Lilla Földy / Illés Molnár: Anyway, it sounds well
The Escape – monodrama from Attila Gérecz’s book, at the Maladype
Seemingly, we are in a friendly meeting, where the coolest member of the company is talking about his adventures: how he got into the prison of political criminal offenders, how he began to write with the end of his pencil on toilet paper, just to keep something from his freedom. We can listen to things like this during the monodrama, The Escape, which is formed from the texts by Attila Gérecz.
Performing a monodrama is a double-edged sword: everything depends on one performer. Anyway we cannot tell that the Maladype Theatre puts everything on one card, as the “attracting name” of The Escape is not only Ákos Orosz, but Attila Gérecz too, who once was a sportsman, than became poet and translator in the prison of Vác, in the 50s. The main character is not an actor, but a story, the private history, which happens in the shadow of Hungarian history of the great 20th century.
Attila Gérecz is a forgotten poet, who became the victim of the system at a young age, who was prisoned in the 50s for anti-governmental organisation, after his release, he almost immediately got into the revolution of 56’, where the entering Russian tanks killed him. His fate and character make him perfect to give name and face as a Petőfi of 56’ to the memory of revolution, which consists mostly nameless heroes.
The Escape is a poetic monodrama, which text is made of Gérecz’s poems and letters for his mother, which is performed by Ákos Orosz, who uses only a few but powerful properties. The Maladype-flat has no sets, it has wooden floor, he is standing in its double-doored civilian inner room, there is a bucket of water in front of him. He is veering a singlet, jeans and trainers. In the world, without any costumes, the text becomes more important, and the gestures, which follow it. Some minutes past, until we can move into the happenings, but from now on, it works perfectly till the end. Seemingly, we are in a friendly meeting, where the coolest member of the company is talking about his adventures: how he got into the prison of political criminal offenders, how he began to write with the end of his pencil on toilet paper, just to keep something from his freedom, and how the idea comes to risk everything and push himself through the window during the storm, to swim through in the freezing water the river Danube to escape home to his lover.
At that point, the bucket of water becomes an effective property: Orosz pushes his head into it, gurgling and drowning while he performs the long dives, and make us keep our breath in too. Later he takes off his shoes, and performs with them as the police officers follow him by cars. The strongest property is the text itself all through the performance: the irrational, instinctive fight for freedom, which comes from deep inside: escape from the police officers, fighting, chasing. During the most stressed parts, Orosz stretches himself out between the frames of the door and climbs on it: the trick, which means physical probe too, can make distracted the narration obviously in an authentic way.
The roughest moment of the play is the end of it: the police officers get Gérecz, we are worried anxiously, what will they do with him, but some kind of honour among offenders stops them to hit him: they respects his courage. He gets back into the prison. The door of the room is closed, the actor has left his role, and he closes the performance with an epilogue. He says that finally, they let Gérecz out on 30th October 1956, he took part in the revolution and war of independence, and he was killed by a soviet tank on 7th November on the Kálvin Square, where he himself goes every day toward his home.
We, the viewers have known, that everything we have seen, was history and fiction at the same time. With this gesture, anyway, the performance leaves its fictive-historical, constructed place – into that three-dimensional one, where we would probably go too after the performance, on our way to home. One fact has also made the performance enter into the shocking reality that between the viewers of the flat theatre of Maladype, we could find Imre Mécs too, who is a vivid emblematic face of the happenings of 56’ and with his presence, he always makes us remember the historical fact of the performance, we have seen. With it, The Escape becomes the therapeutic rite of collective remembering, for the viewers probably for ever makes a public space meaningful and forms it to be a mental memorial too.
The square itself because of the minimalism of the conception of a monodrama becomes an important part of the performance. The Maladype is consciously looking for possibilities of theatrical and non-theatrical places, and the direct and interactive connection with the viewers. That is why, it is important to know that the performance, which was performed first in May this year, they have performed in many individual accepting places. Between them the most special one was the Prison of Vác, where Attila Gérecz was kept and later escaped during the flood 1954. Besides it, in the prison of Vác there has been a theatre for years, with the leading of Lilla Rada, who is an outsider director, where the performers are the prisoners. About their work, in 2011 a documentary was also made, with the title of Metal Curtain, which similarly to The Escape, proved the power of art.
