The troupes, theaters, festivals and other events investigated by the research can also be tracked visually on the map. Clicking on the city names on the map will take you to the researched theaters/companies/institutions.
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Hungarian poet Sándor Weöres’ play entitled Theomachia was premiered by the Szkéné Collective on 21 March 1970 in the presence of the author. The performance was directed by István Keleti, choreographed by Tamás Varga and Katalin Andai, and designed by Ilona Harsay. This play was the opening performance of the Szkéné Theatre.
Tibor Déry’s play, The Giant Baby was premiered by the Szegedi Egyetemi Színpad/University Theatre, Szeged on 22 March 1970. Déry was among the audience, the title role was played by Tamás Dunai, and the performance was directed by István Paál.
The performance was based on the diary of the poet, Sándor Petőfi, his poems, written in the revolutionary days of March 1848, and the reports of the Habsburg secret police. It was premiered at the bordányi Művelődési Ház/Community House, Bordány on 12 November 1972. It became one of the most often performed productions of the company, played inside and outside Hungary.
Missing (Theatre) Histories – ‘Amateur’ Theatres in the Kádár-era (1957-1989)
The research project, entitled Missing (theatre) histories examines the stories of the so-called ‘amateur theater’ groups from the 1960s to 1898, when the regime collapsed.
As the first part of a broad and comprehensive inquiry, the proposed three years of research aims to examine the history of the Hungarian so-called ‘amateur’ phenomena (theatres, performances, festivals etc.) and the accessible documents of their history between 1961 and 1972. Missing (Theatre) Histories focuses on those rare moments in which the traditions of Hungarian theatre possibly changed, and in which attempts were made to rewrite the traditions of Hungarian theatre, even if these attempts failed or remained temporary, without consequences.
The main hypothesis of the research is that the experimental, progressive theatres of the seventies and eighties have their beginnings in the amateur movement of the sixties. Besides this we are currently in the last moment of integrating and researching the live memories of the participants, and therefore the work cannot be postponed further as the generation of creators and audiences is slowly disappearing. It is worth noting that they were called ‘amateur’ because they worked under different conditions than professional theatres; nonetheless, in many cases their productions were of high quality. For practical reasons we also use the label ‘amateur’ in this application, but our other hypothesis is that the genealogy of the terms ‘amateur’, ‘experimental’, ‘independent’, and ‘alternative’ have to be clarified.
In the 1960s the consolidation processes of the Kádár era offered a kind of cultural opening, and as a consequence a number of the so called amateur theatres could experience a relative freedom: institutionalized companies could stage dramas which had been formerly banned, and their amateur status offered them a chance for experimenting with theatre aesthetics and language. Although important publications have been made on several ensembles and creators, systematic research on the topic has not been carried out to date. The aim of the present research is to process the history of ‘amateur’ theatres in the period between two symbolic dates: 1961-1972 (the founding of the Universitas and the first national festival of these amateur theatres). It is important to note that these dates serve foremost as a practical guide for our research, that is, we don’t see them as epochal thresholds. The history of the Orfeo group and the Kassák House Studio starting in 1969 (because the core of their activity was in the seventies, and even elementary research has yet to be carried out regarding the the sixties) form part of a planned research for the future.
As a first step, our intention is to search for the currently existing documents accessible in public collections, libraries and archives. Due to the shortage of former research on the topic, the survey of private archives is extremely important too. But the research on experimental theatre companies and creators beginning their work in the sixties not only intends to fill a gap in Hungarian theatre historiography by collecting and researching documents, but also its aim is to create new documents through conducting interviews with creators, spectators, and critics. The output of the research (the metadata of the found documents, the oral history video interviews and the theatre historical studies that synthesise them) will be published in Hungarian with short summaries in English on a web page created during the first phase of the research.
The Szkéné Collective’s production was based on a play by Sławomir Mrożek, directed by István Keleti, with László Böszörményi, Alfréd Wiegmann and Péter Hidas in the main roles.
Premiered on 10 October 1973, Kőműves Kelemen/Kelemen, the Mason was one of the last premieres of the company, before its leader, István Paál departed. Similarly to Petőfi-rock, it was very popular in and out of Hungary.
The 8th Circle of Hell was first performed in 1967 by Universitas (director: József Ruszt), the text is an adaptation of János Pilinszky’s KZ oratorio, the transcription was made by Péter Halász, a founding member of the Dohány Street Apartment Theatre. The direct inspiration was Grotowski’s Poor Theatre and the production of The Constant Prince (1965), which members of the group had seen before. The performance was a paradigm shift, the first example of psychophysical theatre on the Hungarian stage. During the performance, the actors ran around with heavy stones in their hands, the physical exertion making it impossible to act the role, to imitate an imaginary figure.