After Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus.
The performance uses texts by W. Shakespeare, B. Brecht, H. von Kleist and music by Cat Stevens, C. Monteverdi, János Bródy, G. F. Handel, J. Blitherman and Amanda Lear.
HOPPart is an independent theatre company with a special interest in researching ways to broaden the performative means of musical theatre. The players graduated from the University of Theatre and Film in Budapest in 2007, in the class of directors Tamás Ascher and Eszter Novák. Right after having received their degrees in acting they founded a new, independent theatre company under the name of HOPPart (supplementing their regular employment at different established theatres), producing two or three new shows annually.
Hoppart’s Korijolánusz is an entirely Hungarian performance. And we are the main characters. All of us, Romans. That is: Hungarians. Who lived through Socialism as children. Who, making use of the restructuring of power after the regime change, decided to become politicians. Who used to believe that after 1989 things were going to be different. Who have learned by now to preach with the most insolent cynicism that in future everything is going to be different. And we need these Korijolánuszes to do the dirty work for us. Whom we can dispose of easily when we no longer need them. Every rule lives for a moment only. And this one is no exception either.
Korijolánusz, in the interpretation of Hoppart, is a half-adult man under the strong influence of his mother. He still needs strong guidance and is surprised to find that his compatriots – the lives of whom he had saved somewhat earlier – are chasing him away when he follows honestly the aristocratic principles acquired from his mother. Democracy is beyond him. And it does not suit him well either. Because democracy cannot tolerate heroes.
But what, in fact, is democracy? Something that we Hungarians have been fervently chasing in the past twenty years. We are awaiting, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, the peaceful cuddle of lion and sheep. And in the meanwhile we are also unable to reach an agreement at a residents' meeting on fixing the roof. Leave the worries to those who have the water dripping on their heads.
Actors: Imre Baksa, Richárd Barabás, Gergely Bánki, Diána Drága, Zoltán Friedenthál, Ádám Földi, Tamás Herczeg, Diána Magdolna Kiss, Zsolt Máthé, Katalin Szilágyi, Nóra Diána Takács, Sándor Terhes
Text: Ildikó Gáspár, Gergő Bánki
Light and sound: János Rembeczki
Stage and costume designers: Lili Izsák, Dániel Borovi
Musical director: Tamás Matkó
Director Csaba Polgár often uses the somewhat obsolete tool of making his actors address the audience directly. But it is fruitless to label a device worn out if it is rooted in such a vivid content. What we see here is not the eyes of actors scanning for the audience’s glances. Conscious citizens on the stage are warning the citizens seated in the auditorium to stop being naïve and not to believe the boisterous bluffs. To be prepared all the time. And mainly, to start thinking. Living glances glow in Korijolanusz. And not the eyes glazed by the theatre industry. Not the eyes sleepy from routine. Not false windows. Their eyes are visual gates to another world.’
Sponsored by: MasterCard, AFSZSZ, Budapest Bank, Budapest Local Government, Flórián Workshop – Mozgóház Foundation, Indepently Together (FÜGE), Ministry of National Resources, Sirály – Városi Színház, Tűzraktér