We set forth our series on single Hungarian theatres. Andrea Tompa surveys the second season of managing director Róbert Alföldi at the head of the Budapest National Theatre and Tamás Jászay shows signs of artistic progress in the activity of our most neglected regional theatre, the Jókai of Békéscsaba.
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Summary
István Ugrai and Balázs Zsedényi sum up the 2009/2010 season of Kaposvár's Csiky Gergely Theatre and point to the slow and wilful decay of this once so glorious house.
Two conversations follow. Orsolya Kővári talks to Eszter Novák, an outstanding director who has difficulties in finding her place, and Dezső Kovács met Bertalan Bagó, actor, director, manager, ex-arts director of the Zalaegerszeg theatre who does not give up his plans of building and managing a company.
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The issue opens with the reviews of the month. Andrea Tompa, Judit Szántó, Tamás Koltai, Tamás Tarján, László Zappe, Kornélia Deres, Andrea Stuber, György Karsai and Dezső Kovács saw for us Elfriede Jelinek's Handarbeit (Trafó), Marivaux's Love's Triumph (Katona), a locally adapted version of Thornton Wilder's Our Town (Nyíregyháza), Martin Sperr's Hunting Scenes in Lower Bavaria (National), István Örkény's Searchers for the Key (Kaposvár), Béla Pintér's Slatter (Szkéné),
John Arden's Live Like Pigs (Spoutnik Navigation Company), Madness in Thebe, an adaptation of Bacchae by Euripides (Stúdió „K"), and Ferenc Molnár's Liliom (Hungarian Theatre).
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„Lost or Transformed?” – asks Tamás Jászay while presenting the new developments in the career of the highly gifted director Árpád Schilling. After having dissolved in 2008 his well-appreciated company Krétakör (Chalk Circle), he founded a new venue, called Bázis (The Base), where he experiments with new tendencies.
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Summary
Under the common title „Móricz Redivivus" we publish Zsófia Szilágyi's study on the playwriting activity and experiences of our great novelist Zsigmond Móricz; Dezső Kovács reviews the recent revival of his stage adaptation of his representative novel Landlords' Orgy and Tamás Koltai talks to actor András Stohl applauded for his brilliant acting in the performance.
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Summary
Under the title „Benchmarking 2008" Sándor Venczel surveys the economical and financial data and tendencies of the Budapest theatres, while István Ugrai and Balázs Zsedényi react with drawing the artistic character of the venues in question.
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Summary
In 1910 two historic theatre men were born a hundred years ago. The complex personality of Tamás Major, actor, director, long time manager of the National Theatre is evoked by author György Spiró, Katalin Thuróczy and by an authentic document: his very own principles as shared with his students at the Theatre High School. The other person, aesthete, historian and theatre manager Bálint Magyar is presented first by Tamás Gajdó, this being followed by Magyar's own account of his life in the theatre.
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Summary
In a column called Contemporary Drama László Upor initiates a discussion of issues re-cently raised by Endre Kukorelly in our review.
Contributors to our column of reviews are critics György Karsai, Andrea Rádai, István Ugrai, Kornélia Deres, László Zappe, Judit Szántó, Tamás Tarján, Judit Szántó once more, György Harmat, Tamás Márok, and László Sz. Deme who express their views on Marguerite Duras's Des Journées enti?res dans les arbres (a Kaposvár production directed by Russia's Anatoly Vassilyev with our great actress Mari Törőcsik), Ödön von Horváth's Tales of the Vienna Wood (Katona József Theatre), Chekhov's Three Sisters (Hungarian State Theatre, Kolozsvár/Cluj), Balázs Szálinger's The Children of Oidipus (Radnóti Theatre), Ferenc Molnár's The Play Is the Thing (Comedy Theatre, Kecskemét and Székesfehérvár), The Swan also by Molnár (New Theatre), Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (Hungarian Theatre), Zoltán Egressy's Lucky Beggars (Budapest Chamber Theatre), Tibor Zalán's Eggs of the Blind Duck (Studio „K") and Puccini's La Boh?me (Szeged). The column closes with László Sz. Deme's account of some foreign and Hungarian events of the Fourth Festival of the venue The Ark.
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The present issue opens with our monthly reviews.
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The problems of the projected renewal of our Opera House are examined by Judit Rácz in conversations with managing director Lajos Vass, music director Ádám Fischer and arts director Balázs Kovalik.
