia. The one man show based on Viktor Kravcsenko’s memoir I Chose Freedom after Washington has a debut in Subcarpathia, Southland, Highland and Transylvania; a documentary recorded the journey entitled Freedom Tour. Besides all these he represents the independent theatre makers as a member of POSZT Advisory Board. He shared his thoughts about national and international invitations, the tale of the way to happiness, the vocational questions about the independents and why did not give an interview in the last months.

You directed in several Romanian theatres, but in the capital city for the first time. How came the co-production with the Odeon Theatre of Bucharest into being?

I get in touch with the Odeon Theatre through the france based Romanian author, Matei Visniec’s visional absurd, the Dada Cabaret. The theater’s last leader the well-known actress and theater principal Dorina Lazar wanted to show the Dada - which had huge professional and public success - adjusted to the Romanian actors. Finally her purpose didn’t fulfil due to programming difficulties, but thanks to the meanwhile evolved personal and professional relationship I got an invitation as a director for the first part of the season 2017/2018. Few days before the contracting Dorina Lazar was unexpectedly changed to Cristian Sofron, who contacted me after his registry, by my surprise. The invitation went for the performance within FabulaMundi Playwriting Europe international project, and as an upshot in the end of May the Odeon Theatre presented the Gardenia by Elzbieta Chowaniecz in my direction.

You are regular guests with your company, the Maladype Theatre of remarkable international festivals. For example the Great Sound in the Rush performance will be presented in Armenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. Why are the Maladype performances so wanted?

Principally maybe due to our individual theatre language and non-conformist trait. On the other hand the years of professional presence on national and international theatre festivals and forums, where in the course of the last years from Iran to America many people remarked those specific processes which are typifying the Maladype’s incessantly renewed theatre view and works. For us the concentrated work, the intense coexistence of the actors and the constant communication with the audience is very important. The strenght of our actors is the linguistic conformity, the resilience and impovisation which reacts in real time to the events in the common space with the audience. We have both classic and contemporary, multidisciplinary and non-verbal productions on our repertoire and out of this the festivals with diverse topics can find a Maladype-production interesting for them. There is also an advantage that our company has its own creative method developed by me, which can be presented in the frame of acting workshops during the festivals or guest performances.

Recently you appeared in the title role of the Richard III by Shakespeare on the Theatre World International Theatre Festival in Brno, Czech. What is special in the direction of Sándor Zsótér compared with the other running Richard III performances and how was it received by the bohemian audience?

Unfortuantely I didn’t have yet the chance to see neither the one in the National Theatre or in the Radnóti Theatre so i can’t compare them, but I am sure that the are three very different concepts and acting in the three theatres. In the concept of Sándor Zsótér the most liberating for me was the throw away of the medical aids and the capacity to recognize the relative truth of the sober game leader. In our show the execution of Richard’s programme is possible by the economical and vivid acting where I can go through the sensitive experience of thinking with players - who had grown up on Sándor Zsótér’s theatre and - who represent the focus, style and proportion on a high level. As a player the chalenge is the direct infiltration under the skin of the inabriated royal court. We played the show for almost 40 times, but the duets of Lady Anne and Gloster, Elisabeth and Richard or Richard and Buckingham were never the same as these scenes need diffenret intellectual modulation every time. I believe that our unconventional Richard III perforamance arrouses the interests of international festivals due to its intimacy, the energy of the minimalistic acting, the diverse and dynamic music and the concept which creates new accents in Shakespeare’s classic. After our guest perfomance in Brno in May it will be presented at the Shakespeare Festival in Bitola, Macedonia and at the Shakespeare Festival in Neuss, Germany.

You renounced many interviews recently among others about yout Csongor and Tünde direction. What was the reason of your silence?

I simply considered ridiculous in the middle of the me too campaign to meditate on the alternatives of finding happiness in Vörösmarty’s Csongor and Tünde and to explain why was it important for me the two title roles to be played by one actor - Ágota Szilágyi - for the first time in history of the play. The majority of directors may have considered relevant the molastation issues with the topic of finding happiness, but for me this topic is much more sensitive and complex to bring it down to the mud-slinging. Nobody or only a few would care why mixes my direction László Sáry’s contemporary music with János Jammal Fekete’s beatbox effects and why did I choose László Kéringer tenor to play the androgynous role of Mirígy. Shortly as Vörösmarty’s hero I looked into the fountain and remained speechless for a while...

What was your goal when you cast Ágota Szilágyi both for the male and felmale main role?

I was interested in the Male and Female personality-model melting into each-other, the surface where the double conciousness creates a reality with its own system. Ágota Szilágyi is a creative personality and through her wonderings in diverse roles she became able for this self-unveiling. Her strong verbal and vocal knowledge guarentee the succesful execution of this unconventional adventure. It was special to observe how she finds Tünde and looses Csongor and other way around during the rehearsals, and the spiral of the double role finally appeared in her acting and it was a relevative experiece for those present. The performance had good reception by the audience and profession both in Gyula and Budapest, Ágota Szilágyi was even awarded with the Lajos Őze-prize for her acting.

In your previous statements the performance doesn’t offer solutions but a creative accounting. From where did you started and what is your aim in your career?

I seek the lowest common denominator in my works which connects the seemingly alien contents, thoughts and motivations. In the Csongor and Tünde I tried to find those imaginary spaces where the causes and effects got a new meaning and the routine can loose its stability. As Odyssey or Faust or Peer Gynt or even Csongor I also pursue the experience of the journey and with every of my new works I’d like to delay my arrival.

A special poetry and a uniqe vision describes your directions, your scenery doesn’t fit the diverse actual theatre trends but your works are still in the centre of professional and public interest, with the gastro language they get epicureanism. What is the reason of your desire to depart from the canon?

