Inferno is the mental restlessness - Interview with Zoltán Balázs / 2011
The Maladype Theatre is ten years old. The company celebrates its anniversary with Dante’s Divine Comedy. We talked about the first part, the performance of Inferno with director Zoltán Balázs.
- Why did you choose Dante’s huge work to think about the ten years you lived with Maladype?
- Because at the heart of this large-scale travel story is the author himself, Dante, who, as a self-righteous and dedicated person, sets high standards for himself and his then current environment. Its creative path is a road lined with depths and heights, and going down to hell is inevitable. Ten-year-old Maladype, like Dante, has consistently followed its path throughout, striving to be an independent company capable of redefining itself in all circumstances. “Over-the-counter” authors like Weöres, Ghelderode, Genet, Hölderlin or Wyspianski are no strangers to us. Dante's authorial behavior, the worldview and language of his Divine Comedy, fits well into our repertoire, as artistic and poetic texts have long been natural sources of our stage language. The space of Trafó meant the main challenge for us, because compared to our permanent performing venue, Maladype Base - which is a civic apartment with white walls and natural light conditions in Mikszáth Square - we have to play Inferno between the black walls and a stage space illuminated by spotlights. In recent years Maladype got far away from these types of artistic spaces, so it’s especially challenging to rediscover and “settle in”. As a director, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a wide variety of theater spaces, but I’m really happy with Maladype’s own playground, the Base, where I can rehearse in an environment free of classic theatrical traditions every day, close to people’s everyday lives. The consequence of this close relationship with the audience is that we can work with twenty-five volunteers and civil actors in Inferno.
- Maladype Base hosts full-day workshops on Sundays called the Free Academy. Can we say that now you take the stage with your own audience?
- Not really, as these civil actors are not the same as those who attend the Free Academy. We have a wide variety of spectators: those who have come to the open rehearsals of King Ubu, those who have attended the Free Academy, and those who have been loyal supporters of the company for years. The civils who are playing with us in Inferno have applied for an audition we announced three months ago; we were looking for enterprising people who would like to be “sinful souls” in our upcoming performance entitled Inferno. A lot of people applied, but in the end only twenty-five civils got a place, because together with the five Maladype actors, they form a chorus of thirty people during the game, which exactly matches my original concept. Since I usually have pretty definite ideas about my upcoming performances, the volunteers also had to follow precise directing and choreographic instructions. They worked with discipline and great devotion, which is necessary and essential for this teamwork.
- How did you select the volunteers?
- We selected primarily based on the condition of the applicants: imbalance problems, memory impairment, coordination deficiencies, etc. We soon also screened out those who could not distinguish their right hand from the left. Older and younger people are playing with us in the performance, for whom we have to take equal responsibility. I considered it very important that in Inferno real people should “being punished” because in my reading, Dante meets figures in the underworld who still have a great zest for life. Each of them longs for Dante to bring news about them to the world of the living.
- Andrea Ladányi was given the role of Virgil, how did you choose her?
- Originally it was meant to be played by Ilona Béres, with whom I had agreed on the role of Vergilius a year ago. At the time, at the beginning of Maladype, we worked together wonderfully in Theomachia, and I was really looking forward to the opportunity to work together again. After Kronos, who was the protagonist of Weöres' play, it was not easy to find a role for Ilona that could be a worthy offer for her in the case of another work together. When I decided that we would mark our jubilee with Dante’s Divine Comedy, I immediately called her with the role of Vergilius, and she happily said yes. Unfortunately, Ilona's health has been shaken ever since, so we were unable to begin the rehearsal process together. After that, I had very little time left to find the exceptional personality who could authenticate the figure of Vergilius with her own person. I saw Andrea Ladányi in The Visit and I thought she was fantastic. She is a very straightforward, lean, but sensitive personality who, as evidenced by her own life and art, is able to lead a man who still has a lot to learn and who needs a true master in the process. Andrea is a real master. And Zénó Faragó, who plays Dante, is a real student.
- In the person of Zénó Faragó, you assigned the lead role of the evening to an actor who has recently joined the Maladype Theatre.
