Opened: 2022
In Hungarian with English subtitles/simultaneous translation

“Ildikó Gáspár’s minimalist staging, created for an intimate studio space, centres Ibsen’s late drama on a generational conflict. In her reading, the once admired Solness has been transformed by midlife crisis into a cynical power technician, only really interested in how to prevent the younger generation, breathing down his neck, from thriving. He enamours even his young office manager (Emőke Zsigmond), who loves him dearly, not because it would bring him any pleasure, but because he wants to use her to crush the ambitions of her fiancé Ragnar (Csaba Polgár) to become an independent man. Pál Mácsai, the director of the Örkény István Theatre, masterfully portrays the narcissistic man who, for lack of real performance, is mostly clinging to his own personal cult: he brings his manipulative techniques to their climax in a dialogue with his child victim (Mária Szaplonczay), who returns after ten years, and expects even the audience to sing a song in his praise. And let us not think that Mácsai has been rewarded with a benefit performance in the institution he directs: the fact that Polgár, who plays Ragnar, is also the artistic director of the Örkény Studio, places his performance in a self-ironic perspective. With a tight dramaturgy and excellent ensemble acting, Solness makes essential statements about a problem that characterises not only the Hungarian public life (in theatres).” Beatrix Kricsfalusi, curator

CREDITS

Halvard Solness, master builder: Pál Mácsai
Aline Solness, his wife: Gabriella Hámori
Doktor Leo Erdal, physician: György Bajomi Nagy / Sándor Terhes 
Bertha Brovik, formerly an architect, now in Solness’s employment: Judit Pogány
Ragnar Brovik, Brovik’s son, a draftsman: Csaba Polgár
Frida Fosli, a book-keeper: Emőke Zsigmond
Hilde Wangel: Mária Szaplonczay

Director: Ildikó Gáspár
Dramaturgy: Barbara Ari-Nagy
Music: Flóra Lili Matisz
Set design, costumes: Luca Szabados
Film: Gergely Pálos, András Juhász
Media design: András Juhász
Assistant-stage manager: Henrietta Kovács
Prompter: Csilla Mészáros
Lights: Csaba Andor Balogh
Sound: Illés Baranyai, Tamás Móni
Video: György Ulrich, István Kónya
Translation: Ildikó Gáspár (EN)
Proofreader: László Mózner (EN)

|| 14+ ||

REVIEWS

“This performance of Solness is a battle of damaged nerves: who can last the longest without going crazy? The coarse Hilde (Maria Szaplonczay), who has been cherishing a fantasy for ten years (let’s face it, this is not that normal either) and now comes for what she thought was hers to take, and in doing so, stirs up the master’s long-buried self-esteem? The wife, who has paled in the face of family loss, but is not blind at all (Gabriella Hámori), who endures, but not silently, spending her time growing houseplants? Or Solness, who is acrophobic in every sense, from whom the Cipolla emerges? Solness is not depraved, just aimless, but he cannot and does not want to grow old (while Mácsai ages before our eyes on stage).”
Zsófia Molnár, Élet és Irodalom

“There’s Hilde, for example, ready to explode, constantly on the verge of tears and laughter, turning Aline and Solness’ home upside down like a bouncing ball. She creates chaos, but also order: she acts as a kind and at the same time cruel judge who rules, explains, instructs and organises the inhabitants of the Solness household. The young girl plays on the nerves of the middle-aged couple in the role of the ageless sage, and comes to a surprising result: Solness shows fragility, Aline warmth, and although in different ways, the girl twists both their heads.”
Hanga Zsófia Aradi, Telex.hu

“In this small space, we form a community, and the main character, Pál Mácsai, who plays the master builder Solness, involves his personal life story so much in the performance that at one point we get into a family projection: we see the little child filmed by his father, then the teenager, then the young actor – all with commentary from Mácsai and his colleagues, shouting from the audience from time to time.”
Noémi Sümegi, Index.hu

“Across from me, Judit Pogány is seated in her familiar black complé, this time topped off with a string of white pearls tied in a knot at her breast. When she stands up at the beginning of the performance and increasingly vehemently takes Pál Mácsai’s Solness to task for not giving her young colleague Ragnar (her son) a house design opportunity, she turns her back to me. I immediately know that I have to see the performance again. I need to see Judit Pogány’s face in this scene. Her son, by the way, is played by Csaba Polgár, who was recently invited and appointed by Pál Mácsai to be the artistic director of the Örkény Studio. And with this side issue, we have already arrived at the other great directorial invention of the production: the clever merging of the play and real life situations. Beneficial uncertainty hangs over whether we are seeing the embodiment of the Ibsen roles or whether the figures, situations and relations of Madách Square are formulated in the most personal way.”
Andrea Struber, Mozgó Világ

Ildikó Gáspár

… is a Hungarian theatre director living in Budapest, working at Örkény Theatre and in several international productions in other European countries, like Germany, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, and Serbia. She does not only create productions as a director, but also does adaptations, translations, and rewritings for her productions.
She took part in scholarship programmes in the USA and Germany, and held workshops in theatre universities in Budapest (Hungary), Vilnius (Lithuania), Helsinki (Finland), Stockholm (Sweden). 

The Örkény István Theatre 

… is an independent repertory theatre and one of the most important theatres in the country. Örkény is primarily a prose drama theatre, but it is open to a wide variety of genres. Our repertoire has included more than a hundred works, from antiquity to contemporary works. Regardless of genre, we see the meaning of our work in our choice of high literature, in our thorough rehearsals, our openness to public issues, our love of humour, grotesque, and the many shades of irony. Our ten-year-old theatre education programme was one of the first in Hungary to open up a new channel for active, community-building engagement with audiences.

CONTACT

Julcsi Szabó 
szj@orkenyszinhaz.hu
+36.30.956.97.30

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