az élet színháza
Crossection
a showcase of three leading Budapest theatres
10.-13. February 2011
10th of February
7.00 pm, Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov
directed by Andrei Şerban at the National
10.45 pm, welcome reception at the National
11th of February
10.30 am, Kasimir and Karoline by Ödön von Horváth,
directed by László Bagossy at Örkény
1.00 pm, rehearsal of Péter Esterházy’s I am Your
directed by Péter Gothár at the National
2.30 pm, The National Theatre – an introduction followed by
discussion and lunch
4.00 pm, Hunting Scenes from Lower Bavaria by Martin Sperr
directed by Róbert Alföldi at the National
7.00 pm, Ivanov by Anton Chekhov
directed by Tamás Ascher at Katona
photo by Eszter Gordon
photo by Eszter Gordon
12th of February
11.30 am, staged reading of I Want Quiet! by Zsolt Csalog
at Katona
11.30 am, The Katona József Theatre – an introduction followed
by discussion and lunch
2.00 pm, Rattledanddisappered after Kafka’s Trial
directed by Viktor Bodó at Katona
6.00 pm, Shockheaded Peter by Crouch-Mcdermott-Parti Nagy
directed by Tamás Ascher at Örkény
9.30 pm, Mein Kampf by George Tabori
directed by Roland Rába at the National
13th of February
11.00 am, staged reading of the Csaba Mikó’s Father
in English at Örkény
12.00 am, Örkény Theatre - an introduction followed by
discussion and lunch
3.00 pm, The Double-Headed Beast by Sándor Weöres
directed by Gábor Máté at Katona
7.00 pm, Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
directed by Sándor Zsótér at Katona
9.45 pm, Farewell Reception at Örkény
Crossection – A platform for Budapest’s three leading theatres
Since the mid-eighties, when the Katona started touring internationally, Hungarian theatre has once again earned acknowledgment in the rest of the world. In a country nicknamed “the gayest barack” in the Soviet block theatre had been the most important forum of public debate for two decades, albeit one where “public” meant the shared skill of reading between the lines and “debate” meant laughing aloud at even the most hidden double entendres. Chekhov or Molière, Peter Weiss or György Spiró, the best directors chose their playwrights according to what they told us about human nature in general and the totalitarian Hungarian regime in particular. One wasn’t allowed to discuss politics openly, so one went to the theatre to laugh at a small community bending over backwards to please whom they thought to be a government inspector, but whom the audience knew to be a nobody (Gogol: The Government Inspector, the Katona), or to sob with an actor who stood in front of the backdrop of a crucial battle of 1956’s crushed revolution with a cobblestone in his hand from the street where Soviet tanks came rolling in (Weiss: Marat/Sade, the Kaposvár Theatre).
scene from Weiss: Marat/Sade at the Kaposvár Theatre,
directed by János Ács, stage design by György Szegő
scene from Ice, writen by Sorokin, directed by Kornél Mundruczó, photo by Eszter Gordon
After the fall of the Berlin Wall touring became yet easier and next to the Katona other tongue-breaking Hungarian ensembles like the independent Krétakör (whose first international hit, Brecht’s Baal performed at Katona’s studio) or individual artists like Kornél Mundruczó (whose highly acclaimed Ice is now on repertory at the National) became household names among European programmers, while more and more directors were invited to work with the best abroad, like László Bagossy (Kasimir and Karoline) in Stuttgart, Viktor Bodó in Graz, Berlin and Köln (Rattledanddisappeared), Róbert Alföldi in Rijeka and New York (Hunting Scenes from Lower Bavaria) as well as older favourites like Tamás Ascher in Vienna, Helsinki and Sydney among other places (Ivanov, Shockheaded Peter) – to name but those featuring in the Cross-Section programme.
Some of the shows featuring in these four days have been on the repertory for several years (Ivanov and Rattledanddisappeared) and proven to be just as valid in an international context despite representing quite different genres and aesthetics, and while novel interpretations of great international and Hungarian classics (Three Sisters, Kasimir and Karoline or The Double-Headed Beast) continue to intrigue the best directors, as indeed do fresh music pieces (Shockheaded Peter), other productions in the programme were born out of protest against a dark new chapter of Hungarian history, pregnant with racism, discrimination and the common vernacular of hatred, in an effort to reinvent contemporary theatre as the foremost forum of public debate (Hunting Scenes from Lower Bavaria, Arturo Ui or Mein Kampf).
Dwindling subsidies for both independent and state or city theatres are real cause for concern and a constant topic of debate. Under the present circumstances, however, we can certainly not complain of a lack of subject matter. Perhaps not since opening the borders for East-German refugees has Hungary been in the news as much as in the past two months – this time none of it flattering. We hope that Cross-Section’s guests will leave here with an altogether different impression.
-Anna Lengyel (PanoDrama), initiator of Cross-Section
The Katona József Theatre
The Katona Theatre in its present-day form was founded in 1982, under quite unusual circumstances. The artistic achievements of two regional theatres, Szolnok and Kaposvár, deeply influenced and determined the tendencies of Hungarian theatre in the second half of the 1970s. It was clear that their results would have certain consequences on the theatre life of the capital, as well. In an effort to reform the National Theatre in its crisis in 1978, Hungarian cultural policy-makers invited the artistic director of the Szolnok Theatre, Gábor Székely, and that of the Kaposvár Theatre, Gábor Zsámbéki to become joint artistic directors of the National and contracted those actors from Szolnok and Kaposvár who were most open to the new tendencies. Besides trying to fulfill the tasks of a „national” theatre, the new artistic team considered it more important to try and establish a more direct contact between life and their theatre.
