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Word for Word

the first verbatim show in Hungary about random racist attacks against the Roma, based on more than 60 hour long interviews

*with English subtitles*

with:

Gergely Bánki

Yvette Feuer 

Anna Hárs

Róbert Orsós 
Tamás Ördög 

Márta Schermann 

Zsófia Szamosi 

Krisztina Urbanovits 

dramaturgy by:

Dénes Bíró 

Judit Garai  

Anna Hárs 

Anna Merényi 

video by:

Dénes Bíró 

Gabriella Korán 

voice by:

Zoltán Keresztes 

light design by:

Zoltán Vida 

concept and creative producer:

Anna Lengyel 

supported by:

OSI, Trafó, www.szinhaz.hu

premier:

10th of March 2011., Trafó

36% of the asked hungarians agree that it is right to have clubs in which Roma customers are not allowed to entry

Word for Word was the first verbatim show in Hungary and it tells the story of the 2008-2009 random racist attacks against the Roma, in nine different villages or small towns, during which 5 adults and a five-year old boy were gunned down after they fled their houses that the murderers set on fire. The show reports of the Ku-Klux-Klan type executions with the words of victims, survivors, family members, lawyers, policemen, mayors, minority representatives in those settlements. The creative team and the cast conducted about 100 hours of interviews with them, which they then built the show from adding some found texts, but never changing or stylising as much as a single word.

The staging hits the bull’s eye with regards to a depressing present, when the third biggest party in Hungary demands that the “Gypsy parasites” be smoked out and Jews be listed.

 

-Kristina Lindquist: Dagens Nyheter

These murders and the lenient attitude of the public is what Anna Lengyel talks about in her documentary theatre work. Word for Word which premiered in 2011 is a raw and shocking evening as far as its findings go.”
Esther Slevogt: nachtkritik.de

 

*with English subtitles*

The first verbatim theatre in Hungary is really a pioneer in setting the roots of documentary theatre in Hungary and almost unprecedented in the way it talks about social and political issues, while also novel in methodology and form.

 -Fanni Nánay, Ellenfény

Something important happened. People started to talk. About things that the theatre doesn't talk about and in a way the theatre hasn't spoken yet.

 

-Andrea Tompa, Színház folyóirat

*The recording of the performance was shared as a special edition of the bilingual reading theater series Stück für Stück by PanoDráma and the Austrian Cultural Forum.

In Hungarian with English subtitles.

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