True to our review's long-standing traditions, we publish the list of the prize-winners elected by Hungarian theatre critics for the past season.
In their essay co-authors István Ugrai and Attila Nyulassy summarize the present state of the lighter music theatre, i.e. operettas and musicals so popular in Hungary.
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In the posterity of epoch-making Polish theatre artist Jerzy Grotowski three anniversaries coincide in 2009: ten years passed since his decease, twenty-five years since the closing of his Laboratory Theatre and fifty years since the opening of his first venture in Opole. In a selection of contribu-tions we publish Andrea Tompa's essay on the lectures and performances of the Wrocl/aw Grotowski Memorial Festival; an obituary by Tamás Halász commemorates the life work and importance of Pina Bausch, the great German choreographer recently deceased; the text of Grotowski's lecture as doctor honoris causa; András Pályi's study on Grotowski's posterity; and a lecture on Grotowski's relation to silence by the Polish artist's permanent literary adviser Ludwik Flaszen.
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Some important opera events persuaded us to devote a special column to musical theatre. Judit Rácz surveys the more recent developments in the communication of the operatic experience, while Szabolcs Molnár saw for us Béla Faragó's Metamorphosis, a new Hungarian opera based on Franz Kafka's short story and Tamás Márok analyzes Verdi's early opera, The Sicilian Vespers, as seen at the State Opera House. Further, this year's Miskolc Opera Festival was based on the motto „Bartók + Vienna", Vienna this time implying Mozart, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schönberg and Alban Berg. Four performances are discussed in detail: László Kolozsi saw Berg's Lulu by Moscow's Helikon Theatre and the same composer's Wozzeck by the State Theatre of Gera (Germany), while Tamás Koltai examines Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro by Bucharest's National Opera as well as Ariadne at the Island of Naxos, as performed by the Bratislava National.
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We continue our new series offering portrayals of some typical Hungarian theatres. This time Tamás Koltai sums up the special features of the Debrecen Csokonai Theatre under its new management, while co-authors István Ugrai and Balázs Zsedényi characterize one of our most important regional theatres, the Gárdonyi Géza of Eger.
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After the previous analyses of some Budapest theatres, we continue with László Sz. Deme's study of a relatively recent one, the Örkény Theatre.
Critics Andrea Rádai, Andrea Stuber, Judit Szántó, Tamás Koltai, Róbert Markó, András Sztrókay, Tamás Tarján, László Zappe, Kornélia Deres and Balázs Zsedényi with István Ugrai introduce the reader to productions of Knut Hamsun's Hunger, as adapted by András Forgách (The Cha>>
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Summary
The present issue opens with portrayals - not too flattering ones - of two Budapest theatres. Tamás Koltai examines the past and the prospects of the Comedy Theatre where, with a new managing director, a new period begins, and Andrea Tompa sums up the achievements of a „bourgeois art theatreh, the Radnóti.
The rich offer of the theatre programs is reviewed by Róbert Markó, Attila Nyulassy, Balázs Urbán, Tamás Tarján, Tamás Koltai, Péter Tömpe, László Kolozsi, Dezső Kovács, Judit Szántó and Szabolcs Molnár. Thus we are informed about the first three productions of Szombathely's first permanent theatre, The Park by Botho Strauß (National), Csaba Mikó's Idyll (KoMa Company), Apaches by Géza Bereményi and Krisztina Kovács (Radnóti Theatre), Antonín Dvorˇák's Russalka (Debrecen), Szilárd Borbély's Funeral Pomp (Debrecen), Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (Nyíregyháza), Carlo Goldoni's Scuffles at Chioggia (Pest Theatre), August in Oklahoma by Tracy Letts (Comedy Theatre) and Avenue Q by Jeff Marx - Robert Lopez - Jeff Whitty (Centrum Theatre).
In two related contributions Tamara Török talks to actress Eszter Csákányi, while Andrea Tompa reviews the solo program The Woman of the Week (National) by author Lajos Parti Nagy, explicitly written for this virtuoso actress.
Related articles can be also read about Racine. László Limpek introduces the author with a study of the French classical theatre, while Andrea Rádai reviews the National's venture of presenting Racine's rarely seen play Athalie.
