The internationally noted director comes and goes in the world like Odysseus, who feels that perhaps it is time to return to Ithaca, his home. His new direction, the stage version of Margaret Atwood's novel The Penelopiad, will be presented on the 22nd of July at the Gyula Castle Theater after the Budapest one. 

- Is it a coincidence or a conscious choice that in recent years, the world has produced performances by women writers that captivate from a female perspective. The line-up is enriched by the stage version of Atwood's novel, The Penelopiad, which tells the story of Odysseus from the wife's point of view. Do you miss the female point of view these days?

- Absolutely. Especially the capacity for empathy and forgiveness. The characters of the plays I direct are experienced, determined and strong women who fight for their rights. Such deeply emotional and self-identified women who bravely stand up against fixations and prejudices. I'm lucky because the actresses kept me close to their souls during the rehearsals for Gardenia, Nine and Alice in Bed, they didn't slander or take sides. Harmony quickly developed between us and proved to be lasting.

- What occupied you in The Penelopiad?

- I am interested in the passion of the search for truth. The elemental desire that drives Odysseus's wife to finally hear her own voice. According to Atwood, the past helps us understand the present, so it not only strengthens the female aspects of the myth, but also presents us with a psychological thriller full of secrets and an exciting crime story running on several threads, in which the long-suffering Penelope is forced to face herself and a hidden crime. You have to carefully sort through delusions, manipulative intentions, conflicting opinions and defamatory rumors. At the very end of the confessional story, Penelope refers to herself and Odysseus as shameless liars. As a couple who never believed each other's words. His revealing statement reveals that we all exist from lies.

- The torments of physical existence, from illnesses to difficult family and relationship constraints, lock man into matter, who can only be free in his imagination and spirit. Did this idea inspire you to stage the play Alice in Bed, which was performed at the Örkény Theater for the second time? In this, the mysterious illness and bedriddenness of the writer Alice James come to life with the images of Alice in Wonderland?

- In 2020, I staged Susan Sontag's work as an exam performance for the graduating acting class of the Marosvásárhely University of Arts, but unfortunately, due to the Covid epidemic, the students were only able to perform the production put together with a lot of work once. After what happened, we all had a strong sense of loss. When I received an invitation to direct the MESS International Theater Festival in Sarajevo in 2022, I immediately knew that I had to rethink this multifaceted existentialist play with Bosnian artists. The significance of my choice was only enhanced by the four-fold jubilee associated with the personality of the American writer: the anniversary of her birth and death, the thirtieth commemoration of her production of Waiting for Godot during the Yugoslav War, and the American premiere of Alice in Bed.

- To what extent did the historical, social and cultural background, the memory of the Bosnian War, the Sarajevo War Theater, whose members were honored as national heroes, give additional meaning to the performance?

- The social memory of the South Slavic war is alive. The mental injuries caused by the siege are passed down from generation to generation, therefore the thinking of the youngest generation of artists is deeply influenced by the exploration and knowledge of the still hidden burdens of the unspoken past. In Bosnia, peace is lasting, but religious, political and ethnic tensions are still present, unresolved spasms remain. The creators try to find themselves and their place in the world in the spirit of "pure memory". At the beginning of the rehearsal process, we got to know each other's viewpoints and revealed our personal experiences related to the Sontag text.

- The image of the disease also appears in Sontag's other writings.

- Sontag dissects the concrete and abstract rhetoric of disease images, the metaphorical and metaphorical application of the pathological condition in his study volume entitled Illness as Metaphor. In his opinion, well-executed similes, which can even carry contradictory ideas, can be used to describe sensuality, passion, repression, purification and "stiffness of the soul". Alice, suffering from a variety of obscure and debilitating illnesses, experiences her state of stuckness as cyclical projections of despair, hopelessness, and rage. Negative emotions, family tensions and traumatic memories form a specific pattern in his imagination. The pyramid-like structure symbolizing the state space of the performance also reflects this, the mountain of unresolved issues rooted in the past. In Sontag's world view, the landscapes of the realm of illness are populated by ominous metaphors, which are difficult to get out of, so I supplemented the text of the work with three riddles. The answer to the first is "Memory" and to the third "Nothing". The arch stretching between the two expression is the supporting pillar of the performance: it is only possible to move forward if we eliminate the dissonance that is straining within us.

- He was forced to wind up the Maladype troupe. Are they about to pass away or be reborn?

- Time will tell. All forces unfold in their own time, but this moment is unpredictable. We have to be ready for it. Maladype's vitality has always been fueled by change. Since our inception, we have known that everyday life is full of surprises, side effects, anomalies and adversity that we have to overcome. The strength of our theater lies in its organization and not its size. After we were forced to part with our permanent company due to financial reasons in May 2023, we returned to project-based operation. We are currently creating domestic and international co-productions with guest artists, which we distribute on several continents.

- A noted artist on the international stage, he absorbs many cultures during his foreign productions and guest performances at Maladype. Do you observe domestic theater conditions from the status of an outsider?

- Although thanks to my work abroad I can stay out of the domestic theater scene, I still regret that I cannot make a meaningful contribution to the development of Hungarian theater life with my knowledge, experience and international network of contacts. It is a world phenomenon that the quality of the theater, just like that of the food, changes before our eyes, and not necessarily in a good direction. Amid the multitude of direct messages, our professionals forgot to write in theatrical language. Forward-looking attempts are being made in the form of "local anesthesia", but I would rather call these efforts zone reforms. We need more creators who, keeping in mind the cause of theater art, by connecting creative intentions, are able to unite our battered theater world as a bridge.

- They developed a progressive, innovative direction in their application with Andrea Rost to manage the Opera House. Together with the other applicants, they "failed" by sticking to the proven, the usual. Does it make sense to come up with an experimental spirit in this centralized cultural management?

- That's the only thing that makes sense. Conceptual, daring and independent thinking induces real change. As co-creators of Andrea Rost, we undertook to create a distinguished place for the Opera House in the international opera world. We did what we deemed necessary and we live with the consequences. The misery surrounding the opera competition made our friendship with Andrea even closer. For me, cosmopolitan artistic individuals like him, who are carriers of universal urges, are extremely inspiring. It takes a lot of fortitude not to give up when you see what others don't. As before, we use our knowledge where it is needed. I recently received an invitation from Amsterdam to lead an art institution, but I don't know if I, who, like Odysseus, constantly come and go between the islands, would be able to settle exclusively on the land of Kirké or Kalypszó. It may be time to return home to Ithaca, where my home and family are.

Rita Szentgyörgyi, HVG, 2024

Translated by Zsuzsanna Juraszek