I never was concerned with the theatre trends and expectations, from the beginnings I walk my own path and with my reprobate partners who came with me on this special expedition I seek the answers for those questions which are the most relevant to us. My directions did not fit the canon neither when I put the unusual pieces of Ghelderone, Weöres, Genet, Maeterlinck, Hörlerlin or Wyspianski and I did not thought about the trends when we created the Büchner’s classic Leone and Lena’s 25 scenes in four variations or the Ubu King with four players between newspaper bales. I did them this way because I considered valid. I am a lucky person since besides my own company I have the chance to work in other theatres as well, and during my works abroad I get familiar with diverse cultures of theatre-making and thanks to these I could stay away form closed theatre mediums. During the years I had the chance to try myself in several genres from the prose through the opera till the puppets and slowly I managed to by-pass to be put into boxes. Currently we have Shakespeare, Vörösmarty, Genet, Lagarce, Weöres and László Sáry on our repertoire. Being avantgarde among the classics and classical among the alternatives mean some kinf of exclusivity. And to create for epicureans is a great honour and responsability in the same time.

Your manifesto based on Victor Kravchenko’s I chose freedom had a tour which was documented by a film crew. What is the concept of the documentary movie airing soon?

The Kravchenko project started four years ago and had several fazes and it definately was born under a lucky star. The obtaining of the rights, the translation, the publication under our own power, the succesful scenery, the Kravchenko-case passed to pupils with disadvantages, the American and transborder tours including my birthtown, Máramarossziget all prove that it was a worthy work by the sponsors, professionals and the Maladype crew who helped my commintment with Victor Kravchenko from the firs moment. The concept of the documentary investigates the complex case of pure recollection, personal freedom and responsability in an enviroment where the basic human rights and democratic values are in danger. It is a true acting challenge to transmit the story of Victor Kravchenko at these venues. The one hour movie’s main idea: you can’t build a reality on lies.

You are a member of the POSZT Advisory Board as representing the alternative scene. How do you consider the board’s work?

In the Advisory Board I represent the independence (as La Fontaine’s Un independant) where among with the other members of the board we debate the actual and future tasks of the POSZT festival. Certainly we often discuss the situation of independents. The long term solution of these won’t be solved by this Advisory Board, but every suggestion is truly considered which aims the representation of experienced or fresh independent groups at the POSZT contest and/or off-programme. By my experience these debates lack the warefare between the tribes, these are led by professional aspects and we all seek the opportunity for every opinion that find its space for the diverse creative claims.

The evaluation of the annual operation projects are public. During the past years many questions concieved of the project system and several important theatre groups articulated their displeasure about the curators decision. You quit the Independent Performing Arts Assotiation with your company. What was your complain about the IPAA and the curators?

Most of all about the fact that I did not felt represented by the association in any way. And behind the curators decision I couldn’t observe any real result, professional history, operational strategy, plan or suggestion regarding the future. In my opinion the operational budget is awarded wastefully with a year by year changing hectic attitude which is not compatible with the companies with domestic and international results (which are recognized every year by the curators themselves) which are only a few: Forte, Káva, Kerekasztal, Maladype, Pintér Béla és Társulata, Proton and Studio K. The publication of the curators this year draws attention to the independent theatre’s anomalies, which consist as an accentuated part the proposition (since many years) to create “a category for the companies with big history and a stable and calculable operation who are not able to be accentuated due to their independence from the local government, but in their numbers they are often equal.” They also ask to “make it possible for these organizations to apply for three-year budget with an annual account for the proper computability and progress.” I totally agree with the suggestions and I consider them topical and reasonable, but as the leader of one of the concerned companies I dont understand that with the considerable difference in the awarded budget why those divide the significant actors of the independent scene who accentuate this operational strategy based on the Polish model and urge the accentuated category for the companies above-mentioned. What is the cause that since years we are granted 12-15 million less by those decision-makers who perfectly know what added difficulty is for example in the life of the Maladype to sustain our own venue or the lack of technical crew and infrastructure. Every aware professional knows that compared with other companies behind the Maladype there isn’t an institution or organization which would finance the basic terms or everyday expenses and it is totally inexplicable why are they keeping us on a peep and why aren’t the professional aspects deciding the destiny of the viable companies. The imponderability of this situation evolved since many years proves that the majority of the companies doesn’t see the annoucements neighter as a possibility of reaction.

It seems that you constantly return to a starting-point, as you redefine yourself, your creative visions, your theatre. A few years ago your succesful repertoire was reset and rebuilt. Today the repertoire is again full of internationally recognized pieces. How do you evaluate the 2017/2018 season and in which direction would you like to navigate the Maladype Theatre in the next years?

Since many years the main approach of the Maldype is the standby. Thanks to this status we always were a company which is able to recreate itself. Into our researcher attitude fits The Balcony by Jean Genet as well as the Louis by Jean-Luc Lagarce which were the premieres in the season. By the words of Tadeusz Kantor, one of the most complex theatre-maker “there is another entrance, a poor side door which is not too elegant moreover it can be ridiculous but through that the art could sneak in...” I think that I should take it serious and hunt up this entrance, open it and leave it open for those who seek the constant development with me.

It’s time to find those responsibly thinking people in the theatre profession and in the state apparate as well who are able to think in terms of perspectives and contexts. With their support I would like to realize some of our old artistic and structural ideas which could broaden the current borders of common thoughts about the theatre embedded into the “traditionalism” and could examine the actual intentions of the theatre on professional base.

Last but not least I would like to guarantee for the Maladype - which turns 18 in the season 2019/2020 - to treat it as an adult, in such way as condigned with the undertook and finished aims, national and international successes and results in theatre and theatre-education. I don’t want the wrongly informed “well-informed” (MGP) narrow “elite” to determine the coordinates of the structural background of our art progress and to continously feed our contiguous defencelessness. I would like a standard and long-term solution with cooperation and common countenance of those who are principally concerned in the problem and are capable of productive cooperation in the favor of professional continuity and calculable functioning.

