The season 2022/23 at Vígszínház has started

2022. 09. 14.

On 14 September, the Vígszínház held its season opening meeting. Eight shows are planned for the 2022/23 season at the theatre's three venues. On 8 October we will present Kafka's The Castle directed by Viktor Bodó, while on 22 October a contemporary English play, Incognito, will premiere at the Pesti Theatre, directed by Artur Szőcs. In December, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure will be staged by Péter Rudolf, while Pinocchio, directed by Tamás Keresztes and with music by Gábor Presser, will debut in February at the Vígszínház. The Three Nights of One Love, directed by Attil Vidnyánszky Jr. will be performed in the Pesti Theatre. The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof will be directed by Péter Valló. In November, the Studio Stage will stage the premieres of two contemporary Hungarian dramas, The Travels of K and The Surrogate Mothers .

"I will not list the obvious difficulties we face. The biggest difficulty is that we don't even know exactly how big the problem is. We have to make compromises in order to play. But as long as a spectator comes, we play. We will keep our shows", emphasized Péter Rudolf, director of the Comic Theatre.

The rehearsals of The Castle have already begun at the Vígszínház. Kafka's novel will be staged by Viktor Bodó with his usual absurd fantasy and grotesque humour. The production is a near-faithful replica of his 2020 production in Hamburg. The set of the castle is a huge, elaborate scaffolding, as opaque as the Kafka piece itself, a "madness in the good sense". The story goes that on a dark, snowy winter's night, K, the surveyor, arrives in the village overlooked by the castle of Count Westwest. K has been ordered there to do surveying work, but no matter how hard he tries to get up to the castle, he fails to make contact with his employers, only with the locals, who are suspicious... The cast of the performance. Attila Vidnyánszky, Géza Hegedűs D., László Méhes, Csilla Radnay, Patrícia Kovács, Kata Bach, Balázs Bölkény, Zoltán Karácsonyi, Áron Zoltán and Ferenc Borbiczki.

Nick Payne's Incognito will debut at the Pesti Theatre on 22 October. At the heart of this "brain-like" play is the theft of Albert Einstein's brain. The story of the production directed by Artur Szőcs is a great adventure not only for the audience but also for the actors, as the nearly 20 characters are played by only four actors, Patrícia Kovács, Luca Márkus, Szabolcs Horváth and Ervin Nagy.

On 9 December at the Vígszínház, Péter Rudolf will direct Measure for Measure, Shakespeare's last, not at all light-hearted comedy, which focuses on a real political game, and of course on mad desires, cunning manipulations, some ridiculous buffoons, love or the illusion of it. This unusual comic adaptation of a work rarely performed in Hungary is intended to be a real group theatre production, its world evoking both the past and the present, as the workings of power have changed very little since King James came to the throne.

The Pinocchio is one of the most popular, translated into most languages and perhaps the best-selling literary work, yet thanks to hundreds of adaptations, few people know the original story. The creative team for the February production - Tamás Keresztes, Gábor Presser, Dusán Sztevanovity, Krisztina Kovács and Gergely Péterfy - has been working for months on a comic theatre version of Pinocchio. They will create their own new musical version of the work, not based on previous adaptations, but going back to Carlo Collodi's original story. "We have worked together to shape the story into our own story, most of the songs are already written and we are now in the process of developing scenes," said director Tamás Keresztes.

At the time of its premiere in Hungary in 1961, the first Hungarian musical, The Three Nights of One Love, was a groundbreaking work. directed by Attila Vidnyánszky Jr. in the Pesti Theatre. "I was looking for a material that shows through the eyes of young people how to get through a period when the world is falling apart." Inspired by the fate of Miklós Radnóti, the strange-sounding hits of the work will be performed by András Kern, Sándor Lukács, Géza D. Hegedűs, Eszter Nagy-Kálózy, István Hirtling, Ákos Orosz, Zsombor Ertl, Zoltán Gyöngyösi and Sára Varga Járó on 17 December at Pesti Theatre.

Hungarian theatre is full of memorable Tennessee Williams performances. The Pesti Theatre will present the legendary Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Péter Valló. The story goes that Maggie will do anything for her marriage: she will stand on ice or even on a hot tin roof... "Tennessee Williams has been one of my favorite writers since college. I think the audience will be able to relate to this, as we all experience similar conflicts in our relationships," says the director.

The Vígszínház is determined to make the House Stage a workshop for contemporary Hungarian drama in the coming years. On 5 November, the premiere of Attila Komán's dramatic poem K's Journeys, directed by Klaudia Gardenö, will be staged. The protagonist of the strange story of the disappearance is K, played by Zsombor Kövesi, a 1211 kg cocaine shipment, whose journey from South America through the Azores, via Budapest and Transylvania is followed. The production, co-produced with MU Theatre, will also feature a new song by Júdlo.  On 26 November, Balázs Czukor will direct the production of Béranyák, co-directed by the director and Krisztina Kovács, dramaturg. The script is based on real documents and stories, which also touch on the situation after the war in Ukraine. The sketch-style performance, built up from short images, presents different aspects of surrogacy.

The new season will also see a number of popular performances with a double cast. In the attic, Balázs Medveczky will play the role of Rádiós, while Csilla Radnay, Balázs Bölkény and Dino Benjamin will also be performing in the role of the ghosts. The Jungle Book will also feature Zsombor Kövesi as Mowgli, András Stohl as Baloo, Patrícia Kovács as Bagira, Zoltán Karácsonyi as Akela, Balázs Medveczky as Kak, András Ötvös as Buldeo, Bence Brasch as Sír Kakan and Panna Virágh as Túnak. Pál Street also welcomes new boys: Kristóf Fülöp, Bencie Juhász, Dávid Kerek, Vilmost Krasznai, Ágoston Liber, Tibor Nemes, Dominik Tóth and Péter Turi, all students of the fourth-year musical theatre class led by Eszter Novák and György Selmeczi.

Tickets for the Vígszínház's November performances are on sale now. Season ticket holders will be the first to be able to buy tickets, and tickets will be available to the general public from 10am on 16 September.

More information : www.vigszinhaz.hu/musor