Szabolcs Somorjai: Then they have made a rite to themselves
Then they have made a rite to themselves.
We have smaller and bigger rites to work up the important events in our lives. Arnold van Gennep has named many of them in his book at the beginning of the 20th century, which is about the temporary rites, meanwhile he has defined the most important ones, however, it is right, that he has demonstrated them with the example of the tribal societies. In our urban world, a fewer of them have remained, to be more exact, they have become empty, however, probably they have been as necessary for us, as for our ancestors were. There are for example the celebrations of birthdays: the past and the future are mixed in them, and the wish to chase away the mostly sorrowful thoughts of the passing time. Mostly we do not have to take care a lot with these days. At the same time, we probably do not have to chase those thoughts away, which have risen in us in connection with the counting of the passing of the years, anyway they are those, which could help us to build on our tiny personalities. They can help us to use the full anniversaries, which close decades and which are watershed moments, to help us think over our career. The rites, which are connected to birthdays, do not make us think over our lives in reality, the stress is mostly on the celebration, so the way, how we do this thinking over of the career thing depends mostly on the personality. There are those, who blow the candles away and move on, there are those, who look at the bottom of the glasses, some of us make decisions that we have had to make for a while, and there are those who make a performance from it, for example. Ok, well, this later one is quite rare, but if that one is an actor by the way? For example, as Ágota Szilágyi and Erika Tankó, the actors of Maladype are?
Then they have made a rite to themselves: they direct and perform the Out-Let. The temporary rite-like atmosphere of the performance is strengthened by the preparation too: the actors’ one and a half day long vigil, which is similar to a self-mortification before the rite. Traditionally it can place the participants of the rite into a different state of mind. The almost an hour long self-revelation, which follows the one and half day long period, is the one, which the viewers can also watch; they have to concentrate into this time the most important happenings and feelings of the two lives, which are almost 60 years together – it can be painfully overcrowded 60 minutes. That is why the writers-performers have to choose from them. The base of the choice is given by those topics, which they are interested in nowadays. These are their births, the beginning and formation of their careers, the left and kept loves, the connections, movements and sounds, sport and music, tradition and career. All of them honestly. This honesty is one of the most captivating elements of the performance, and this is what can make it so lovable. We cannot find the roles in the foreground, but the characteristics, who live there, on the stage right now, in front of and between the viewers (after all we are in a flat theatre), and they can do anything, it all present themselves, and open them up. The viewers may not always understand the concrete things without some background knowledge – so the personal knowledge of the actresses, but in reality, it is not so necessary, as the questions can be decoded for everybody. And these questions are familiar to everybody. Because they talk about the questions of “who am I”, “how and where from now on”, and the happenings and feelings in the past can help to answer them. Or they cannot, but these are everybody’s own way and choice, so this play does not try to give answers.
How can it be done? The stress is on the temporary nature of it all, when there are more problems than solutions. Of course, the viewers can think on about the facts, that how long can some temporary states last, can we get the answers once, but probably we will know it, when we have entered our next temporary state and we have come up against newer questions. Or we will not even then. But something will be anyway. We will go on a way, as this performance has not been finished, they can build it on anytime, it can be widened, if the performers want it that way. Because of it, it can be infinitive and always different. Because of it the viewers cannot stay neutral: not only because of the fact that it is a performance of a flat theatre, and thanks for it, some viewers can get into the performance actively, but because of the personal open ups and questions of way searching, which cannot leave anybody intact. Above all, glancing or peeping into one or two people’s lives, as viewers, from so close, is not a usual feeling. We can see here those, who have written the play. They wrote it about themselves, they perform it, they show themselves quite precisely. They also create themselves a little bit. Or recreate, and meanwhile the viewers can also think about themselves, and they get involved into this creation. And isn’t it the importance of a temporary rite? That way we are able to step into another state from a previous one, by reflecting to this earlier one, by being afraid of the next one, but being interested in it at the same time, with the knowledge of the fact that we have to move on?
Can it recreate all, which we can mean? And is not a good performance able to do something like this? Does it ask, try and recreate? So, we can react on the turning points of our lives that way too. And I got only a surprise party then. Anyway, it was not that bad.