The intreview was made by Zsolt Oláh.

szinhaz.hu, June 26, 2018.

Next year the Maladype Theatre celebrates its 18th anniversary. Zoltán Balázs, the leader of one of the most important independent theatre groups in Hungary along with the old and new members started the “maturation” season with a press conference on the TRIP Ship, a venue which will have the Maladype as a preferred company from season 2018/2019. László Magács theatre director, the executive and artistic leader of TRIP Ship and Zoltán Balázs actor, director, artistic leader of Maladype Theatre presented the basics of the professional and structural cooperation plans of the next season. Three emblematic performance from the Maladype repertoire - Richard III (d. Sándor Zsótér), Csongor and Tünde (d. Zoltán Balázs), August (d. Zoltán Balázs) - from November 2018 will be hosted by the TRIP Ship Theatre Hall. There will be a coproduction with the ship opening on 11st of April 2019, a site-specific performance based on the Yvonne by Witold Gombrowicz directed by Zoltán Balázs.

The press conference presented the age-specific theatre metodology concept named FIVE GATES. The talent developing programme reflects on cultural changes in Hungary and abroad creating a new model of education and theatre practice. The concept articulated in terms of professional innovation besides the permanent research team, the Maladype Juniors, wishes to offer a possibility for diverse organizations, cultural institutions and persons to join the programme in time as a strategic partner.

The executional goal of the FIVE GATES theoretical experiment - besides with a publication ordered by Dr. Ferenc Miszlivetz, the general director of Institution for High Education - is the integrative permanent research along with the actors, theatre professionals and civils which is available for the international professional institutions and partners.

The FIVE GATES wishes to support talented entrant actors who learn the general processes of theatre making and as “modern artists” of the future theatre they could earn the knowledge beased on experience and high standards which they need finding the link between “old” and “new” along their career.

The artistic leader of Maladype mentioned as a special opportunity that his company could be extended with the collective sign up of the graduation class from the Art University Targu Mures, Romania and built upon the FIVE GATES methodology can contribute to a new theatre model.

On the press conference appeared the Maladype Junior team (Brigitta Dőry, Brigitta Erőss, Róbert Fekete, Simon Jáger, Ivett Andrea Lukács, Gáspár Mesés, Lilla Zsenák) and the trainers participating in the FIVE GATES concept (Dr. Györgyi Illés speech teacher, Kata Huszárik actress, Kornél Mogyoró percussionist, Ágota Szilágyi actress). Sylvia Huszár presented the international plans for the season, the festival invitations, guest performances and also the possible international aspects of the FIVE GATES programme.

Zoltán Balázs as closing remarks mentioned the difficulties of the independents with their sustainability and fundings since many years and asked the responsible cultural supporters to help the valuable communities who represent a long term concept in their art and are able to think in process and progression and to organize the expedition of the organic concept and complex strategy on the ‘terra incognita” of the future and create the base and condition for the next generation of theatre makers.

The Maladype Theatre is a permanent guest of international theatre festivals in Europe, Asia and America. The members started this season with guest performances and significant prizes. The company attended many festivals in September with the Great Sound in the Rush performance. The “semi-serious” opera of László Sáry - a co-production with the Quaartsiluni Ensemble - was firstly performed in the New Synagoge of Zilina within the Contemporary European Performance program series. Afterwards the company attended the Fiat - International Theater Festival in Podgorica, the direction of Zoltán Balázs was awarded by the professional jury with the “Most Original Musical Concept’s Theatrical Execution” prize. In the jury’s opinion “the company reached the style-magic with a stunning refinement. The artists are experts in the wide scale of the theatre profession, they realize this exciting experimental conception with the medium of dance and music”. After the succes in Montenegro in the beginning of September the Great Sound in the Rush’s group performed the combinatoric poem of Sándor Weöres near the Ararat at the HIGH FEST International Theatre Festival in Jerevan.

The Richard III of the Maladype was performed in May at an international festival for the first time at the World-Theatre Festival in Brno. The performance directed by Sándor Zsótér with excellent guest artists got many invitations to remarkable Shakespeare-festivals. The performance will debut in 2019 at the Shakespeare Festival in Bitola, Macedonia and the Shakespeare Festival in Neuss, Germany, and there are negotiations with festivals in Iran, England and Denmark.

The graduation performance of the Art University of Targu Mures entitled August - its players are the members of the Maladype Theater’s Junior group from 1st September 2018 - got also invitations in the season 2018/2019. The succesful performance directed by Zoltán Balázs in October reached many places as a Maladype Theater production. The non-verbal performance inspired by the novels of Bruno Schulz was performed at the Borstnik International Theater Festival on 19th of October in the Cultural Centre of Lendva.

The Odeon Theatre’s Gardenia performance was invited to FITO - Internation Theatre Festival of Oradea on 25th of October. For the direction of the performace made within the Fabula Mundi Playwriting Europe international project Zoltán Balázs won the Best director prize awarded by the professional and the student jury. The festival prized the set design (Constantin Ciubotariu) and the costume design (Andrada Chiriac) as well. The Gardenia was performed on 14th of October at the Festivalului Fest(In) pe Boulevard International Festival in Bucharest, then on 25th and 26th of October at the Romanian POSZT, the FNT - National Theater Festival. After the guest-performance on November 10 at the International Theater Festival of Ploiesti the performance will debut at the International Gathering of Contemporary Dramas in Milano.

The growing international interest to the Maladype Theater is an indicative of the productive international relationships, guest-performances and the cooperational ambition. The experiences with the international performances are improving and shaping the company’s creator approach, sensitize for the innovation, the progressive theater thoughts. Open for the international theater processions in the second part of the season the Maladype Theater’s international plans include some lands beyond like Singapore, China, Uganda and Izrael.