Lilla Földi – Illés Molnár, Prae.hu, 2013
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
Seemingly, we are in a friendly meeting, where the coolest member of the company is talking about his adventures: how he got into the prison of political criminal offenders, how he began to write with the end of his pencil on toilet paper, just to keep something from his freedom. We can listen to things like this during the monodrama, The Escape, which is formed from the texts by Attila Gérecz.
Performing a monodrama is a double-edged sword: everything depends on one performer. Anyway we cannot tell that the Maladype Theatre puts everything on one card, as the “attracting name” of The Escape is not only Ákos Orosz, but Attila Gérecz too, who once was a sportsman, than became poet and translator in the prison of Vác, in the 50s. The main character is not an actor, but a story, the private history, which happens in the shadow of Hungarian history of the great 20th century.
Attila Gérecz is a forgotten poet, who became the victim of the system at a young age, who was prisoned in the 50s for anti-governmental organisation, after his release, he almost immediately got into the revolution of 56’, where the entering Russian tanks killed him. His fate and character make him perfect to give name and face as a Petőfi of 56’ to the memory of revolution, which consists mostly nameless heroes.
The Escape is a poetic monodrama, which text is made of Gérecz’s poems and letters for his mother, which is performed by Ákos Orosz, who uses only a few but powerful properties. The Maladype-flat has no sets, it has wooden floor, he is standing in its double-doored civilian inner room, there is a bucket of water in front of him. He is veering a singlet, jeans and trainers. In the world, without any costumes, the text becomes more important, and the gestures, which follow it. Some minutes past, until we can move into the happenings, but from now on, it works perfectly till the end. Seemingly, we are in a friendly meeting, where the coolest member of the company is talking about his adventures: how he got into the prison of political criminal offenders, how he began to write with the end of his pencil on toilet paper, just to keep something from his freedom, and how the idea comes to risk everything and push himself through the window during the storm, to swim through in the freezing water the river Danube to escape home to his lover.
At that point, the bucket of water becomes an effective property: Orosz pushes his head into it, gurgling and drowning while he performs the long dives, and make us keep our breath in too. Later he takes off his shoes, and performs with them as the police officers follow him by cars. The strongest property is the text itself all through the performance: the irrational, instinctive fight for freedom, which comes from deep inside: escape from the police officers, fighting, chasing. During the most stressed parts, Orosz stretches himself out between the frames of the door and climbs on it: the trick, which means physical probe too, can make distracted the narration obviously in an authentic way.
The roughest moment of the play is the end of it: the police officers get Gérecz, we are worried anxiously, what will they do with him, but some kind of honour among offenders stops them to hit him: they respects his courage. He gets back into the prison. The door of the room is closed, the actor has left his role, and he closes the performance with an epilogue. He says that finally, they let Gérecz out on 30th October 1956, he took part in the revolution and war of independence, and he was killed by a soviet tank on 7th November on the Kálvin Square, where he himself goes every day toward his home.
We, the viewers have known, that everything we have seen, was history and fiction at the same time. With this gesture, anyway, the performance leaves its fictive-historical, constructed place – into that three-dimensional one, where we would probably go too after the performance, on our way to home. One fact has also made the performance enter into the shocking reality that between the viewers of the flat theatre of Maladype, we could find Imre Mécs too, who is a vivid emblematic face of the happenings of 56’ and with his presence, he always makes us remember the historical fact of the performance, we have seen. With it, The Escape becomes the therapeutic rite of collective remembering, for the viewers probably for ever makes a public space meaningful and forms it to be a mental memorial too.
The square itself because of the minimalism of the conception of a monodrama becomes an important part of the performance. The Maladype is consciously looking for possibilities of theatrical and non-theatrical places, and the direct and interactive connection with the viewers. That is why, it is important to know that the performance, which was performed first in May this year, they have performed in many individual accepting places. Between them the most special one was the Prison of Vác, where Attila Gérecz was kept and later escaped during the flood 1954. Besides it, in the prison of Vác there has been a theatre for years, with the leading of Lilla Rada, who is an outsider director, where the performers are the prisoners. About their work, in 2011 a documentary was also made, with the title of Metal Curtain, which similarly to The Escape, proved the power of art.
Lilla Földi – Illés Molnár, Prae.hu, 2013
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)