He says he is restless, curious, looking for boundaries, and of course himself. He is tormenting himself. Because of his little boyish, cheeky look, I might even think of these as I am listening to a PR presentation, but he talks about theater and the search for it with such passion that I have to believe it’s not just “moonshine”. By the end of the conversation, it turns out it’s really not. Ákos Orosz has been a member of the Maladype Theatre for three years, during this time he has played eight leading roles. We talked about their last premiere, Inferno.

- I have to start with this, because it is not at all commonplace: how will twenty-five civil actors get into the performance?

- We had an open-call audition for anyone who wanted to be a part of the production. Candidates were selected at a pre-casting. Due to the twenty-five choir members, the visual world of the performance became very strong. If you can only imagine so many people getting up or going to bed at once, it can hit a lot, not to mention the more complicated movements. This is a bit like when we held open rehearsals with King Ubu. It is a very interesting experience that twenty-five people join a work process out of their own fun and curiosity.

- Why do you need this?

- We consider it important to keep in touch with the audience and the theater lovers. To make it not just “moonshine”, but really to try to create forums for real communication.

- There are occasions for this: audience meetings, talks, open days...

- These work regularly for us as well.

- There is some risk in having twenty-five strangers with you live on stage, without any theatrical practice.

- Of course, there is a dose of risk involved. But they came with such fervor every night, and they stood by and pulled us up. It is not their daily job, they are not tired, they are happy about everything and it was important for us as well. There is a risk in everything, but if one never risks anything, then life becomes like still water. In the case of King Ubu we didn't even know in advance what it would be like to rehearse in front of strangers every night. In the end, it turned out to be great. Here with Inferno, if I just look that we weren't eight at the premiere, but thirty, it was worth it...! The reason for this decision was to somehow display the residents of hell. When I say the word hell itself, one usually doesn’t think of a withered tree and three falling leaves, but something more hectic. We can’t compete with the film and the computer, that’s not our goal either, but we needed something to visualize this big hustle and bustle of sinful souls. There would have been another way for it, but still, perhaps, the tension of Dante's inner journey is greater, as the central figures hardly move out of place, but everything else around them is in constant motion. In addition to the translation of Ádám Nádasdy and Mihály Babits, we also worked with guest texts. So we have four central characters: Dante, who makes the journey, Beatrice, Lucifer - good and bad - and Vergilius, who stands behind Dante as a smart, cold, purposeful leader throughout hell. Vergilius is played by dancer Andrea Ladányi, Beatrice by Kamilla Fátyol, Dante by Zénó and Lucifer by me. The other Maladype actors play various important, iconic personalities of hell.

- King Ubu is also full of battles, yet only the four of you have played in it.

- Different materials always suggest something else. Ubu was written as a clown joke by a fifteen-year-old guy who entertained his friends with it. He modeled the image of his physics teacher to shape the character of King Ubu. He went to a boys ’school, so the piece is suitable for four boys to perform, jokingly, just as they could have performed for each other, among themselves. I think this is a familiar situation for everyone. At least in school, we often fooled around with that. The piece was born out of a prank, another question, of course, is what it became. For example, it is suitable for conveying a political message. Form-breaking work. In France, people even protested against it on the streets.

- I’d like to stay with Ubu for a bit more because it is connected to Inferno in many ways. There's not much room for motion there either, as Papa Ubu, for example, you play the performance through a pile of newspaper in a 1X1-meter hole. In Inferno you are in the middle, almost motionless. On the one hand, this is certainly limiting, because the space is tight, but on the other hand, it forces you to play with a stronger presence.

- It thickens the concentration. It takes so much attention that the spectator will feel like the whole journey is taking place in Dante’s mind. To put it simply, it is as if you are looking into the fire and suddenly your consciousness is submerged in another dimension. This is a protracted moment. Like an aria. Arias capture a single moment. They’re about how much feelings can pass through a person in a matter of seconds. Inferno is like that. It’s as if you’re stumbling for a moment, then blinking at one point, and in the meantime you’ve gone so far that is unspeakable.

- As far as I know, you are planning to present the whole trilogy. Why did you start with Inferno?

- Yes, Purgatory and Heaven are also planned, but it is still a tale of the future. Zoli Balázs directed this piece now because the Maladype Theatre is ten years old. Dante’s work is a big journey, an adventure novel, and I think Zoli wants to talk about what a journey these ten years have been for him and those who have been working with him. It is important for one to think for oneself, to be able to make decisions, to be brave, to take risks... For me, this is interesting. I don’t consider myself an artist, I’m nothing more artistic than when I played football on the housing estate, but I am still preoccupied with curiosity itself, pushing boundaries. How consistent I am with myself, how much I can hold myself to my own values, when I am seduced, when I stand up for my own things... This work is very suitable for one to think about. There are a lot of hellish people who acted in full awareness of their decision and the consequences of their actions. It is important how consciously you seek your way.

- Do you always project the material on yourself during a rehearsal process?

- I can’t work any other way, I have to find a connection to my role. I don’t care for a role where there is no point of connection. But I don't think there's such a role. There are quite a few different personalities in a person, everyone has an aggressive face, a face of being in love, a face of grief, a cheerful face... In Lorenzaccio, for example, it was very difficult to find this point. There sits a man on the ancient ruins of the Colosseum who has no problem in life and suddenly swears that a tyrant in his country will die by his hands. And that’s the explanation for the role. He doesn't even know why. I had never sat on the antique ruins of the Colosseum before, determined to kill someone. Then it could be deciphered pretty slowly because that feeling can be likened to love. You see someone and you can’t explain why you fall in love with them. Like a lightning strike. I could approach from here. I was able to relate my childhood experiences to certain monologues. Lorenzaccio talks about what it was like for him a long time ago, how he set out on the path of sin. And I committed a few sins as I grew up.

