For the new season,
\nit has prepared seven new productions. Here is the theatre’s artistic director,
\nAndras Visky.<\/p>\n
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Andras Visky: The
\nHungarian State Theatre serves a community open to a relatively wide variety of
\ngenres, from contemporary projects to classic pieces, not to mention that every
\nnew season we also try to have at least one production for children.<\/p>\n
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The first of the
\ntheatre’s new productions opened on the 9th of October and is a
\nstaging of Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ by the celebrated Romanian theatre
\ndirector Silviu Purcarete. Andras Visky, who also wrote the script, told us
\nmore:<\/p>\n
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Andras Visky: Unfortunately, Julius Caesar is a very
\ntopical play. It is a political play and this political dimension
\ncharacterises, from a universal perspective, these times of transition in which
\nwe live. I’m not referring only to Romania, but to the European Union in
\nparticular. We discern, in the way in which Silviu Purcarete approaches this
\nShakespearean play, both his usual style and the Shakespearean pessimism that
\nacquires a special significance today. Shakespeare’s historical plays always
\nhave an apocalyptic ending, everybody basically disappears from the scene to
\nleave room for a new generation who often does not promise a profound
\nreconciliation with the past. However, unless we have a self-reflexive and
\ncathartic relationship with the past, the past will stay with us. I think the
\ncentral metaphor in this production is Caesar’s dead body, which remains,
\nhowever, the witness of the events taking place on the stage. The problem with
\nany staging of Shakespeare is always the text, the register chosen for each new
\nproduction. Silviu Purcarate asked me to come up with a poetic and at the same
\ntime contemporary script.<\/p>\n
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The next performance
\nto be staged by the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj Napoca is a show about
\nmigration based on Franz Kakfa’s ‘Amerika’ staged by the director of the
\nNational Theatre in Prague, Michal Docekal. Another new production is ‘The
\nClumsy Wizard’ by Pal Bekes, a musical for children staged by Laszlo Beres. In February
\n2016, Felix Alexa returns to the Hungarian State Theatre with a staging of
\nAugust Strindberg’s ‘The Pelican’. According to the theatre’s artistic director
\nAndras Visky, this is a less known text and has never been staged in Hungarian
\nbefore.<\/p>\n
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One month later, in March 2016, a French
\ntheatre director and winner of two Tony awards, Dominique Serrand, will stage
\nan experimental musical performance based on classical music requiems. May 2016
\nwill see the first ever staging of ‘The Galoshes’, written by a playwright born
\nin Targu Mures, Gyorgy Dragoman, and staged by a well-known film director,
\nJanos Szasz. Finally, Mihaela Panaite will stage a performance based on a poem
\nentitled ‘The Old People’s Book’ by Domokos Szilagyi, who is considered by Andras
\nVisky as the most important Transylvanian poet of the 1960s and 70s. According
\nto the artistic director of the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj Napoca, the
\npurpose of this institution is to serve its spectators and its community.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Andras Visky: As
\nsomeone involved in the theatre’s communications strategy, I have worked on
\npromoting an image of the theatre as a theatre of the city, slightly distancing
\nourselves from the idea of a minority theatre, because in a global culture, we
\nare all a minority. I don’t think there is anything negative in this view,
\nbecause culture itself, the arts and literature, is a minority aspect of our
\ndaily life. From this point of view, of the minority position, I consider
\nmyself an agent of the essence of culture. So we are a city’s theatre. This
\nmeans that each of our productions is subtitled, so the number of our Romanian
\nlanguage spectators is growing. They take part in many discussions and
\ndifferent regional programmes and there is a palpable feeling that our theatre
\nhas become a theatre of the entire city and the region and also has a presence
\non the theatrical scene in Romania. We take part in important festivals. At the
\nsame time, as members of the Union of the Theatres of Europe, we are naturally
\npart of the European theatrical movement. We take part in many festivals and
\nthis is very important both for the directors who work with us and for our
\ncompany’s actors. It is important for us to be engaged in this European and
\nuniversal cultural dialogue.<\/p>\n
\n
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\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The scene of many outstanding and award-winning productions, the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj Napoca is hailed as one of the best theatres in Romania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":160687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-160686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n