Images are formed, worked out compositions are born with the background of the deep coloured opera foil, which reflects cosmic spaciousness.

The genre of puppet art gets out more and more boldly from the box of the theatre for children. The Puppet Theatre of Budapest extends again its repertoire, which aims the older generation, this time with Goethe’s Faust. Zoltán Balázs’ staging leaves as much the traditions of natural puppet art, that he puts at once the puppet-like elements into the stylized and overturned, but hard to encode world of the most contemporary theatre, and he builds around with surreal gestures. The Goethe-like poetic lines are flowing modestly and spare, while puppet creatures of over reality, gothic mutants from the hybridization of the hellish creatures of the Walpurgis-night and Hyeronimus Bosch are flying up onto the stage. Images are formed, worked out compositions are born with the background of the deep coloured opera foil, which reflects cosmic spaciousness.

But in spite of all its beauty the world of stage is so much constructed and organised, the story of the Faust-like mythology and the characters’ fates, their systems of relationships are so fragmented and re-choreographed that the logic of the happenings and the enjoyment of meeting up with them, are so much hidden. A vision is put on stage, which operates as some kind of sensual machine, and not as visions of human moods. When Faust meets the demented Margin in the jail, the emotional net, which is strained between them, appears in a stylized scale of movements. Faust on the page, which jumps out of the wall of the set, slides under the older Margit, who stays in a jail and their dialogue, can be listened to as parallel monologues. Their connection is limited to the image as Margit pushes dispassionately from above with her bare foot, Faust’s head and chest, who is wobbling for its rhythm. The feeling of some kind of vulnerability appears here, but this solution does not become multi-layered because of the stylization, above all something gets lost from the possibilities of their duo and of the moment. More punctually the interpretation of Goethe’s work. Sándor Zsótér this time works together with Zoltán Balázs as a dramaturg, and the most important change according to their dramaturgical structure compared to the original one is Helena’s figure, who appears earlier and more times, while the Margit-motif slides backward.

With is the remaining parts of the two parts of the tragedy are connected to one another more organically, and the desire of love is more emphasised (as it is strengthened by the playing of Umebayashi’s love motif between the low number of music), and the exposure of human longing becomes more balanced and complex. The whole performance is filled with similar doubling and reflection. According to Judit Gombár’s set, Faust is sitting on a place of our everyday surroundings, on the subway of the city. As in István Erdős reserved and enjoyable performance, the old Faust shows us his memories about his life – each scenes of the other world are also played in the subway car (or at least in its “remained parts”) – and in the fantasy appearing creature, Norbert Ács’ young Mephisto, is only the catalyst of it. The contract happens with the ceremonious eating of an apple, which is the symbol of Fall, but they do not begin the Margit-line, but Helena appears as old too, if I remember well Márta Szakály plays her. After it, they start the happenings of the first part of the original text, more exactly that way the so far young Mephisto becomes the young Faust. The two figures are connected to one another that way, and - in the troupe of the Puppet Theatre, which strongly has all the generations – together with Margit’s role, they go on from actors to actors. The performing and moving actors’ costumes can refer to this symbolic connection of the characters too: everybody wear that Margit-like suit, everybody is the faceless agent of Matrix.

The puppets, which show more and more distorted gene pool appear more stressed after Margit’s death, from it the stage shows its more surrealistic face, but the puppets are able to do less abstractions. While their disgusting worm-like nature is interesting, their worked-out nature is more concrete too, so less remains to the viewers’ fantasy. From it their scenes seem to be somehow boring and meaningless, there is less tension between them and their movers (for example in case of the black suited marionette pair, or at the appearance of puppet, which connects the devil-like creature from the space and mythical army helmet in itself). For a while, the only thing, which is interesting, as Margits, Fausts and Mephistos are changing one another. The scales of the scenes, which are long for nothing, visionary circling around, calm down finally with Philemon and Baucis’ episode, and it leads to a fantastic ending image, in which we can see the old Faust again, who would tell not only his own, but Mephisto’s monologue too, with the same light, slightly resigned, summary-like tone. The Human being finally reaches the end of his fate, all calms down, everything is ready to death. Just the pink ancient remaining creature, which is moved by Zsófia Vesztl, with its human legs, waggles its tail and watches the final end, as it does all through the performance: maybe it is the never ending Nature, as the symbolic figure of re-beginning.

László Deme Sz., szinhaz.net, 2009

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)