Szabolcs Somorjai, 2016
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
We have smaller and bigger rites to work up the important events in our lives. Arnold van Gennep has named many of them in his book at the beginning of the 20th century, which is about the temporary rites, meanwhile he has defined the most important ones, however, it is right, that he has demonstrated them with the example of the tribal societies. In our urban world, a fewer of them have remained, to be more exact, they have become empty, however, probably they have been as necessary for us, as for our ancestors were. There are for example the celebrations of birthdays: the past and the future are mixed in them, and the wish to chase away the mostly sorrowful thoughts of the passing time. Mostly we do not have to take care a lot with these days. At the same time, we probably do not have to chase those thoughts away, which have risen in us in connection with the counting of the passing of the years, anyway they are those, which could help us to build on our tiny personalities. They can help us to use the full anniversaries, which close decades and which are watershed moments, to help us think over our career. The rites, which are connected to birthdays, do not make us think over our lives in reality, the stress is mostly on the celebration, so the way, how we do this thinking over of the career thing depends mostly on the personality. There are those, who blow the candles away and move on, there are those, who look at the bottom of the glasses, some of us make decisions that we have had to make for a while, and there are those who make a performance from it, for example. Ok, well, this later one is quite rare, but if that one is an actor by the way? For example, as Ágota Szilágyi and Erika Tankó, the actors of Maladype are?
Then they have made a rite to themselves: they direct and perform the Out-Let. The temporary rite-like atmosphere of the performance is strengthened by the preparation too: the actors’ one and a half day long vigil, which is similar to a self-mortification before the rite. Traditionally it can place the participants of the rite into a different state of mind. The almost an hour long self-revelation, which follows the one and half day long period, is the one, which the viewers can also watch; they have to concentrate into this time the most important happenings and feelings of the two lives, which are almost 60 years together – it can be painfully overcrowded 60 minutes. That is why the writers-performers have to choose from them. The base of the choice is given by those topics, which they are interested in nowadays. These are their births, the beginning and formation of their careers, the left and kept loves, the connections, movements and sounds, sport and music, tradition and career. All of them honestly. This honesty is one of the most captivating elements of the performance, and this is what can make it so lovable. We cannot find the roles in the foreground, but the characteristics, who live there, on the stage right now, in front of and between the viewers (after all we are in a flat theatre), and they can do anything, it all present themselves, and open them up. The viewers may not always understand the concrete things without some background knowledge – so the personal knowledge of the actresses, but in reality, it is not so necessary, as the questions can be decoded for everybody. And these questions are familiar to everybody. Because they talk about the questions of “who am I”, “how and where from now on”, and the happenings and feelings in the past can help to answer them. Or they cannot, but these are everybody’s own way and choice, so this play does not try to give answers.
How can it be done? The stress is on the temporary nature of it all, when there are more problems than solutions. Of course, the viewers can think on about the facts, that how long can some temporary states last, can we get the answers once, but probably we will know it, when we have entered our next temporary state and we have come up against newer questions. Or we will not even then. But something will be anyway. We will go on a way, as this performance has not been finished, they can build it on anytime, it can be widened, if the performers want it that way. Because of it, it can be infinitive and always different. Because of it the viewers cannot stay neutral: not only because of the fact that it is a performance of a flat theatre, and thanks for it, some viewers can get into the performance actively, but because of the personal open ups and questions of way searching, which cannot leave anybody intact. Above all, glancing or peeping into one or two people’s lives, as viewers, from so close, is not a usual feeling. We can see here those, who have written the play. They wrote it about themselves, they perform it, they show themselves quite precisely. They also create themselves a little bit. Or recreate, and meanwhile the viewers can also think about themselves, and they get involved into this creation. And isn’t it the importance of a temporary rite? That way we are able to step into another state from a previous one, by reflecting to this earlier one, by being afraid of the next one, but being interested in it at the same time, with the knowledge of the fact that we have to move on?
Can it recreate all, which we can mean? And is not a good performance able to do something like this? Does it ask, try and recreate? So, we can react on the turning points of our lives that way too. And I got only a surprise party then. Anyway, it was not that bad.
Szabolcs Somorjai, 2016
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)