- These are obviously not major sins.

- As we take it. Everyone does this on their own. As a person grows, more and more often he finds himself in a situation where he behaves the way he shouldn’t have, or does things he is ashamed of and cannot explain in retrospect.

- Of course, as more and more things have to be met, the range of expectations expands and decision-making situations become sharper.

- I will give a primitive example. If I used to smoke a cigarette, it was a special occasion. Now it's perfectly normal. In the past, a pint of beer seemed brutal, not today. Of course, I am not a chain smoker or an alcoholic, these things have just become commonplace and accepted. If a person lies about something in preschool, he thinks about what he did and will have remorse. This may become normal later on. In many situations, one is constantly lying to oneself. I am increasingly struggling to overcome these. Now, in many ways, I’m just like I thought I would never be. I’m not saying I’m incurable, or that it’s not as good as it is, but if I think back and look at myself through my fifteen-year-old self's eyes, I’d see that I’ve done a lot of things that I said I’m definitely not going to do.

- A lot of people don't care about these.

- Maybe it would be better if I didn't care either. Sometimes I feel like it would be good if I could be the person I was back then! What caused the joy? I got on the bike and went to the mountains. I rode 60 km every day. Nothing was missing. I went to school every day, studied, played sports, was healthy and played football with friends. I was myself. Now, many times I feel like I have to comply with so much that I don’t even know what’s really good for me. At the age of fifteen, I didn’t think about how good it was for me then. I know in retrospect. But that’s all there is to it: the better you know something, the better you know how much you don’t know. I love living, I love these issues, I try to define myself as much as possible. I’m 25 now, I’ve played a lot of roles. No better thing can happen to a young actor. Through these, I thought about myself a lot. In the case of Lorenzaccio, for example, from where one starts from and where one will get. And how natural things become. Platonov also spins my brain. I am curious and restless, I always think to myself. Now I have to switch, I’m starting to miss it to start building my life. You have to grow up. I didn't understand for a long time what was wrong with me. Then I realized that it’s probably that I can’t live the way I used to, but I haven’t found a new one yet. Because the restlessness is still in me, I would go to a party, I would go everywhere, but I can’t take part in it like that anymore because I’ve calmed down somewhere. A year ago, I didn’t care at all. It's definitely biological, too.

- And sociological.

- I would always go, see, experience. I meet a lot of people who have a thousand five hundred times more life experience and I start to feel smaller. In the meantime, there are those who think the same in connection with me. I think I will only be able to calm down if I can arrange these journeys that I desire inside. It doesn't really matter where I am. If I’m here and not good, then wherever I go, it probably won’t be good there either.

- How many years have you been with Maladype?

- This is my third season. I was in my fourth year of university when we made Leonce and Lena. Then came Egg(s)Hell, Lorenzaccio, Woyczek, Ubu... Leonce has already reached its 75th performance, Egg(s)Hell now had its 50th performance. King Ubu is at its 45th. International invitations have set off, and we have traveled many times since. Inferno was my eighth show here.

- And all of these are leading roles. I only asked because we talk about all kinds of journeys. Do you see where you started acting and where you are now after three years?

- I also wrote my thesis about something like that. What that four years of college meant to me. I haven’t summed up these three years in myself yet, but I feel like I was able to improve. I think it is important that Zoltán Balázs and Sándor Zsótér always gave me tasks that I couldn't do so easily. They drove me to lands that were unknown for me in some way. Perhaps what has evolved the most in me is that I don’t want to solve everything by force. In my first year of college, I was just struggling with everything. I can get myself in the right condition, push myself up, or push down two hundred push-ups (I used to be able to do it), or make an impact, but that’s not the way to go. I have to go down the path that Zoli strengthens in me so that my spirit, my brain, is so dominant that I can handle anything unexpected well and never get in a position where I can’t react well. That's what a lot of improvisation is for. There are a lot of physical parts in Leonce, but in Platonov I stand almost all the time during the performance. I’m not revealing a big secret: sitting, standing, going and talking is the hardest thing on stage. Swinging, rocking, tearing a doorknob, juggling three balls, slipping on a banana peel is also difficult, but it can be solved by technique. But to stand up and communicate something without coloring is only possible if you exist on the stage in inner harmony and balance. You have to accept that it’s enough for you to sit there, and you don’t have to pretend you’re sitting there. Or you don’t have to pretend to go from one side of the stage to the other, but go through it, have a goal and that’s enough. These are the hardest. Of course, you can fool around consciously, use effects, but not everything has to be solved from these. A person dies when his brain gets stuck, when he doesn’t think, when he doesn’t ask questions. And in this we found a great partner with each other in the company. At the university, Sándor Zsótér, who was my class teacher with Gábor Zsámbéki, were also guiding us to this direction, and Viktor Bodó was their teaching assistant. I learned a lot from everyone, I think I had good teachers, so I’m grateful too. The biggest experiences, the big jumps, took place in the work with Zsótér. I got into college at the age of eighteen, Zsótér went through that four-year process, and when I worked with him later, he was able to continue. In this respect, there was a constant progression even after university. Here in Maladype too, I feel that work, thinking, freedom are common. The team is diverse, we also enrich each other's knowledge, the experiences circulate, who saw, read and listened to what. It feels good to be in this environment.

Zsófi Rick, Fidelio, 2011

Translation by Zsuzsanna Juraszek