We live – we die
One of the most successful playwrights these days is Csaba Székely from Transylvania, who had five of his plays included in the representative Hungarian theatre festival, the National Theatre Festival of Pécs. Two of them were included in the competition programme: Alcestis, a Euripides reproduction for the Marosvásárhely National Theatre, and the coproduction of the Kaposvár and Pécs Theatre, Mine Blindness, which is the second part of Székely's Minelands-trilogy. The first part is the popular piece Mine Flower, staged by the Pécs Third Theatre. The latter performance was included in the POSZT Off programme, together with Marosvásárhely Yorick Studio's play, the monodrama version of Do You Like Banana, Comrades?, which was originally written in English, and won a BBC prize. Székely's comic historic piece, Vitéz Mihály was performed as a reader's theatre; the play is about the Wallachian prince who conquered Transylvania in the 17th century. The reviews of these performances are completed by an interview with the playwright.
Besides staging his own pieces, director János Mohácsi often restages classic drama, with the help of his co-writer and dramaturgist István Mohácsi. The Mohácsis' two latest pieces can be considered black comedy: A Stormy Night by Caragiale was performed by the Sándor Weöres Theatre in Szombathely, Molière's The Imaginary Invalid was staged by the Budapest Örkény Theatre.
The Central Europe Dance Theatre celebrated its 25th anniversary this season. Their anniversary piece, Peregrines included three short choreographies by choreographers who have worked abroad for a longer period of time: art director Attila Kun, Máté Mészáros and Lóránd Zachár. The company restaged last year piece, The Horde, choreographed by Attila Kun, and this time – based on the practice of the UK Theatre in Education – they created a dance theatre educational piece, in which high school students can find their way to contemporary dance using their own creativity. This project was a coproduction with the National Dance Theatre and Káva Cultural Workshop. We review both productions.
In our critical column we analyse the piece of László Mádi, dancer of the Central Europe Dance Theatre, and the new pieces of the Éva Duda and Yvette Bozsik Companies. In our column on international guest performances we review the piece of Phia Ménard.
