Kristóf Bíró: We have reached the final days
Richard III was performed almost at the same time in Maladype Theatre and in the Castle Theatre of Gyula. The previous performance was put on stage by Sándor Zsótér, the leader of the theatre, who is an actor and director, Zoltán Balázs performed the main role. The performance in Gyula was put on stage by Attila Vidnyánszky Jr. and for the main role he invited the actor of the National Theatre, Zsolt Trill. (After it was performed twice in the Castle Theatre of Gyula in the summer, the performance could be watched a few times in the National Theatre.) Kristóf Bíró wrote about the two performances here.
Sándor Zsótér has created a performance in a room theatre from Richard III. More precisely the performance is going on in a room – in the biggest room of the Base of Maladype. Almost for sixty viewers there are enough place in the room, the chairs are in the four corners, that way a little place is remained in the middle to perform there, and the way of path between the three doors of the room, which are opened on three sides. In this crowded place everything happens close to us, maybe a little bit too close to the viewers. In spite of it Zsótér does not want to indicate the atmosphere of intimacy, he does not let us close to the characters. Meanwhile the situation of this room theatre can make possible to the inside of each characters from very close, the director would rather like to make us watch them from a distance. Because we cannot see people, who are one of us. This keeping away is (also) served by the fact that the main part of this small stage is occupied by a podium, which is made of metal pipes and slats, which is similar to a scaffold. So there is hardly any place to move, and the performance – if it does not happen on this scaffold – is confined to the path between the three doors. But these doors are opened and closed a lot, and with it they can give a real dynamic to the performance – we can feel like sitting in the middle of an open house. The main function of the scaffold in the middle is to divide the room with a big ceiling height vertically, that way it can create an “elevated” floor, an upper stage, where the characters can appear mostly suddenly. It can always break somehow the viewpoint of the scene. Especially because, during some parts of the performance a middle stage gets its role in it: under the scaffold, there is a table across, covered with tin, which can make us remember mostly a slaughterhouse.
But metaphorical thinking is far away Zsótér. In the set (designer: Mária Ambrus) the most important thing is, that is seems to be surprising and strange in a normal flat, and that way it can turn evidentially the room into a theatrical place. At the same time, the vision and the role of this structure can obviously move the viewpoint of the viewers toward abstraction, as well as the costumes do. Mari Benedek creates strange clothes to the characters from clothes and blankets with different material, colour and pattern. When we see them in these clothes (which many times hardly cover the upper part of the naked male bodies) we cannot think that they imitate historical clothes, but that it can be similar to the situation when children put everything, which they can find, on themselves like costumes. This playful, grotesque viewpoint is an important element of Zsótér’s staging art. He usually moves the viewers out with these kinds of strange sings. The performance of Maladype shows the characters many times as they are taking part in childish games. During the first scene for example, the main character is blowing soap bubbles during his monologue. Then instead of real weapon, they use toy swords. Later real toy can be seen too (for example colourful plastic dinosaurs). We laugh when we see them, because they are strange there, and we feel them weird in the given situation. This effect also helps move the story away from us, and makes it capable of making judged from outside. In the space of abstraction and the place of grotesque playfulness Zsótér can move our attention to the text. Mainly with the fact that he gives a task to the viewers with the understanding of it: the performance uses Ede Szigligeti’s translation from 1878. However the 138 years old text is full of surprising, very powerful expressions (for example: shit demon, nail faced), but it is not easy to follow with the ear, which has got used to the expressions of tour everyday life, because not only its system of expressions is surprising, but its way of building too, the articulation of sentences, and its rhythm are also different from the one, which is familiar to us. For example, Gloester tells at the beginning of the performance about the peace, which has arrived: “Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front; / And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds / To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, / He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber / To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.” Zoltán Balázs speaks slowly and articulately to let us get used to this language. But after it his game with the soap bubble shares out attention so when the figure introduces himself, for the first hearing, we can hardly understand what he says: “I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion, / Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, / Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time / Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, / And that so lamely and unfashionable / That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;" For the first hearing, we cannot understand that what is the problem with this figure because the actor talks with lazy, haughty carelessness. His gestures have greater effect on us than his words. It is true even when he talks about the role he has found for himself in the world, which he cannot connect to his character and aims. The artistic gesture is totally clear (the figure places himself above the era – and the others too), meanwhile his articulation is a little bit blurred. "Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, / Have no delight to pass away the time, / Unless to spy my shadow in the sun / And descant on mine own deformity: / And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover, / To entertain these fair well-spoken days, / I am determined to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasures of these days. / Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous..."