On the occasion of World Theatre Day, the Hungarian Centre of the Institute of International Theatres honoured theatre practitioners with the Hevesi Sándor Award. This year Zoltán Balázs artistic director of Maladype Theatre, László Szabó G. cultural manager and György Vidovszky director received the award.

Zoltán Baláz,s not just with his own theatre company but also as a well-renowned director, is a regular guest at festivals and theatres around the globe. He directed in the United States, France, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania, too.

The Hevesi Sándor Award was founded in 1998 by the Hungarian Centre of the Institute of International Theatres. Every year three artists, cultural mediators, company leaders are awarded for their efforts of growing the international reputation and recognition of the Hungarian theatre life. The award is given by an advisory board of the Ministry of Human Capacities and the Hungarian Centre of the Institute of International Theatres based on the suggestions of theatre organizations and theatres.

Earlier awardees:

· 1998 Tamás Ascher, Yvette Bozsik, Anna Lakos
· 1999 György Lengyel, György Szabó, Gábor Zsámbéki
· 2000 Csaba Antal, László Marton, Mária Szilágyi
· 2001 Enikő Eszenyi, András Nagy, Dezső Szilágyi
· 2002 Krisztina Bába, Judit Gombár, Miklós Szűcs
· 2003 Péter Huszti, Marika Oszvald, Ferenc Novák
· 2004 József Gregor, János Kiss, János Novák
· 2005 Péter Fábri, Iván Markó, Béla Pintér
· 2006 Pál Békés, Csaba Horváth, Árpád Schilling
· 2007 Balázs Kovalik, András Lénárt, László Upor
· 2008 János Meczner, Judit Csanádi, Máté Gáspár
· 2009 Zsuzsa Radnóti, Katalin Váradi, József Goldschmied
· 2010 Róbert Alföldi, László Bérczes, Andrea Ladányi
· 2011 Levente Bagossy, Anna Lengyel, Gábor Tompa
· 2012 Viktor Bodó, Ferenc Fehér, Patrícia Pászt
· 2013 József Gedeon, Zsolt Khell, Kornél Mundruczó
· 2014 László Kentaur Erkel, András Kozma, István Silló
· 2015 László Bagossy, Györgyi Szakács, András Urbán.
· 2016 Beáta Barda, Pál Frenák, Attila Vidnyánszky
· 2017 András Dömötör, Csörsz Khell, György Lőrinczy

After the debut of August, the performance of the graduating actor class of the Târgu Mureş University of Arts in January 2018, the performance was invited to many Romanian and international festivals. After being performed at the HolnapUtán Festival of Oradea and the Szín-Tár Festival of Kecskmét, the nonverbal show inspired by Bruno Schultz’s short stories, The Cinnamon Shops, August will be performed the Showcase of Transborder Theatres at the Thália Theatre on 20 April, 2018.

The performance, staged by Zoltán Balázs, Artistic Director of Maladype Theatre, will make a debut for the czech audience at the Zlomvaz Festival Prague on May 5, where only four performances from abroad were chosen by the organizers of the festival. After this, the audience can watch this special performance on June 9 at the Istropolitana Festival of Bratislava, on June 15 at the FITS Festival of Sibiu and June 28, at the Festival of Transborder Theaters at Kisvárda.

Zoltán Balázs is a regular guest at the Romanian theatre life: in 2005, he directed The Return of Odysseus at the Csiky Gergely Hungarian State Theatre. In 2011, Maladype performed the well-renowned performance, Leonce and Lena, and one year later the festival-winner Egg(s)hell at the SIBFEST International Theatre Festival, and they introduced Platonov, too. In Spring, 2012, in the coproduction of Radu Stanca National Theatre and Maladype Theare, The Master and Margarita received critical and audience acclaim. In 2017, Zoltán Balázs was awarded Best Director at the ATELIER International Theatre Festival with his staging of How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients. The audience could also see him performing in 2016, as Viktor Kravcsenko in I Chose Freedom performed at Târgu Mureş. Currently, Zoltán Balázs works on the staging of Elzbieta Chowaniec’s Gardenia at the Odeon Theatre of Bucharest.

The artistic director of Maladype Theatre was invited by Erzsébet B. Fülöp, leader of the graduating actor class, to teach the students his characteristic theatrical method.

Zoltán Balázs, who has already directed university students (2007 – Mikado – Liszt Ferenc University of Music, Budapest; 2017 – The Lesson, University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest) after the thorough analysis of the short stories and creating the movement schemes, he created this bizarre system of connections characteristic of the Polish author by using an interdisciplinary and playful language

Performers: Brigitta Dőry, Brigitta Erőss, Róbert Fekete, Simon Jáger, Ivett Andrea Lukács, Gáspár Mesés, J. Viktor Szabó, Míra Szilágyi, Lilla Zsenák. Director’s assistant: Ildikó Zoltán (director student, 3rd year). Production assistant: Zsuzsa Juraszek (student of tetrology, 1st year)

szinhaz.org, April 16, 2018

On 13 January, the graduating actor class of the Târgu Mureş University of Arts debuted with August, a performance based on Bruno Schulz' short stories, directed by Zoltán Balázs. The artistic director of Maladype Theatre - who was invited to direct at the university by Erzsébet B. Fülöp - prepared the performance August based on short stories entitled Cinnamon Shops by Bruno Schultz.

Zoltán Balázs is a regular guest at the Romanian theatre life: in 2005, he directed The Return of Odysseus at the Csiky Gergely Hungarian State Theatre. In 2011, Maladype performed the well-renowned performance, Egg(s)hell at the SIBFEST International Theatre Festival, and one year later they introduced Platonov, too. In Spring, 2012, in the coproduction of Radu Stanca National Theatre and Maladype Theare, The Master and Margarita received critical and audience acclaim. In 2017, Zoltán Balázs was awarded Best Director at the ATELIER International Theatre Festival with his staging of How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients. The audience could also see him performing in 2016, as Viktor Kravcsenko in I Chose Freedom performed at Târgu Mureş.

