about the production
CHILDREN’S SHOW FOR ADULTS ONLY!
“How quickly would a performance based on news lose its timeliness and vitality? How long do these news live on in the common knowledge? … Strangely it seems likely that there will be no need for us to refresh the production, the daily news will do it themselves... The numerous exits suggest the depressing idea of identical options, as if no matter which door we exited through we would get to the same place. As if no matter which news we showed, the same horror unfolded in front of our eyes... Hungarian society has to get even once and for all with the naive attitude of the political transformation, the romantic perception of freedom, and the idea of the essential relationship between morals and politics and it has to learn to deal and put up with democracy. Childhood is over... The news repeat themselves, because we don't learn from our mistakes. Actions have no consequences, punishment doesn't happen, it's deferred, and forgotten.”
Barbara Ari-Nagy, report on the work at the Millenáris Theatre
“A musical piece, which makes fun of the onion-and-bacon Hun mentality, Blackland is the hottest ticket in town: huge crowds fight their way into the theatre... Blackland is not a simple joke on politics. The actors' work, the final monologue which lifts up the whole play and a cool and proper self-analysis which corners the critics fill the show with a weight unusual for TV-shows.”
András Foldes, www.index.hu
“Krétakör's new production, Blackland was born out of the personal motivation of its performers through improvisations. There is nothing new under the sun. That does not lessen the merits of Schilling and Co though. Old methods are welcome and so are old values... This production is a socio-critical pamphlet. It ridicules the idiotic and infantile public life and public language; in whose face we are powerless. If one does not trust that the individual can do something for society, because one sees that the democratic institutions created for that sole purpose do not function, we have no choice but to say out loud: I know, I can see it all, don't take me for a fool! There is not a whole lot that changes, for no one is interested in private views, but you start feeling better. I do.”
Tamás Koltai, Élet és Irodalom
creators
directed by: Árpád Schilling
dramaturg: Barbara Ari-Nagy
set: Márton Ágh
costumes: Julcsi Kiss
light: Tamás Bányai
assistant director: Péter Tóth
production managers: Balázs Eros, Máté Gáspár
performed by: Gergely Bánki, Eszter Csákányi, József Gyabronka, László Katona, Annamária Láng, Zoltán Mucsi, Zsolt Nagy, Borbála Péterfy, Roland Rába, Lilla Sárosdi, Sándor Terhes, Tilo Werner, Attila Tóth
director
Árpád Schilling (1974) In 1995 he founded the Krétakör Theatre and began his studies at the College of Theatrical and Cinematographic Arts in Budapest, which he finished in 2000. The first piece he directed, Lorca's Blood Wedding, won the prize for Best Direction at the International Theatre Festival in Kazincbarcika. His directons of Teatro Godot, Towerwell, Circus Viciosus, Brecht's Baal, (participation at Divadelná Nitra 2000), Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, won him an acclaimed and critically discussed position in the young Hungarian theatre scene. In 1998, his company was awarded the Critic's Prize for Best Alternative Performance, and in 1999 the Critic's Prize for Best New Hungarian Drama for István Tasnádi's Public Enemy (based on the novel Michael Kolhaas by Kleist) and he was awarded the prize for Most Promising Young Theatre Director for productions Liliom (F. Molnár), Public Enemy (I. Tasnády), Baal (B. Brecht). In 2004, he obtained the Gundel Artistic Prize for Best Direction of the Year – it was for The Seagull, one of the performances that created the main programme in 2004 Divadelná Nitra Festival.
Materials available
Script of the production: SK
If you are interested in these materials, write to archivy@nitrafest.sk