Zsótér with the usage of Szigligeti’s translation can make us leave the language, and join to the gestures. We cannot be disturbed if we do not understand everything, as words are there only for the reason to cheat everybody. They cannot take us closer to the truth. We can feel more from it, if we follow the performance smilingly, which the actors perform with each other – for power, love and success. They get into the determined fight with crazy drive, which in Zsótér’s performances are not for blood seemingly, anyway they measure whole lives that way. The easy irony of the performance can hide heavy experiences. To express it Zsótér can find good partners with the actors, next to Zoltán Balázs, mostly in case of József Kádas, Zoltán Friedenthal, Kata Huszárik, Balázs Fila, Ágota Szilágyi and all the others.
Attila Vidnyánszky Jr. has chosen another way with his performance. He uses different properties to introduce the main character and to get us into the world of the performance. Zsolt Trill, who appears in Gloster’s role, start telling István Vas’ well-known translation from 1947: “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York; / And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house / In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.” Then he uses a different voice: “Long life to my brother, Edward IV the English king, long life as here is peace, I am not cold any more.” This additional text has no sing in István Vas’ text, as we can slowly learn from the play, that the ended battle helped Edward IV to get the throne. After it the character tells the free variation of the text, then Gloster goes on another additional text, which can help us understand the situation: “Who has died for us? It is not important.” And then he changes into a more ironic, almost sarcastic voice: “Instead of the mouth of the dead ones, they talk with new sweet tongue and they fast lick into hidden holes full of overweight women. Long life to him! As here is peace. The honour has earned success. A suit with a smaller size, a soft hand shake, great stage, peace. Now the country lives like this.”
The script of the performance in Gyula is written by Miklós Vecsei, who with these mentioned additions can make obvious, that Gloster does not have problem with himself but with the era, the country and the state of the world. It turns out from the part, when he talks about himself: “I am the only one, who is standing there blankly, who was not born to be stroke, the nature made me careless to be a shame for my parents, and sent me grotesquely, ugly, half ready to limp around this silly world.” “In this whistling peaceful world I cannot do nothing else just think about my grotesque body and look at my shadow under the sun.” From this mood comes the decision too: “But now I have decided...” – as Gloster says it to raise our attention. But he does not go on as we can learn it in case of István Vas, that “I will become a villain”, but he says instead: “I will play a game”. With this change the performers can change basically the stresses of the figure and the story too. They interpret it with another additional text too, which can make clear Gloster’s aims at the beginning of the performance too: “I cannot become a lover because of my hump” – he says. But here the hump is just a game, a gesture, which refers to the fact that both the humpy, the grotesque one can be performed too. Or anything else, which can move a person on. “The crown is two brothers’ away” –Gloster says it, referring to Edward and his brother, George. Meanwhile he is pointing at the crown above, which he would like to get, and which will later get on his head. “Well nothing else can be done than the...” – and he stops because he is waiting for the continuation from the viewers. But when they do not find out, what he thinks about, he finishes the sentences himself: “...evil one, that hates the aimless nature of his era”. This addition can redefine the meaning of the main character. The evil nature is not determiner in his case, but the tool with the help of which he can turn against aimlessness of the world.
Miklós Vecsei handles freely the play and the translation, which is chosen as a base, too. However, he gets sentences from it but never a whole scene and he cuts and edits them. He bravely puts new texts and scenes into the performance. For example, with the aim of making it more obvious, we can see a musical interlude, which makes us remember the fight of the houses of York and of Lancaster for the throne, which closing scenes are in the story of Richard III. “They fought. And their sons fought too. And their sons fought too.” – it is shouted by the youngsters from the university on the stage, who perform the main amounts of the characters. The performance in Gyula, not only with its text, but its references, and sings on the stage try to make the story clearer and understandable, from which we can learn that for the young performers’ main aim is not the performance of the play, but the expression of that individual message, which is got from it.
Attila Vidnyánszky Jr.’s performance uses strong eclectic properties, which sing, that he searches for the different theatrical forms and widens its borders at the same time. Sometimes, even the actors’ anger is determining, for example Margit (Nelli Szűcs) during the scene of curse and during the argument, which opens from it, in which the strongest character is the queen, Margit (Enikő Eszenyi). Other times an almost burlesque scene is formed when the two assassins appear in George’s (Géza D. Hegedűs) cell. Then we can see perfect pictures too. For example the scene of reconciliation which is led by Edward (Géza D. Hegedűs), when the “hugs” with one or two characters can ironize the situation as well as the big poster like pictures. (In the performance of Maladype, these reconciliations are also very funny, as for example they try to make a circular dance around the scaffold, while they are connected.) In the performance of Gyula the characters do not promise love towards each other, but: “I will forget what has been.” We can hear it many times from more characters’ mouth, which can foreshadow the awkward idea of an amnesic country. When the young ones shout in loud musical interludes what are their problems with the world. “My mother gave me birth without dreams” – we can hear it from the noises for example. Or that: “cruisers are smoking on the sea, and I am not allowed to love here”, or that anyway they are nothing and nobody. From the other side that: “the fire-trench is full of gunpowder, which is poisoned with heating gases. There are so many ruined skulls, broken legs, cut out eyes, cut legs, broken jaws in the world. Millions of homeless, empty souls, broken hearts.” – this world sized pain gives the background of Richard III’s story in the performance by Attila Vidnyászky Jr.
In a later scene – after Buckingham has tried to organise (with less luck in the play) that people would ask Richard to accept the throne – the performers go between the viewers and start asking the viewers lazily that according to them would Richard be a good king. And would they give their votes on him. And there are some viewers, who say yes (and some of them are even interested in that how much would they pay for their votes). Maybe the performers are right: according to our experiences it can have a reality, that Gloster-Richard would be chosen to be the tyrant by people. The play of asking the viewers is not about the flirting with the evil, but – in harmony with other signs of the performance – the confrontation of the reality of power on the stage. And they are also right that Richard – as we can see it in the performance – is not worse than the others. (Almost the same comes out of Zsótér’s performance too). For example, in Vidnyánszky’s Jr. staging, Edward’s children are evil and stupid, so it does not seem to be such a big sin, when Richard put them away from his way. (In case of Zsótér the young princes show the infantile innocence instead. Their killing is that kind of passing of border, which Richard has done many times, but nobody really cares about it.)
In Attila Vidnyánszky Jr.’s staging the gained power has a grotesque picture: Richard with the help of two weird metal tool, which help climbing a column, climbs up into the highness on a wooden column, which is put into the ground and he is there during more scenes. Where can he go anyway from this highness? It is an embarrassing, absurd try, when he plans the losing of his wife, Lady Anna and the seduction of Edward and Elizabeth’s infant daughter. This is the state, when the manipulation is driven by only its own drive, he cannot reach anything else. But he can ruin still very powerfully.
Zsótér’s performance with very different properties but reaches a similar result. Both performance shorten well the last part of the play (Miklós Vecsei’s script is more radical). We cannot see any kinds of opponents in any of them, with whom Richard has to fight (only the news come about the strengthening of the oppositional troops), so there will not be anybody, who can get into Richard’s place and rebuilds the country. We can feel just the gap, into which both Richard, and the world are falling slowly. For example, Zsótér sings it with the haunting of the king’s previous opponents: Richard is fighting with his demons inside, and he falls against them finally.
In Vidnyánszky Jr. staging they roll on themselves funny armour clothes those, who are leaving for the battle, from shining duct tapes. Then the rain washes away everything, then from the loudspeakers we can hear a quote from Béla Hamvas, with the actor’s voice, who performs Richard: “I am grateful to you, because you have let me know the monster of destruction. ... Because this is the last time when ever soul should know the monster, and the last experience that they have to sleep together with destruction. There is no way back to Paradise, and there is no sideway, and there is no hope for improvement... The number of the world is full. We have reached the final day, do not leave us in the darkness and in the dessert, so that we can see your world, amen.”
Shakespeare: Richard III
Maladype Theatre
Translated by: Ede Szigligeti
Set: Mária Ambrus
Costume: Mari Benedek
Music: Pál Péter Szűcs
Production manager: Katalin Balázs
Dramaturg: Júlia Ungár
Director: Sándor Zsótér
Performers: Zoltán Friedenthal, Márton Pallag, Zsigmond Bödők, Zoltán Balázs, József Kádas, Balázs Fila, Sándor Márkus, Kata Huszárik, Erika Tankó, Ágota Szilágyi, Pál Péter Szűcs.
Premiere: 18. May 2016.
Shakespeare: Richard III
Castle Theatre of Gyula, National Theatre
Music: Adrián Kovács
Dramaturg: Hasi Miklós Vecsei
Director: Attila Vidnyánszky Jr.
Performers: Zsolt Trill, Enikő Eszenyi, Géza D. Hegedűs, Nelli Szűcs, Nóra Trokán, Béla Dóra, Márton Patkós, Hasi Miklós Vecsei, Tamás Kovács, Gergő Krausz, Bence Böröndi, László Sebestyén Szabó, Ágnes Barta, Roland Bordás, Nándor Berettyán, Zoltán Gyöngyösi, Attila Lestyán.
Premiere: 13. April 2016. (Gyula), 10. January 2017. (Budapest)
Kristóf Bíró, Ellenfény, 2017
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
Sándor Zsótér has created a performance in a room theatre from Richard III. More precisely the performance is going on in a room – in the biggest room of the Base of Maladype. Almost for sixty viewers there are enough place in the room, the chairs are in the four corners, that way a little place is remained in the middle to perform there, and the way of path between the three doors of the room, which are opened on three sides. In this crowded place everything happens close to us, maybe a little bit too close to the viewers. In spite of it Zsótér does not want to indicate the atmosphere of intimacy, he does not let us close to the characters. Meanwhile the situation of this room theatre can make possible to the inside of each characters from very close, the director would rather like to make us watch them from a distance. Because we cannot see people, who are one of us. This keeping away is (also) served by the fact that the main part of this small stage is occupied by a podium, which is made of metal pipes and slats, which is similar to a scaffold. So there is hardly any place to move, and the performance – if it does not happen on this scaffold – is confined to the path between the three doors. But these doors are opened and closed a lot, and with it they can give a real dynamic to the performance – we can feel like sitting in the middle of an open house. The main function of the scaffold in the middle is to divide the room with a big ceiling height vertically, that way it can create an “elevated” floor, an upper stage, where the characters can appear mostly suddenly. It can always break somehow the viewpoint of the scene. Especially because, during some parts of the performance a middle stage gets its role in it: under the scaffold, there is a table across, covered with tin, which can make us remember mostly a slaughterhouse.
But metaphorical thinking is far away Zsótér. In the set (designer: Mária Ambrus) the most important thing is, that is seems to be surprising and strange in a normal flat, and that way it can turn evidentially the room into a theatrical place. At the same time, the vision and the role of this structure can obviously move the viewpoint of the viewers toward abstraction, as well as the costumes do. Mari Benedek creates strange clothes to the characters from clothes and blankets with different material, colour and pattern. When we see them in these clothes (which many times hardly cover the upper part of the naked male bodies) we cannot think that they imitate historical clothes, but that it can be similar to the situation when children put everything, which they can find, on themselves like costumes. This playful, grotesque viewpoint is an important element of Zsótér’s staging art. He usually moves the viewers out with these kinds of strange sings. The performance of Maladype shows the characters many times as they are taking part in childish games. During the first scene for example, the main character is blowing soap bubbles during his monologue. Then instead of real weapon, they use toy swords. Later real toy can be seen too (for example colourful plastic dinosaurs). We laugh when we see them, because they are strange there, and we feel them weird in the given situation. This effect also helps move the story away from us, and makes it capable of making judged from outside. In the space of abstraction and the place of grotesque playfulness Zsótér can move our attention to the text. Mainly with the fact that he gives a task to the viewers with the understanding of it: the performance uses Ede Szigligeti’s translation from 1878. However the 138 years old text is full of surprising, very powerful expressions (for example: shit demon, nail faced), but it is not easy to follow with the ear, which has got used to the expressions of tour everyday life, because not only its system of expressions is surprising, but its way of building too, the articulation of sentences, and its rhythm are also different from the one, which is familiar to us. For example, Gloester tells at the beginning of the performance about the peace, which has arrived: “Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front; / And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds / To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, / He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber / To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.” Zoltán Balázs speaks slowly and articulately to let us get used to this language. But after it his game with the soap bubble shares out attention so when the figure introduces himself, for the first hearing, we can hardly understand what he says: “I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion, / Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, / Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time / Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, / And that so lamely and unfashionable / That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;" For the first hearing, we cannot understand that what is the problem with this figure because the actor talks with lazy, haughty carelessness. His gestures have greater effect on us than his words. It is true even when he talks about the role he has found for himself in the world, which he cannot connect to his character and aims. The artistic gesture is totally clear (the figure places himself above the era – and the others too), meanwhile his articulation is a little bit blurred. "Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, / Have no delight to pass away the time, / Unless to spy my shadow in the sun / And descant on mine own deformity: / And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover, / To entertain these fair well-spoken days, / I am determined to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasures of these days. / Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous..."
Zsótér with the usage of Szigligeti’s translation can make us leave the language, and join to the gestures. We cannot be disturbed if we do not understand everything, as words are there only for the reason to cheat everybody. They cannot take us closer to the truth. We can feel more from it, if we follow the performance smilingly, which the actors perform with each other – for power, love and success. They get into the determined fight with crazy drive, which in Zsótér’s performances are not for blood seemingly, anyway they measure whole lives that way. The easy irony of the performance can hide heavy experiences. To express it Zsótér can find good partners with the actors, next to Zoltán Balázs, mostly in case of József Kádas, Zoltán Friedenthal, Kata Huszárik, Balázs Fila, Ágota Szilágyi and all the others.
Attila Vidnyánszky Jr. has chosen another way with his performance. He uses different properties to introduce the main character and to get us into the world of the performance. Zsolt Trill, who appears in Gloster’s role, start telling István Vas’ well-known translation from 1947: “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York; / And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house / In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.” Then he uses a different voice: “Long life to my brother, Edward IV the English king, long life as here is peace, I am not cold any more.” This additional text has no sing in István Vas’ text, as we can slowly learn from the play, that the ended battle helped Edward IV to get the throne. After it the character tells the free variation of the text, then Gloster goes on another additional text, which can help us understand the situation: “Who has died for us? It is not important.” And then he changes into a more ironic, almost sarcastic voice: “Instead of the mouth of the dead ones, they talk with new sweet tongue and they fast lick into hidden holes full of overweight women. Long life to him! As here is peace. The honour has earned success. A suit with a smaller size, a soft hand shake, great stage, peace. Now the country lives like this.”