About the exam performance the director told Târgu Mureş Radio that it is important that students conceive their desires, their purposes and experiences, that they are present, they are not just playing, and they let happen what they are there for.

The creators about the performance:

Bruno Schultz, master of colourful phantasmagories, tales and sensations, builds up his work from worthless junk. Behind these junks, our lives flow, and the only essence is given by the change of masks and forms. Although Schultz is a contemporary of German expressionists, Musil and Kafka, instead of universal fear he rather builds a house from his own childhood memories. The author of the magical-realistic Cinnamon Shops wrote about the final days of the Monarchy in a galician small town, in which his own father, Jakub, in the shape of the merchant and philosopher-magician, sees the end of an old age through the eyes of Józef, the child. Childhood “would be the realization of a messianic age, an age of genius which was promised to us in mythologies” - he wrote. Against the aggressivity of the preceding chaos Józef defends himself by letting it into his own house and finding a place for it in the space of existing. “What a naivity it is to think that we can form our own fate in life’s thousand smallness. My only desire is to lull the watchfullness of fate and, without any noise, become invisible on the side of good luck.”

AUGUST

nonverbal performance based on Bruno Schultz’ short stories

Director: Zoltán Balázs

Performed by:

Brigitta Dőry, Brigitta Erőss, Róbert Fekete, Simon Jáger, Ivett Andrea Lukács, Gáspár Mesés, J. Viktor Szabó, Míra Szilágyi, Lilla Zsenák

Lead teacher: Erzsébet B. Fülöp

Director’s assistant: Ildikó Zoltán (director student, 3rd year)

Production assistant: Zsuzsa Juraszek (student of tetrology, 1st year)

Opening night: 13 January, 2017. 7 p.m.

Venue: Studio Theatre, Targu Mures, Köteles Sámuel u. 6

László Sáry’s Great Sound in the Rush chamber opera is a success story: the piece directed by Zoltán Balázs was premiered in 2015 at the Bartók International Seminar and Festival in Szombathely as a coproduction of the Maladype Theatre and the Qaartsiluni Ensamble. The premiere was followed by national and international tours (Valley of Arts Festival - Taliándörögd; Third Theatre - Pécs; Central European Theatre Festival - Kosice, Slovakia; Théâtre Saint-Gervais - Geneva, Switzerland; Musiktheatertage Wien Festival - Wien, Austria; Teatr Szekspirowski - Gdańsk, Poland; Dom Kutury - Warsaw, Poland). In 2016 won the Artisjus-prize for the best original play of the year.

After the sucessful Theomachia performance (directed by Zoltán Balázs and Ilona Béres in the main role) this piece of László Sáry reinvented the Weöres-poetry and offers a special event of contemporary music and theatre and the worthy celebration of the composer.

The works of Zoltán Balázs had success many times in Hungary and abroad: his direction in Chicago, the History of Communism for Mental Patients won the prize for Best Director at the ATELIER International Theatre Festival; the critics in Chicago nominated for the Best Perfromance of the Jefferson Awards. Earlier the Maladype Theatre's Ubu King celebrated it's 100th perfromance in the United States; the Leonce and Lena had 100 presentation as well, and besides others was played at the DIALOG International Theatre Festival in Wroclaw. The Egg(s)hell performance based on the singe-breasted by Sándor Weöres was played almost 80 times and won the main prize of the INFANT International Arts Festival, and it was a guest at the Teatr Baza in Warsaw; and Checkov's Platonov was played for 40 times.

The Great Sound in the Rush performance's previous venue in Geneva was familiar for the leader of Maladype Theatre, since on the autumn of 2016 had a presentation about the independent theatre scene in Hungary at the Ici c'est ailleurs festival, where Philippe Macasdar, the manager of Theatre Geneva noticed the Maladype Theatre's spirituality and innovative intent. The performance was also invited to the Musiktheatertage Wien by Thomas Desi festival director, where besides the audience talk and professional meetings, Zoltán Balázs director held a workshop based on his own method, named Gold-Bug.

Zoltán Balázs earned his acting degree in 2002, then in 2003 he graduated as a director at the University of Theatre and Film Arts. He made his first work as a student (Pessoa: Anxiety - Merlin Theater, 1999). As an actor, he has contracted to the Bárka Theater after college, where the Hamlet was one of his most important roles, staged in 2005 by Tim Caroll. He made his first arrangement with Maladype Theater in 2001 (Ionesco: Jacques or the reign). The originally Gypsy-Hungarian theater became an independent theater with its own brand. Between 2004 and 2008 Maladype worked in Bárka, and in 2008 they moved to the Thália Theater studio. In 2009 they occupied their own base at the Mikszáth Kálmán square, but their performances were played not only here but in reception areas. Meanwhile, Zoltán Balázs regularly creates performances, organizes courses and workshops abroad.

Could it be easier?

You have an acting and a directing degree, you were member of professional and independent companies, you play and direct, you are the head of the Maladype Theater, and you also theoretically process your work. How would this many activities be summarized? What do you consider yourself to be?

I would say that I am an angular axis that keeps the running axes together. Combination of a thinker and an active creator. I rarely can allow myself to cut the different functions (actor, director, company leader) and tasks (organizer, strategist) out of the context.

Wouldn’t be your life easier if you did not have so much to do?

I can hardly imagine how it would be...

What would be easy to leave, lay down?

Since I have quite a lot of requests from foreign theaters, I could organize my life to work only outside of Hungary. I could also host workshops and courses since I have my own method, whose practical value on the international cultural market is very high; various festivals and theaters are constantly interested in it. I would take one or two creative companions with me. If I’d chose this, I would no longer suffer from headaches for daily living: how to pay for our base, permanent members and guests, and the costs of the various Maladype events. I would not be agonizing about the grant applications if those suit our plans, and if so, then if we could make the program out of the amount we were awarded. If I were to get rid of these problems, I might be able to concentrate much more on my own personal development. Now I have to dividemy strength and attention with the goals I have set myself and the tasks I have jointly undertaken with others. I also need to think of those who can realize their ideas with my help.

