György Csepeli: The Rise and Fall of a King from a Good Family

"Shakespeare’s case study is about a failed experiment. In Zsótér and Balázs’s interpretation, the starting point of the ill-fated experiment is not the body but the truncated soul, which does not tolerate any mirror or know any measure other than its own. The source of beauty and majesty in the performance stems from perversion, which originates from the Prince, later King’s own self and not from his body. This self does not know itself but recognizes and exploits the deadly – literally - weakness of others. With today’s terminology, we would say that Richard III has a borderline personality: modern psychology describes him as a pleasant-looking, charming man who seemly to be running away from himself, looking for others to exploit and destroy, until he himself perishes early.”

"Performed by Maladype Theater, the tragedy of Richard III in Sándor Zsótér and Zoltán Balázs’s interpretation rests in the lack of self-knowledge. As living rebuttal to the thesis of the crippled body, he valiantly fights in the Battle of Bosworth and he could emerge victorious if there were anyone in him to win. But there is no such. He doesn’t exist. He asks himself, “What do I fear? Myself?,” and answers, “There’s none else by.”
Richard failed as a king. The genesis of his sins is his fall. His actions turned into crimes as he could not keep the order where he was the king. He became a villain, but not because he wanted to, but because he did not have the strength to step beyond himself and find a connection to those whose obeying will he could have relied on through his regal will.
Maladype’s performance goes even further. The play is staged in the living room of an apartment. The actors enter the stage from the bedroom and leave towards the hallway, or vice versa. Like a family. There’s nothing royal about their clothes. Their accessories are alarmingly ordinary. Zoltán Balázs blows soap bubbles, killers use toy swords, the martyr princes play with rubber dinosaur figures."

György Csepeli, We are the York family (excerpt), Mozgó Világ, 2016.