Three of our regular dance critics, Csaba Kutszegi, Ákos Török and Borbála Sebők saw for us Andrea Ladányi's tunde@csongor.hu (Nyíregyháza), Twins by the Pál Frenák Company (National Dance Theatre) and re-DNS by the Tranz Danz Company.
In our column called Workshop Róbert Markó sums up the third Board Festival of Debrecen where the best productions of contemporary Hungarian plays are invited.
Three contributions make out our column on World Theatre. Andrea Tompa analyzes That Night Follows Day, a guest production by Tim Etchells's Ghent company at the venue Trafó, Soma Boronkay saw Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman as directed by Thomas Ostermeier at the Berlin Schaubühne and Rumanian expert Liviu Malit,a explains to us the system of official Rumanian censorship during the communist era.
Playtext of the month is Sándor Sultz's Mal'haba.
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Summary
Contributors to our section of reviews are Andrea Tompa, László Sz. Deme, Tamás Koltai, Róbert Markó, Tamás Tarján, Andrea Rádai, Balázs Zsedényi, Balázs Urbán, György Karsai, and László Kolozsi who saw for us Phelim McDermott’s and Julian Crouch’s Shockheaded Peter with music by the band Tiger Lillies (Örkény Theatre), Rolf Hochhuth’s The Vicar (Kaposvár), the opera Mahagonny by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (State Opera House at the Thália Theatre), András Forgách’s Moonlight and Its Traveller (an adaptation of Antal Szerb’s novel The Traveller and the Moonlight, Kecskemét and Zalaegerszeg), András Vinnai’s Mole (Katona József Theatre), He Who Never Returns by Béla Pintér and Company (Szkéné), Schiller’s Mary Queen of Scots (Székesfehérvár), Zsigmond Remenyik’s Pigsticking in the Hell (National), Péter Kárpáti’s Surprise Party (by several companies in a private flat in the City) and Ionesco’s Rhinoceros (Studio K).
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As mid-season always abounds in new productions, the issue starts with our column of reviews. Critics Andrea Tompa, Péter Tömpe, Attila Nyulassy with Balázs Zsedényi, Tamás Tarján, Tamás Márok, Tamás Koltai, László Sz. Deme, Glória Halász, Andrea Stuber, Judit Szántó, István Ugrai, and Noémi Herczog saw for us our national musical drama János the Brave by Pongrác Kacsoh, Jenő Heltai and Károly Bakonyi (National), Raymond Chandler's The Long Good-Bye (Eger), Shakespeare's Hamlet (Sopron and Zalaegerszeg), Maxim Gorki's The Lower Depths (József Attila), Mozart's Figaro's Wedding (Szeged), István Tasnádi's Phaedra Fitness (Eurocenter, Club Fitness), Péter Nádas's The Encounter (Budapest Chamber Theatre, House Tivoli), Egg Night, a production by the Maladype Theatre (Thália), Ibusár by Lajos Parti Nagy and Ferenc Darvas (Budapest Operetta Theatre), Edward Albee's Delicate Balance (Hungarian Theatre), Stories of a Tenement House, a montage of scenes by Viktor Bodó's Sputnik Shipping Company and A Marathon of Catastrophes by the Symptom Company.
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Summary
The documentary series the Katona József Theatre inaugurated during the last season obtained the special prize of Hungarian theatre critics. Now, with the sixth production of the series - a compilation of the passionate debates centred on structural problems of our theatre -, Andrea Tompa analyzes the offering itself, while Noémi Herczog reflects on the deeper meaning and the different manifestations of this new fashion of documentary plays.
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2008.12
In the person of aesthete, critic, dramaturgist and professor Géza Fodor (1943-2008) the profession lost one of its undisputed authori-ties. In a deeply felt obituary editor Tamás Koltai evokes the importance of the deceased and nine of his students at the Theatre University try to explain what he meant to them.
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Similarly to previous October issues, we begin with the critics' prizes for the top achievements of the 2007/2008 season. Seventeen Hungarian theatre critics voted in thirteen categories. János Térey's Table Music was chosen as best new Hungarian play of the season, best productions were Molière's Le Malade Imaginaire (Pécs), Dürrenmatt's The Visit (József Attila Theatre) and Tchekhov's Uncle Vania (Kolozsvár/Cluj), and Andrea Ladányi and Attila Dolmány got the awards for best actress, resp. actor in a leading role.
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