A chance to stay alive

And why didn’t you choose the role of the international director?

This is an every-day question for me. I still see a chance to go through with all we have set as goals for ourselves with Maladype's founders eighteen years ago... For some reason we have survived the most difficult times... Somehow we have always crossed the crises periods and managed to redesign the work, we were able to develop and new miracles were born... In short, there is potential in Maladype for what it is worth doing. I do believe that from time to time I’ll be able to synchronize Maladype with my work abroad. I try to organize the life of my company in a way that while I work abroad, other directors work with my actors. Once we have to end Maladype's story, I'll accept it and I'll let it go. I will not wait for the disaster tourism to begin like at other independent companies in the last few years. If we do not go any further, we will leave with dignity and try to prepare the people in time.

What chance do you see to stay alive?

The world does not favor communities with common thoughts; the independent theater formations. Indeed, the world is not favorable to theaters or the arts. However, there are three factors that can give you a lot of energy for everyday’s struggles, for survival. One is sense of humor. To be able to observe the world around you with irony and creativity, and to easily dissolve in the everyday’s abstractions. Another important factor is good company, if we can meet and work with creative people who inspire us and if they also consider the commonly-formulated issues in work and in private life. I also find it important for everyone to get the amount they deserve in return for their work, because without this it is difficult to keep the enthusiasm alive for many years. In fact, moneylessness will sooner or later shake faith, confidence. The third factor is the central idea, which confers different intentions and defines a creative period. "Inner affiliation" can be an organic organizer, a coherent force that can motivate us to act together. As long as these three factors have been given, we have the reason to keep the company alive. This does not mean, of course, that we do not need support for planning our safe operation. The problem is that many people do not even know that the life of independent theater formations can be planned..

It’s a kind of kamikaze action

That multiplicity means a real community? Besides Maladype do you feel connection with other independent companies?

We are very few who are self-identical and truly independent. Few teams have permanent actors with whom the repertoire performances can be maintained and developed. The rehearsal and performance structure in the institutional theaters does not allow them to think in processes; the person leading an independent company can work as an experimental, researching creator.

After all, why did you choose the independent existence?

It was an instinctive choice, my personality. If I wouldn’t have elementary attraction to this quality of creative freedom, I would have avoided this way of life far, as there was no perspective in structural or financial terms. I can assure you: to establish and operate an independent theater, you have to be crazy. It is a kind of kamikaze action.

What does it mean to work in an independent company?

We need to have a very serious audience-building strategy to find and maintain our own audience base. Our precise ideas must be about how we can address, merge, and initiate those who are really interested in our work. This integration process has to be consciously carried out by the actors of the company. This extra task is naturally incorporated into our day-to-day operations.

When I started Maladype in 2001, I didn’t know how to build a brand; we did our job because we loved it, we had a dangerous energy: gypsy and non-gypsy actors were euphoric on the stage. We had the courage to chase with our imagination, our desire for freedom, with renitant authors (Ionesco, Ghelderode, Sándor Weöres, Genet, Hölderlin) who offered us all the antecedents and recipe pieces. Analizing their worlds focused our energies. After a while I noticed how few people have this pace. For those who were initially novel in our theater-making technique, soon became tired, polite and dispatched. They have invested less and less on the understanding of our internal processes, the analysis of our performances, and the tools for decoding the viewers. Because the deep work with our performances proved to be too complicated, most of us have put us into a box: ritual theater, poetry theater, movement theater, etc. People sometimes appeared at our performances as at an exclusive and elite event, but after the unidentifiable experiences they disappeared for a long time. Meanwhile, the interest in our work has increased. This is how foreign festivals, theatre gatherings representing the various theatrical traditions and contemporary aspirations have invited us and we established a long-term partnership with mutual interest.

Risk Factor

Does this mean that you have experienced greater openness abroad to the practice and theories you represent than at home?

Yes, clearly yes. Even in a medium where documentary theatrical trends and current political phenomena make it more sensitive to the situation in Hungary. Most recently, in Switzerland, where we played our Great Sound in the Rush performance. For the Geneva audience, it was a huge revelation that in László Sáry's "semi-serious" opera, which is not the greatest good either in everyday events as a poster for a flagship work or for the manifestation of social processes and socially fragile fragments, has always been discovered by the dubious "human factor" that the theater performers slowly forgot while advertising the "certainty ". It is possible to announce "the verb" along the lines of all kinds of tribal wars and intimate political battles, but the essence of theater is only man. It was astonishing and shocking as the elite Swiss audience - like the Dutch audience at the Dutch Festival - Leonce and Lena, in 2011 in Amsterdam - also discovered the primal and the very personal feelings in them watching Great Sound in the Rush. It was a gigantic feed-back about our experiments with the Maladype company for many years: the concept of „human beings”.

Can you determine what your main aspirations are?

Most importantly, theater as a self-identified person should be seen by viewers and creators who have somewhat "dissipated" over the past decades. I often feel that theater artists exploit the rich nature of theater and use for their own creative and economic interests. They discouraged it as a commercial tool, forgetting that the theater artists were ever humble and well-versed media in the complex nervous system of theater art. We strive to look for the essence, approaching the theater dramatically and humanly. Our theatrical processes shoud be determined by the content-form relation and the diversity, not what the audience or critics liked. We need to change, refresh our existing knowledge, redesign, rethink our previous results, to reach a new topic, to find a new form. This is our main aspiration.

So safe operation is not the most important.

