Desire

Nevertheless, Tamás Ascher´s direction does raise the "target milieu, which gives an ironic glance at the facts on the ground". This artistic intention becomes the most evident in the language and the stage design of the performance. The Hungarian version made by Lajos Parti Nagy is more like an adaptation than a translation of the original. The characters speak in a kind of dialect-imitation, they use a cosistent, refined and funny language packed with "home-made" linguistic inventions. The stage design functionally combines the different scenes of events: it unifies the home and the working place of the family. The king size bed looks like a marble grave; the bathroom is like a mortuary. The internal and external world is entirely interweaving, which makes the whole production even more morbid and depressing.

literary department of the theatre

Tamás Ascher 's direction while anxiously striving for perfection is excellent as usual. It is in very good artistic taste he organizes all sorts of tastelessness.

Péter Molnár Gál, Nepszabadság, 411011999

The production shown in Thalia Studio is strongly naturalistic but not disgusting. It is heartpiercing although some loving sprightliness has glimsed into its world. Tastelessness and vulgarity are its means and not its aim. It is not depressing still weighting on our consciense for awhile.

Andrea Stuber, Kritika, 12./1999

The dynamics of the tone and volume of the beer garden-scene is perfect. The condensation of the four personalities into this little time proves the virtuosity of direction and acting. This scene gives the essence of the whole play, and at the same time it is also a slap to the simplifying naiveté of the genre. Because life is not-only complex but also looks like that.

Judit Csáki, Kritikai Lapok, 12./1999

In the 1999/2000 season the production own the Hungarian Critics' Prize; Zsolt Khell was the nominated the best stage designer of the year and Andor Lukáts together with Róbert Kardos received the Budapest Prize – the Prize of the Capital.

Tamás Ascher (1949)

After graduating in 1973 from the Budapest Theatre Academy, he worked as a stage director in the Csiky Gergely Theatre in Kaposvár. Between 1978 and 1981 he worked for the National Theatre in Budapest, at the time run by Gábor Székely and Gábor Zsámbéki. Since 1983 he has worked as a stage director at Katana József Theatre, but at the same time has retained his position as artistic director in Kaposvár. Since 1989 he has been an individual member of the Union of the Theatres of Europe. He teaches at the Budapest Theatre Academy. His productions have toured in over forty theatres all over the world. In 1987, at the BITEF in Belgrade, his Three Sisters won First Prize shared with Crime and Punishment by Andrzej Wajda, and at the Caracas Festival the Prize of the Best Foreign Production of the year (1990). In 1990, his Platonov won the French Theatre Critics ' Prize in Paris. In Hungary, he received the Hungarian Theatre Critics' Prize seven times, the prize of the National Theatre Festival four times, and among other awards, the highest Hungarian State Prize for artists, the Kossuth Prize, in 1992.

Digest from his theatre works in 90's in Hungary:
Kaposvár: Molièr's The Misanthrope (1991), Gorky's The Lower Depths (1993), Dürrenmatt 's The Visit (1995), Molière: Georges Dandin (1998) Katana Theatre: John Arden's Live Like Pigs (1996), Werner Schwab's The Presidents, Yasmina Reza 's "ART" (1997), Tom Stopparďs Arcadia (1998), Tankred Dorsťs Herr Paul (1999) and Kornél Hamlvai 's Headsman 's Holiday (2000).

Digest from his theatre works in 90 's abroad: Mozart's Don Giovanni (1993, Lyon Opera House), Gombrowicz's Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy (1994, Vienna, Akademietheater), Molièr' s The Misanthrope (1997, Helsinki, Swedish Theatre).

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