The script of the performance in Gyula is written by Miklós Vecsei, who with these mentioned additions can make obvious, that Gloster does not have problem with himself but with the era, the country and the state of the world. It turns out from the part, when he talks about himself: “I am the only one, who is standing there blankly, who was not born to be stroke, the nature made me careless to be a shame for my parents, and sent me grotesquely, ugly, half ready to limp around this silly world.” “In this whistling peaceful world I cannot do nothing else just think about my grotesque body and look at my shadow under the sun.” From this mood comes the decision too: “But now I have decided...” – as Gloster says it to raise our attention. But he does not go on as we can learn it in case of István Vas, that “I will become a villain”, but he says instead: “I will play a game”. With this change the performers can change basically the stresses of the figure and the story too. They interpret it with another additional text too, which can make clear Gloster’s aims at the beginning of the performance too: “I cannot become a lover because of my hump” – he says. But here the hump is just a game, a gesture, which refers to the fact that both the humpy, the grotesque one can be performed too. Or anything else, which can move a person on. “The crown is two brothers’ away” –Gloster says it, referring to Edward and his brother, George. Meanwhile he is pointing at the crown above, which he would like to get, and which will later get on his head. “Well nothing else can be done than the...” – and he stops because he is waiting for the continuation from the viewers. But when they do not find out, what he thinks about, he finishes the sentences himself: “...evil one, that hates the aimless nature of his era”. This addition can redefine the meaning of the main character. The evil nature is not determiner in his case, but the tool with the help of which he can turn against aimlessness of the world.
Miklós Vecsei handles freely the play and the translation, which is chosen as a base, too. However, he gets sentences from it but never a whole scene and he cuts and edits them. He bravely puts new texts and scenes into the performance. For example, with the aim of making it more obvious, we can see a musical interlude, which makes us remember the fight of the houses of York and of Lancaster for the throne, which closing scenes are in the story of Richard III. “They fought. And their sons fought too. And their sons fought too.” – it is shouted by the youngsters from the university on the stage, who perform the main amounts of the characters. The performance in Gyula, not only with its text, but its references, and sings on the stage try to make the story clearer and understandable, from which we can learn that for the young performers’ main aim is not the performance of the play, but the expression of that individual message, which is got from it.
Attila Vidnyánszky Jr.’s performance uses strong eclectic properties, which sing, that he searches for the different theatrical forms and widens its borders at the same time. Sometimes, even the actors’ anger is determining, for example Margit (Nelli Szűcs) during the scene of curse and during the argument, which opens from it, in which the strongest character is the queen, Margit (Enikő Eszenyi). Other times an almost burlesque scene is formed when the two assassins appear in George’s (Géza D. Hegedűs) cell. Then we can see perfect pictures too. For example the scene of reconciliation which is led by Edward (Géza D. Hegedűs), when the “hugs” with one or two characters can ironize the situation as well as the big poster like pictures. (In the performance of Maladype, these reconciliations are also very funny, as for example they try to make a circular dance around the scaffold, while they are connected.) In the performance of Gyula the characters do not promise love towards each other, but: “I will forget what has been.” We can hear it many times from more characters’ mouth, which can foreshadow the awkward idea of an amnesic country. When the young ones shout in loud musical interludes what are their problems with the world. “My mother gave me birth without dreams” – we can hear it from the noises for example. Or that: “cruisers are smoking on the sea, and I am not allowed to love here”, or that anyway they are nothing and nobody. From the other side that: “the fire-trench is full of gunpowder, which is poisoned with heating gases. There are so many ruined skulls, broken legs, cut out eyes, cut legs, broken jaws in the world. Millions of homeless, empty souls, broken hearts.” – this world sized pain gives the background of Richard III’s story in the performance by Attila Vidnyászky Jr.
