The sentence may seem to be revolting a little bit: there is something infinitely romantic in the murdering. On artistic level: it is simply good, it is a situation, which is full of productive questions and possibilities, when a theatrical performance studies for example, why somebody would decide to go against that civilian achievement, according to which we would leave some of our animal instinct, for example the killing of someone, on behalf of living in a well organised society – it is a deal and a basic rule of the game (its extremely simplified version). And then from there we can go in hundred ways, who deserves death, or that we live in such viscerally useless societies – just to mention two pop-cultural novels, the Crime and Punishment and the American Psycho – everything can be criticised and questioned. It is romantic, because since people ask instead of acting, so they do not kill, a long suffering starts, and if somebody kills instead of asking, that is the other side, there may not be any questions, just the instincts, however, people are just people, not only instincts, so there is something to study.

I would like to show, that the topic is complicated, and in connection with the story of Roberto Zucco, the troupe of Maladype could immerse in something. Bernard-Marie Koltès’ play deals with a real story anyway: Zucco killed his family in reality, he escaped from prison, he killed in reality, raped and committed crimes, and he even escaped through different countries from the police. However, it does not mean anything from theatrical point of view, what we see can be reality or not, the questions and effects in connection with it are those, which are exciting. It is interesting anyway, that the program states, that: “without any reason”. So, the man does all of it without any reasons. It is interesting mostly, because it is very uninteresting from theatrical point of view, if something is there only because it is, without reasons, so anything else could happen that way, and the opposite of it too, and from now on, I am, as a viewer not necessary a lot, as if I would like to I can put something together, and if I would not then I do not.

Well, then it is just a program, but from Ivica Buljan’s staging we can learn beside the others, that the things can happen without any special reasons. The story goes on simply, or at least one of them, with family photos, where a brother always worries about his sister, the sister does the same, her sister’s virginity is taken by Zucco, who pretends to be a secret agent, the police investigates, the dad is violent, he hits the mother and so on. But these are just slices, moments, which do not have any effects on one another, there is not any story to come out in reality and there are not any questions given by it (dramaturg: Robert Waltl).

On the formal level the performance is double, on the one hand the vision is extremely bleak – for the first sight it is exciting anyway, when into the flat theatre of Maladype only the lamps of the street can light in, but for the fourth time it is not so exciting, as well as the natural light of the room is not too, especially those beams of light, which come to that slice of the wall, which are there to fill the place during the eighty percent of the performance. In reality there is not any problem with the minimal set of Son.DA, with the surrounding which cannot born from it instead, and there is not any atmosphere – however, there can be. As well as Ana Savic Gecan’s costumes can also work, they are seemed to try to follow the characters, try to tell things about them, try to mark the changes of the places and characters, but it is all for nothing, they cannot replace the lacks of the stage.

On the other hand, which goes in front of us is really extra. The actors can handle their own bodies and the others really brutally, they seemingly raise physical challenge. Here the aggression and the physical contact is totally natural, the slaps are around, meanwhile nakedness does not become a cliché, they are jumping, fighting, sometimes spitting. The all of it is cruel. It is uncial from that point of view, that these things cannot be seen on Hungarian stages, even sometimes they are seemed to be something, which are worth avoiding, anyway it can be shocking and attention-grabbing during the first minutes, after half an hour it becomes one-dimensional. It is hard to reach people’s thresholds, if in a performance the minimal action is that the actors hit one another. From now on it is not a form of expression, it seems to be that the performers have not got better ideas.

After a while it is not good to see, as those palms snap in reality, sometimes they surprise each other with some movements, and because of it everything is incalculable. It can be exciting anyway, but it does not become an organising power, form, as there is not any reflection on it. That way, the actors can suffer anything and they can try it anyway, these can be appreciated only on their own. Zoltán Lendváczky would like to talk about Zucco’s sensitivity and cruelty at the same time, but there is not any arc, what he can follow, he does not have any reaction, which can have affect on the performance – there cannot be, as there is no need on them. Ákos Orosz is a simple, worrying, robust brother. Rita Kerkay is the naïve and irresponsible sister. Erika Tankó is insensitive sister, who communicates with violence. Senka Bulić is the lazy mother, Zsolt Páll is the cold and hollowed father. While Mátyás Lazók performs the smaller figures with unstoppable passion.

In all performances, all smaller characters there is the need to be some kind of, a small realistic, family photo can be formed easily for example, with individual starting from each moment, but the performance does not use it up either. However, the possibility can be found in the parts, so that all of it can be connected to aggression, as a form of expression, but it does not, and this terrible thing creates a great lack. Because of it, even the smaller ideas cannot work too, it causes confusion, that sometimes the characters speak Italian, than sometimes English, that they shoot without any consequences, and they are always hitting each other.

We can always talk about this question, there is not any actuality that can be necessary, we do not need to repeat again and again, that violence comes from the media, every day there are at least five news about killing. We do not need any special actuality, it is always actual, as the tendency to kill is always hidden in the instincts, the only question is, that what makes it rise, burst, that if it has to burst out or not, or if it does, then how. The possibilities are endless, but finally all of them avoid us during this evening.

Attila Nyulassy, 7óra7, 2014

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)