- I chose him because he is young, dynamic and remarkable, he looks very much like Dante on the outside as well. I first worked with him in Timisoara on the Return of Ulysses, and I saw an extraordinary opportunity in him, as also in Erika Tankó. Now they are both members of the company. Since we’ve been working together for a year now and I see that the self-digestive processes in Zénó have started and now these seem to come together, I decided to entrust him with Dante’s figure. He is a curious figure who wants to know, to face. At the bottom of Inferno, frozen in ice, Lucifer tears Cassius, Brutus, and Judas, the three traitors. Judas is a symbolic, unavoidable figure that a determined creator must meet or face sooner or later. You have to ask yourself if you want to be Judas yourself. Do you want to be a traitor and a denier of the principles, ideas, goals, and plans you set for yourself at the beginning of your career and in which you ever believed with your full being. Do you want to see yourself frozen in the ice, or can you dodge the traps waiting for you in time? That's what this trip of Dante is all about.
- You also use two translations in the performance: the classic work of Mihály Babits and the translation of Ádám Nádasdy finished for the sake of the performance.
- The language and wording of the translation of Mihály Babits and Ádám Nádasdy give the verbal tension and excitement of the performance. Andrea Ladányi speaks “Babits” as Vergilius, and the other actors speak “Nádasdy”. In addition to the two translations, guest texts by Thomas Mann and Paolo Santarcangeli can also be heard. Dante’s work is basically a narrative text, full of self-reflections that we, according to our concept, had to dramatize and supplement with various scenic and acoustic solutions to turn it into more direct and vivid material during the performance.
- Kornél Mogyoró and Ákos Kerényi will play various percussion instruments and two Japanese taiko drums.
- I have always considered the relationship between text and music important, the symbiosis of the two gives the rhythm, score and unique composition of Maladype’s performances. Just as space and time have a musicality, so human speech and music have a temporal and spatial extent. Geometric enjoyment. Whenever I thought of Inferno, I always heard the pounding of huge Japanese drums in my head.
- The silence of the soundproof hell, from which the wailing sound is not heard, and the deafening inner throbbing of the huge drums can create a great tension...
- There is always a lot of hustle and bustle in the human mind, between the “soundproof walls”, accompanied by many small voices, encouragement and instruction. Inferno is the mental restlessness. We all know Rodin’s Gate, at the top of it the famous figure of the French sculptor, the curled up Thinker, looking for the frontier of thought. To set the human mind in motion, to free its spirit, is the bravest, greatest, but also the most dangerous thing. Dante made an attempt on this in his work. In our performance, we don’t want to compete with the crowds of Bosch images or the sight of horror movies, sci-fi, our vision is a clearer, people-centered game with a worldview of Leonardo.
Anna Magda Fehér, ellenfeny.hu, 2011
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek
- Why did you choose Dante’s huge work to think about the ten years you lived with Maladype?
- Because at the heart of this large-scale travel story is the author himself, Dante, who, as a self-righteous and dedicated person, sets high standards for himself and his then current environment. Its creative path is a road lined with depths and heights, and going down to hell is inevitable. Ten-year-old Maladype, like Dante, has consistently followed its path throughout, striving to be an independent company capable of redefining itself in all circumstances. “Over-the-counter” authors like Weöres, Ghelderode, Genet, Hölderlin or Wyspianski are no strangers to us. Dante's authorial behavior, the worldview and language of his Divine Comedy, fits well into our repertoire, as artistic and poetic texts have long been natural sources of our stage language. The space of Trafó meant the main challenge for us, because compared to our permanent performing venue, Maladype Base - which is a civic apartment with white walls and natural light conditions in Mikszáth Square - we have to play Inferno between the black walls and a stage space illuminated by spotlights. In recent years Maladype got far away from these types of artistic spaces, so it’s especially challenging to rediscover and “settle in”. As a director, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a wide variety of theater spaces, but I’m really happy with Maladype’s own playground, the Base, where I can rehearse in an environment free of classic theatrical traditions every day, close to people’s everyday lives. The consequence of this close relationship with the audience is that we can work with twenty-five volunteers and civil actors in Inferno.
- Maladype Base hosts full-day workshops on Sundays called the Free Academy. Can we say that now you take the stage with your own audience?
- Not really, as these civil actors are not the same as those who attend the Free Academy. We have a wide variety of spectators: those who have come to the open rehearsals of King Ubu, those who have attended the Free Academy, and those who have been loyal supporters of the company for years. The civils who are playing with us in Inferno have applied for an audition we announced three months ago; we were looking for enterprising people who would like to be “sinful souls” in our upcoming performance entitled Inferno. A lot of people applied, but in the end only twenty-five civils got a place, because together with the five Maladype actors, they form a chorus of thirty people during the game, which exactly matches my original concept. Since I usually have pretty definite ideas about my upcoming performances, the volunteers also had to follow precise directing and choreographic instructions. They worked with discipline and great devotion, which is necessary and essential for this teamwork.