In a later scene – after Buckingham has tried to organise (with less luck in the play) that people would ask Richard to accept the throne – the performers go between the viewers and start asking the viewers lazily that according to them would Richard be a good king. And would they give their votes on him. And there are some viewers, who say yes (and some of them are even interested in that how much would they pay for their votes). Maybe the performers are right: according to our experiences it can have a reality, that Gloster-Richard would be chosen to be the tyrant by people. The play of asking the viewers is not about the flirting with the evil, but – in harmony with other signs of the performance – the confrontation of the reality of power on the stage. And they are also right that Richard – as we can see it in the performance – is not worse than the others. (Almost the same comes out of Zsótér’s performance too). For example, in Vidnyánszky’s Jr. staging, Edward’s children are evil and stupid, so it does not seem to be such a big sin, when Richard put them away from his way. (In case of Zsótér the young princes show the infantile innocence instead. Their killing is that kind of passing of border, which Richard has done many times, but nobody really cares about it.)
In Attila Vidnyánszky Jr.’s staging the gained power has a grotesque picture: Richard with the help of two weird metal tool, which help climbing a column, climbs up into the highness on a wooden column, which is put into the ground and he is there during more scenes. Where can he go anyway from this highness? It is an embarrassing, absurd try, when he plans the losing of his wife, Lady Anna and the seduction of Edward and Elizabeth’s infant daughter. This is the state, when the manipulation is driven by only its own drive, he cannot reach anything else. But he can ruin still very powerfully.
Zsótér’s performance with very different properties but reaches a similar result. Both performance shorten well the last part of the play (Miklós Vecsei’s script is more radical). We cannot see any kinds of opponents in any of them, with whom Richard has to fight (only the news come about the strengthening of the oppositional troops), so there will not be anybody, who can get into Richard’s place and rebuilds the country. We can feel just the gap, into which both Richard, and the world are falling slowly. For example, Zsótér sings it with the haunting of the king’s previous opponents: Richard is fighting with his demons inside, and he falls against them finally.
In Vidnyánszky Jr. staging they roll on themselves funny armour clothes those, who are leaving for the battle, from shining duct tapes. Then the rain washes away everything, then from the loudspeakers we can hear a quote from Béla Hamvas, with the actor’s voice, who performs Richard: “I am grateful to you, because you have let me know the monster of destruction. ... Because this is the last time when ever soul should know the monster, and the last experience that they have to sleep together with destruction. There is no way back to Paradise, and there is no sideway, and there is no hope for improvement... The number of the world is full. We have reached the final day, do not leave us in the darkness and in the dessert, so that we can see your world, amen.”
Shakespeare: Richard III
Maladype Theatre
Translated by: Ede Szigligeti
Set: Mária Ambrus
Costume: Mari Benedek
Music: Pál Péter Szűcs
Production manager: Katalin Balázs
Dramaturg: Júlia Ungár
Director: Sándor Zsótér
Performers: Zoltán Friedenthal, Márton Pallag, Zsigmond Bödők, Zoltán Balázs, József Kádas, Balázs Fila, Sándor Márkus, Kata Huszárik, Erika Tankó, Ágota Szilágyi, Pál Péter Szűcs.
Premiere: 18. May 2016.
Shakespeare: Richard III
Castle Theatre of Gyula, National Theatre
Music: Adrián Kovács
Dramaturg: Hasi Miklós Vecsei
Director: Attila Vidnyánszky Jr.
Performers: Zsolt Trill, Enikő Eszenyi, Géza D. Hegedűs, Nelli Szűcs, Nóra Trokán, Béla Dóra, Márton Patkós, Hasi Miklós Vecsei, Tamás Kovács, Gergő Krausz, Bence Böröndi, László Sebestyén Szabó, Ágnes Barta, Roland Bordás, Nándor Berettyán, Zoltán Gyöngyösi, Attila Lestyán.
Premiere: 13. April 2016. (Gyula), 10. January 2017. (Budapest)
Kristóf Bíró, Ellenfény, 2017
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)