Rather, the risk factor. If I reflect on Maladype's seventeen years, then I can say that our theatrical endeavors have always been in the focus of risk. Due to this, many people love and follow us in our way, regardless of age and cultural backgrounds. Of course, we have done a great deal for our inaugural and open trials, with our programs of various value proposers. In order to be a truly integrative theater for theatrical creators and viewers, bold and innovative thoughts are needed, in which we can rely on many of the practical factors of thinking about theater. I also find it important to put our intuitive insights into words and share with others.

Make theatrical language more exciting

Why do you consider it important?

Because if we do not open, the soul shrinks in us. It's getting harder and harder and finally we cannot express our thoughts and creative intentions. We can not find the right terms, do not specify our expectations for ourselves and our partners, we will not be able to translate our feelings and ward off our faithful instructions. It turns out that we do not have common concepts, we can not refer to them, there are no fertilizing arguments, so we do not know how to be interested in our creative processes ... In this context, I also consider the theater performers have the task to end to some blocked theatrical processes.

What do you mean exactly?

Representatives of Hungarian theatrical art are still keen on the Stanislavsky-method, and they are not affected by other innovations. Despite the new intentions and methods which already gained space around the world, for the guardians of Hungarian theatrical traditions these will remain only „exotic raids”. This is how the innovations of puppetry and circus art are removed, and our theatrical formulas become more and more schematic and predictable. To make a theatrical language exciting, new vocabulary, new concepts and a new interpretation strategies are needed.

In your own pursuits, is it important to utilize the results of puppetry and circus art?

Wherever possible, I strive for that.

Can you give examples?

I used rope in the Swans Lake performance at the Budapest Puppet Theater as an animation tool, which seriously challenged the performers. The „transfiguration" of the various ropes did not only require artistic sensitivity, but also technical knowledge, but at first the actors did not have this type of manual skills, so, the rope could not come to life, become airy, obey the various tricks and enchant the audience for a long time. That is why I think that a theater manager - if you have the opportunity to share your company with the richest means of expression - needs to plan in advance that - in the form of a workshop - actors can acquire the new techniques that will enrich their acting toolbox. Thus, it is not the task of the designated rehearsal period to technically develop the actor, to adapt to his or her new means of expression, but to provide a common opportunity for the director and the players to build on existing knowledge.

So, richer theater language (and theatrical knowledge) would be needed.

By all means. I would be delighted to see much more professional need and audience openness.

Finding a Golden Bug

You say that the majority of the audience is looking for the usual, the redeeming. Maladype, however, faces this expectation of playing unusual pieces in unusual realizations. Even though you are quite different in this. You play classical pieces that are always repertoire in Hungarian theater. For example, Richard III, which is staged by Sándor Zsótér in a special theater form. You also introduced some of the lesser-known contemporary authors such as Matei Vișniec and Dada Cabaret in a completely surrealistic performance. You translate a book that is mostly unknown to us, Viktor Kravchenko I choose Freedom, a part of which you present as a monologue. These are quite different kind of theaters and require different attitude by the spectators. Is there any common purpose in these works? Or is this diversity important to you?

We strive for the style of „stylelessness". I'm relieving ourselves of the temptation to transfer anything from the previously conquered content into didactic shows. This kind of awareness is also linked to the Golden Bug method, which is based on analytical thinking, well-suited to actors, educators or even executives...

What is the Golden Bug method?

A full description of the method can be read on our website. The Golden Bug is the title of an Edgar Allan Poe short novel about the voluntary exile of Professor Legrand and the deciphering of the outer and inner parts of the Golden Bug. Thanks to the professor's analytical thinking, he discovers the only path to a treasure that has ever been hidden by pirates on the island. The Golden Bug is therefore the knowledge itself. There are important and less important signs. Those who can distinguish them from each other can separate the essential things from the unimportant, the useful ones from the useless ones. The four phases of finding the Golden Bug are observation, conclusion, combining, and finally editing. The acting pedagogy method I have developed is based on this four steps. Since the Golden Bug method mainly induces analysis, self-observation-based professional discoveries in those who are seeking the internal processes with the changes in the environment and new ways towards the future „terra incognita", it leads the participants of the training to a totally different kind of thinking and attitude. Double synchronization of their human and professional nature to make the familiar and unexpected impulses present at the same time as actors' creative strategies.

Dada, Kravcsenko

Let's talk about some concrete performances! Why did you want to work with the Dada Cabaret?

I didn’t. I wouldn’t have thought about it if Matei Vișniec would not send the piece two years earlier. First I put it down, but two scenes put a suspicion in my mind and I read it again. I realized that there is a very serious potential in the material. In my final decision Matei Vișniec's instructions were very helpful, written by him in the „textbook": the director can redesign the play following his own dadaist ideas. Erzsébet Kútvölgyi, with whom I had been longing to work together, immediately came into my mind for Lenin's role. She saw the School of Fools at the time, and thanks to that, for the pleasure of every one of us, she changed her intentions of leaving the theatre. Studying the role of Lenin, I felt that Erzsébet Kútvölgyi is a „predator-actress” just like Ilona Béres as Chronos in Theomachia or Andrea Ladányi's Vergilius in Dante’s Hell. Dada Cabaret has properly moved my dadaist imagination and I also had the opportunity to make a sort of „clearance" through Tristan Tzara's personage in the „theatrical relics" pent-up over the years. I could think over the period from 1914-16 to the present, the all kinds of musics, the artistic and human aspirations of different ages. In Dada Cabaret, as in the other Vișniec-piece (The History of Communism for Mental Patiens) which I directed at Trap Door Theater in Chicago or as in my one-man performance by Viktor Kravchenko's bestseller, I was interested in the metamorphosis of freedom. The killer nature of utopian and dystopic games. The responsibility of the individual and the community. Mechanisms of manipulation. Dadaism has helped me to get rid of the many unnecessary things I've been carrying for years. That is why I reset the previous repertoire and that's why I began to design the sets of my performances after Judit Gombár's death. At the same time, it was a great opportunity to work with Gábor Gábriel Farkas and his orchestra so that the actors of my company could challenge themselves on a completely new field, which meant to learn and represent the criterias of musical theater on a very high level.

Why did you want to tell Kravchenko's book?

Because I had the desire to do so. Because of my childhood, my upbringing, my grandparents. From where I come freedom was a fragile national but strong family value. The dilemma that Kravchenko's father says is „We are either pigs or humans", deeply defined my attitude to freedom. I was searching for Viktor Kravchenko's book after I read an interview with Ariane Mnouchkine, who mentions this work among the most important five books of her life. Mnouchkine's credibility and the title of the work - I chose freedom - was twisted within me as a twin DNA spiral and did not let me rest until my persistent colleagues found Andrew Kravchenko, the only living son of the author. We managed to get the rights and translate the work with Péter Konok, and then make my own adaptation from the originally 866 page-long book. Viktor's story wanted to speak to me, and I happily interpreted it. All of the performances - including the tours across the Hungarian borders or in Washington - are a special internal journey because this work can be performed personally, in first person singular. Not only for those who have survived this era, but also for young people who can assign the events from the book to their social and human events of our everyday lives and the political processes seem to be deformed. It is an intelligence service and a responsibility to tell the story of Viktor and to speak in a "one-man manifesto" against the repeating phenomena.

Richard III

Why did you want to present Richard III?

Because Sándor Zsótér was interested in the piece, the anatomy of power, and I also was curious in the flexibility of the figure, the spiritual modulation, and the special technique as Duke of Gloster infiltrates unnoticed under other man's skin... And we also had the chance to work with a hundred and thirty years old translation of Ede Szigligeti, where the plasticity of thoughts, the skill of composing, and the refined packaging of words open completely new channels in both actors and viewers, which is reinforced by the intimate space of the Maladype Base, which creates a space of directness. These circumstances deprive me of all sorts of responsibilities associated with Richard III's stereotype; I do not have to be wicked and I do not have to present different therapeutic aids during the play. I did not get such a burden from Sándor Zsótér, so the rehearsal process was very liberating. I had the same feeling with Tim Caroll with the Hamlet title role. Zsótér watched that performance and he really liked it. Perhaps these are the facts that we chose Richard III. For a long time, I did not play, and if I did not meet Kravchenko's book, I would not go back to the stage as an actor. But I trust in Sándor Zsótér, that he knows what and why he wants and has a reason for his cast. I am glad to be able to play in this concept because an important condition for my play is the contribution and the reflection to the minds and intentions of partners. As an actor, it is a serious challenge that I have to be almost unnoticed and implement with my program. When the rehearsals were to find out what Richard's distortion is, where his ugliness comes from, we realized that, compared to a soap-bubble, which is the most perfect form, everyone, even the most beautiful woman or man is a gnome. So we marked out points of attachment that place the already known accents elsewhere.

At such a price I did not want to be an actor

Why didn’t you play for a while?

Because after the Hamlet I had bad experiences. And I work with very good actors in Maladype...

What bad experiences?

I played in performances without that kind of creativity, personal aspect, courage and risk factor that the Hamlet directed by Tim Caroll opened in me and what I experienced on those performances. I noticed that even though an important role was offered with whom I could find the common denominator, during the rehearsals Trepljov or Captain Macheath started to come to fruition with the ideas and expectations of the directors, shunning Balázs Zoltán's personality. I'll give you an example. During the Seagull rehearsals I asked the director to let me, Zoltán Balázs, - who was nicknamed as the „dare-devil" of the theatre – play the role of Trepljov - seeking new forms and arranging a performance for Nyina where she will fall into flames - as I thought about theater at the time, but I did not get the chance. I am convinced that I am fighting for the right thing if Trepljov's role is covered by a rebellious personality. Even if it's bad or good, I take the responsibility for it and I fight till my last breath for Trepljov's truth. As the director did not allow me, I had one chance: as Zoltán Balázs I assisted the director’s Trepljov-idea which had nothing to do with my ideas. So I could not stand behind the Trepljov-problem as I knew and wanted. So the radicalism of the form, the personal anger and the deeds were missing from the piece. Zoltán Balázs was clamped in the background, and Trepljov became dull and secure. Another example: when I was trying to beat Trigorin on the stage in the same performance, the director stopped the scene and put the situation in a conflict-free direction saying that Trepljov did not do that... I did not read such instructions in the play and I considered the conflict to be valuable for the relationship between the two figures and their later history, but this was already beyond the boundaries that the director imagined about the role. I would have let the role play out from me, but there remained only the possibility... After Hamlet it was very difficult to participate as an actor in less personal tasks. I felt like I did not want to be an actor at such cost. Meanwhile I had great actors in Maladype, with whom we made outrageous performances (Leonce and Lena, Eggshell, Ubu King, etc.) and I focused all my energies on them; I had absolutely no lack for acting. In this spotlight I consider it even a more wonderful gift that today I can play Richard III.

Do I read it right that you do not play Kravchenko, just tell it?

Well, I exist it. I hope so. There are no special effects...

Actually, only the text is important, right?

Yes.

Not the figure behind him.

The figure’s problem is the matter which I can represent in the evenings. When I begin the nearly two and a half hour trip, I strive to deal with the story, myself and the audience. Even with Kravchenko or Richard this commitment organizes the evenings. It is important that I shouldn’t push myself before the text, but I also shouldn’t drop behind. A very good sense of proportion and wide-ranging attention is needed and a continuous contact with internal and external events.

I'm angry, not frustrated

Is the today’s political climate frustrating you?

Because of the constant struggle for survival, I'm angry, but not frustrated. Very angry. I feel unworthy of our situation and it is indignant that no result achieved at home or abroad is a value for those who are taking confident decisions about our destiny. Many of us are in a similar situation and everyone is trying to remain loyal to the value system chosen by them; other alignment points do not exist. Perhaps this gruesome situation makes it easier to magnetize creators of similar thinking and values.