Jurányi Incubator House
- vagabond role game -
Do you know where will you sleep tonight? And what’s the weather going to be like then? How many times a week do you eat a warm meal? When was the last time you had a shower? Have you ever asked strangers to give you money? How do you see yourself in half a year?
Every day, around 2-3 people lose their homes in Hungary. Only huge support, outstanding determination and enormous luck can help them out of this situation. The cooperation between Mentőcsónak Egység and STEREO Akt is an interactive theatrical board game, where we find ourselves standing in the shoes of homeless people. We have to live and survive half a year without any place to live.
The act is performed by four people: two actors, a homeless activist and a social worker, who – as an expert – helps us to gain insight into this truly unknown world. The play is for adults and high school children, and is a status report about our society, which highlights the causes of personal aspects of homelessness, and questions all the stereotypes that state “you are worth as much as you earn” and “if you are poor, you have only yourself to blame”.
CREDITS
On stage: Gyula BALOG, Mária KŐSZEGI, Zola SZABÓ
Leader of the game, expert: Réka SZENOGRÁDI
Author: Gábor FÁBIÁN and the cast
Dramaturgue: Ambrus IVANYOS
Music by István RIMÓCZI
Set and costumes: Zita SCHNÁBEL
Graphic design: Luca SZABADOS
Game developpers: Ágnes TAR, László BASS, Bálint CSATÓ, Márton GOSZTONYI, Róbert JAKUS
Consultant: László BASS
Production assistants: Tímea TÖRÖK, Dóra TÉSI
Production manager: Dóra TRIFONOV
Director: Martin BOROSS
REVIEWS
“A street, a bench, a homeless shelter. Loneliness, indignity, shame. A couple of nice words, a talk can sometimes mean more than a few forints. This play opens your eyes, so you can see behind things, and other people’s lives as well. However, as the ending shows, there is no winner of this game. “Addressless” had a great impact on me that lasted several hours after the play. It is something that everyone needs to experience in order to see, not just to watch.” Radó Lili, thealter.hu
“The evening, rich in content and occasionally shocking, consists of a chain of playful and meaningful small scenes, providing immense knowledge about the lives of homeless people, the traps they face in Budapest and the hopelessness of the support system. The reasoning of our fellow spectators and the debates we engage in are also illuminating. For example, the issue of how we play this game: do we only count the money and want to win? Or do we realize that we have to think about people, and not force them to live on the streets in January simply in order to save money? Because one month in such a situation is like eight years for the person in question.
We, the participants, fall in traps a lot, our decisions are mainly theatrical and not lifelike, as theatre concentrates, dramatizes and magnifies. Martin Boross (supported by a strong team of experts) maintains a delicate balance in this difficult issue with ease, showing destinies, life situations and numbers, but also teaching and sensitising, without resorting to melodrama.” Tompa Andrea, Magyar Narancs
STEREO AKT
STEREO Akt is an artist collective from Budapest that has created project-based, site-specific and staged productions since 2013. In STEREO Akt performances, theatre is an event and the viewer is a participant, although participation is just a proposal. STEREO Akt projects adopt intensive involvement of and reflection on civil society.
Martin BOROSS has directed over 10 event-based theatre performances, in which he has experimented with the unconventional positioning and participation of the audience.
STEREO Akt performances are very diverse in theme and form, yet share similarities based on the attitude of the theatre maker: Boross always starts out from the question of what will happen to the viewer. This is the reason for attributing dramatic roles to the audience: a postman, a member of a village community, a demonstrator, an escaping tourist, a witness, a hostage or a homeless person. He is interested in interaction as the dramaturgical technique required in order to activate a deeper and more intensive level of perception.
COPRODUCERS
Life Boat Unit
SUPPORTERS
Budapest Bank for Budapest Foundation