- How did you select the volunteers?
- We selected primarily based on the condition of the applicants: imbalance problems, memory impairment, coordination deficiencies, etc. We soon also screened out those who could not distinguish their right hand from the left. Older and younger people are playing with us in the performance, for whom we have to take equal responsibility. I considered it very important that in Inferno real people should “being punished” because in my reading, Dante meets figures in the underworld who still have a great zest for life. Each of them longs for Dante to bring news about them to the world of the living.
- Andrea Ladányi was given the role of Virgil, how did you choose her?
- Originally it was meant to be played by Ilona Béres, with whom I had agreed on the role of Vergilius a year ago. At the time, at the beginning of Maladype, we worked together wonderfully in Theomachia, and I was really looking forward to the opportunity to work together again. After Kronos, who was the protagonist of Weöres' play, it was not easy to find a role for Ilona that could be a worthy offer for her in the case of another work together. When I decided that we would mark our jubilee with Dante’s Divine Comedy, I immediately called her with the role of Vergilius, and she happily said yes. Unfortunately, Ilona's health has been shaken ever since, so we were unable to begin the rehearsal process together. After that, I had very little time left to find the exceptional personality who could authenticate the figure of Vergilius with her own person. I saw Andrea Ladányi in The Visit and I thought she was fantastic. She is a very straightforward, lean, but sensitive personality who, as evidenced by her own life and art, is able to lead a man who still has a lot to learn and who needs a true master in the process. Andrea is a real master. And Zénó Faragó, who plays Dante, is a real student.
- In the person of Zénó Faragó, you assigned the lead role of the evening to an actor who has recently joined the Maladype Theatre.
- I chose him because he is young, dynamic and remarkable, he looks very much like Dante on the outside as well. I first worked with him in Timisoara on the Return of Ulysses, and I saw an extraordinary opportunity in him, as also in Erika Tankó. Now they are both members of the company. Since we’ve been working together for a year now and I see that the self-digestive processes in Zénó have started and now these seem to come together, I decided to entrust him with Dante’s figure. He is a curious figure who wants to know, to face. At the bottom of Inferno, frozen in ice, Lucifer tears Cassius, Brutus, and Judas, the three traitors. Judas is a symbolic, unavoidable figure that a determined creator must meet or face sooner or later. You have to ask yourself if you want to be Judas yourself. Do you want to be a traitor and a denier of the principles, ideas, goals, and plans you set for yourself at the beginning of your career and in which you ever believed with your full being. Do you want to see yourself frozen in the ice, or can you dodge the traps waiting for you in time? That's what this trip of Dante is all about.
- You also use two translations in the performance: the classic work of Mihály Babits and the translation of Ádám Nádasdy finished for the sake of the performance.
- The language and wording of the translation of Mihály Babits and Ádám Nádasdy give the verbal tension and excitement of the performance. Andrea Ladányi speaks “Babits” as Vergilius, and the other actors speak “Nádasdy”. In addition to the two translations, guest texts by Thomas Mann and Paolo Santarcangeli can also be heard. Dante’s work is basically a narrative text, full of self-reflections that we, according to our concept, had to dramatize and supplement with various scenic and acoustic solutions to turn it into more direct and vivid material during the performance.
- Kornél Mogyoró and Ákos Kerényi will play various percussion instruments and two Japanese taiko drums.
- I have always considered the relationship between text and music important, the symbiosis of the two gives the rhythm, score and unique composition of Maladype’s performances. Just as space and time have a musicality, so human speech and music have a temporal and spatial extent. Geometric enjoyment. Whenever I thought of Inferno, I always heard the pounding of huge Japanese drums in my head.
- The silence of the soundproof hell, from which the wailing sound is not heard, and the deafening inner throbbing of the huge drums can create a great tension...
- There is always a lot of hustle and bustle in the human mind, between the “soundproof walls”, accompanied by many small voices, encouragement and instruction. Inferno is the mental restlessness. We all know Rodin’s Gate, at the top of it the famous figure of the French sculptor, the curled up Thinker, looking for the frontier of thought. To set the human mind in motion, to free its spirit, is the bravest, greatest, but also the most dangerous thing. Dante made an attempt on this in his work. In our performance, we don’t want to compete with the crowds of Bosch images or the sight of horror movies, sci-fi, our vision is a clearer, people-centered game with a worldview of Leonardo.
Anna Magda Fehér, ellenfeny.hu, 2011
Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek