In 2016 László Fülöp worked with six dancers to investigate the issues of anticipation, delay and evasion, and the surrounding intensive emotional states.

The starting point of the performance was the thought experiment known as Schrödinger’s Cat put forward by the Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger. The physicist used this experiment to demonstrate his theory that particles can be in various places and in various states at the same time. The thought experiment illustrates the absurdity of a cat inside a box, which may be dead or alive, depending on whether it is seen or not. 

“How long can I avoid opening the box? The longer I wait, the greater the potential damage, and the higher the probability get that I will be unable to work with the situation I find in the box. Can I spend my whole life, for instance, in an apartment full of boxes containing my own personal stuff, without ever touching them? What if I don’t like what I find in them? What if they are dangerous? What if they can hurt me? What if… whatever?

And what do I need to make theatre out of this? – I need viewers, boxes, and an extrovert cat, acting out and defining its position and state depending on the viewers. Eventually I started examining everything around us: our relationships, our language, all the different systems, everything. It was obvious that things would end badly. Notoriously. Like the complete formal and emotional scale of anticipation in a spaghetti western. From integration to utter isolation. The significance of struggling, surrendering, overcoming, being stuck, contemplating, as well as mistakes and the endless transformation of the will between construction and destruction. It is all but a nihilistic state.” (László Fülöp)

CREDITS

Creator-performers: Anna BICZÓK, Emese CUHORKA, Dóra FURULYÁS, Patrik KELEMEN, Marcio Kerber CANABARRO, Csaba VARGA

Music: Zoltán MIZSEI
Light: Orsolya PETE
Sound: Vince VARGA
Costume: Emese KASZA/Mei KAWA
Choreographer: László FÜLÖP
Production manager: Dóra TRIFONOV 

REVIEWS

“They search for simple, banal images (such as standing around, raging, or displacement activities). And these images pop like gag balloons and fly up in the air and down again, up and down. They are not dragged onto the stage by a lead weight, there are no holes hit into them. The dancers inhabit the stage like clowns, and perform as jugglers whose every step and movement is like floating on air. They leave soft traces as they go.” Zsuzsa Komjáthy, tanckritika.hu

“The vigorous, charming choreography of László Fülöp approaches the question from afar, indirectly. There are no references made to the specific theory – its heroes are the cat, Schrödinger, and anybody else who find themselves in their place, even for a moment, which may stretch into apparent infinity. Anybody can be the cat, and anybody can be the person who figures out what is in the box. But no peeping is allowed! (…) Sitting in the auditorium you can play a game with the cast: would you be the cat, or the professor, or the fissile material, or the witness? Instead of the deadly dilemma, on stage you will find shards of real life and unchained fantasy. Do we see each other? Do we witness each other? And do we see what we see clearly? And, by the way, what is seeing clearly? In the piece titled Waiting for Schrödinger we see shapeshifting characters, situations taking unexpected twists and turns. Appearance and observation, communication and perception are in eternal opposition. In the witty, vibrant and intensive piece by Fülöp and his companions, the starting point is that nobody and nothing is ever what it seems; but all this is conveyed not through intricate illustrations but through snappy situations. Something funny can suddenly turn quite scary, tender care can become playfully and aggressively overpowering, and a slow, sentimental dance can switch into strenuous exercise.” Tamás Halász, szinhaz.net

LÁSZLÓ FÜLÖP

Since graduating from the Budapest Contemporary Dance School, László FÜLÖP has worked with numerous Hungarian and international dancemakers. He is a member of the Danish Granhøj Dance Company, and he also works on his own choreography, which he develops under the name of Timothy and the Things. In 2014 he created the piece there is an elephant in everybody’s room, which earned him the Rudolf Laban prize in 2015. His duet titled Your Mother at My Door in collaboration with Emese Cuhorka was in the Aerowaves Priority selection of 2017, since then it has been touring extensively throughout Europe and overseas.

The core topic of László’s interest revolves around exploring and analysing, from every conceivable angle, issues relating to all forms of human social behaviour and communication, completely without generalizations or prejudices, in a simple, pure and personal way.

COPRODUCERS

SÍN Arts and Culture Centre, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts

SUPPORTERS

National Cultural Fund, Ministry of Human Resources, Open Latitudes 3, Culture Europe Programme of the EU, Budapest Municipality, BVA Budapest Nonprofit Ltd, Staféta, FÜGE Production, L1, Workshop Foundation

The production was realised within the Staféta Programme initiated by the Budapest Municipality.