Gábor Székely and Gábor Zsámbéki in the 80's
Katona József Theater
It followed from their special sensitivity to the problems of contemporary Hungarian society that instead of following the „national theatre” traditions, their goal was to find a new theatrical language to articulate these problems. All this lead to an opposition between the traditional tasks of a national theatre and the theatrical and social aims of the new artistic team. Cultural policy-makers understood that these two goals could never be harmonized, thus in 1982 they offered Zsámbéki, Székely and their team of actors to secede from the National and start working as an independent company at the Katona József Theatre, which used to be the studio stage of the National. Gábor Székely became the artistic director and Gábor Zsámbéki the leading director-in-residence of this new institution. Since 1989, when Gábor Székely left the company to found a theatre of his own, until 1 February 2011, Gábor Zsámbéki served as artistic director of the Katona. He was followed by Gábor Máté, who joined the company as an actor in 1987, and became leading director-in-residence 2001.
-Tamara Török, dramaturg
after the late literary manager, Géza Fodor’s article
The Second year of Theatre Leadership
The most important achievement of the National is not simply putting onto the Budapest theatre map a type of theatre held in little esteem by earlier artistic standards, but how it managed to reform discourse regarding the National Theatre, placing the communication on a new footing. That is to say, it shook up discussion over the long disputed building and its controversial past. In short, Alföldi shifted emphasis from FORM to CONTENT. He had a hands-off approach to heritage. He did not begin by polishing up the repertoire, and although he immediately brought aboard a new staff (young actors and direct co-workers in management), he let the company’s performances run till the end of the first season, parting with certain members and slowly launching the new program. Making the National a lively meeting place is a goal yet to be achieved, but much will depend on the development of the neighborhood, which lies far from the city center.
The National Theater
Róbert Alföldi, photo by Gáspár Stekovics
Communication, therefore, was built upon new content, announcing its simple and direct program in forums (such as the metro) that no other theatres had used to win acceptance for their aesthetic aims. By placing provocative, playful question marks on standard “classic” and “contemporary” invitations, he engaged a potential audience in a dialogue, striving to strip them of their preconceptions, signaling that the theatre should be accessible to everyone regardless of generation or standpoint. The new National focused on making the city aware of its presence, intentions, and later, of course, some of its plays and premieres.
At the same time, Alföldi set up an emphatically open feedback system. “Speaking to everyone” did not mean an exclusively one-way conversation from theatre to audience; the viewers also had the freedom, both physically and virtually, of speech. The best example of this is not the Q&A-s, open houses, and receptions that have become customary; rather, it is the theatre’s guestbook, in which anyone may record any opinion without moderation. Those who buy a ticket to a performance also earn the right to formulate an opinion. One token of a unique openness is press reaction, which also appears uncut and without manipulation on the website. The performance and workings of the new National can be criticized and debated in the public sphere as well as the press.
-from Andrea Tompa’s
essay on the National Theatre
A New Theatre is born
Popular Acclaim and Cutting Edge Innovation
- No Contradiction in Terms
Örkény Színház is a very young theatre in the heart of Budapest. Formerly the studio of what was once Hungary’s cutting edge theatre and strongest ensemble producing the most exciting countercultural work in the sixties under the Communist regime, Örkény won its artistic independence from the since commercialized Madách Theatre with a fairly small ensemble of 17 actors in 2004 and has been led since by the acclaimed actor-director Pál Mácsai (b. 1961).
A full administrative and structural independence was finalized on the 1st of January 2010. In order not to lose all of the - by then highly commercialized - audience used to light comedies, familiar faces and no experiments, while also trying to win an entirely new crowd, hungry for new plays, new forms and new directing styles, as well as an interactive relationship with the artists discussing the real issues of our days, a delicate balance had to be found.
With no former management experience, but with a sensitive and open approach Pál Mácsai managed to fulfill this most precarious task and mix his audience of old and young, the latter becoming the most loyal regulars of what has become one of Budapest’s most highly acclaimed houses of cutting edge work.
Pál Mácsai
Örkény István Theater
With its fairly small ensemble Örkény boasts around 25-30 shows in a month, some of which involve almost the entire company (Le Dindon, Nyugat or Shockheaded Peter), while others are essentially a monologue (The Fairy Who Saw In the Dark or But I Was a Good Mother - both new Hungarian plays and both performed by one of the grand dames of the Hungarian stage, Judit Pogány or Tell us the Story, Pista - texts of the absurdist István Örkény performed by Pál Mácsai).
New Hungarian plays are of crucial importance to this theatre: István Tasnádi’s hilarious award-winning comedy in verse, Finito, as well as Lajos Parti Nagy’s modern classic, Ibusár about the railway ticket-selling girl, who dreams of an operetta life, are two of the most popular shows on repertory.
New international plays, often far too neglected on Hungarian stages also play a central role in the Örkény repertory. Productions of the past few years included Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Arabian Nights and Frau von Früher, Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Nikolay Kolyada’s Murlin Murlo, Irmgard Kaun’s The Artificial Silk Girl, Aki Kaurismäki’s La Bohème, as well as the cult junk opera of the Tiger Lillies, Shockheaded Peter.
-Anna Lengyel
More information in the Crossection Programme
edited by: Anna Merényi
graphic design: Gyula Kőfaragó
printed by Re-noir