As we move towards the end, everything slowly makes sense – news from Debrecen, news from Debrecen | Debrecen and Hajdú-Bihar county news
As we move towards the end, everything slowly makes sense
Author: Miklós Sénási | [email protected]
Published: 08.10.2022. 10:00 | Updated: 08.10.2022. 10:09 a.m
Debrecen – István K. Szabó’s direction is generous, he distributes colors and emotions nicely, and therefore lets the viewer’s imagination run wild. Criticism.
We used to fear death. Also from the fact that he comes for someone who is important to us, but it is also quite depressing when we think that no one can avoid meeting him. We know it’s part of life, and that what begins must end, but that’s who we are.
Photos: András Máthé
At first, it doesn’t sound very comforting when a book, film or even a play is about death. We like to shiver, but not like this, not for that reason. I’ll admit it as a man, when I first read the Mourning Road, I wondered if I should look for a black tie to go with the dark suit, or if I could also buy a gray one. The situation would have been different if the program had included Stop the Mourning Procession, Ace of Mourners, or Mourner’s Suite. Those titles would also have given me chills, but in a different way.
Pierre Notte’s play – which the domestic audience has been able to meet in recent years under the title Two Aunts – is by no means as gloomy as we think on its first run. A kind of road movie, a bittersweet black comedy according to the scene, we think it’s a wild and daringly irreverent, entertaining comedy. This requires two actresses (Edit Majzik and Zsuzsa Oláh) and one actor (more precisely, musician: Gergely Dargó) who are able to feel good on stage. This is a condition for the viewer to experience the ample 80-minute playing time in a similar way.
Death is not a very happy topic, but it is inevitable. He rewrites everything, transcribes everything, burns it and throws in words. However, the human factor is there. Everyone experiences and processes the inevitable differently. Besides death, grief is also a part of life.
How do we experience loss? What should we do with it? How can we remember what will never happen again?
What will happen to our inheritance also comes up regularly. It could be a smile, a gesture in which we remember the person who has passed away, or even a house, a book, a sentence. Something that is left behind, that can be touched, sold or just mentioned again and again, quoted, cried over – or even laughed at. Just like the two heroines of the Mourning Road, the two aging siblings, Anette and Bernadette, laugh a lot.
They are no longer young, they took care of their mother for years, and when she left, her absence suddenly created a new situation for them.
Until then, they had a mission, and now they feel that it is over. And what about now? Sunday. An opportunity to go on a trip, to go back in time.
Amazing adventures await them and the viewer, a journey through space, time, colors and memories. There is music, a little hit, a little pop, and these songs, and the ladies wearing gross make-up (which makes them look like comic book characters) and the low-key zombie-looking pianist limping at the edge of the stage attract the audience very quickly. Edit Majzik and Zsuzsa Oláh play the roles of very different brothers. They do not console themselves by crying, but loudly, somewhat ordinary. There’s no problem with the latter, it’s not them, it’s Anette and Bernadette, but sometimes the volume seems a lot – although who knows, maybe these French women are like that.
In addition to the game, the viewer is also carried away by the sight. The costumes are stunning and the set is both opulent and practical. Anyone who has visited the old studio theater can only appreciate how different the space is here. It was also ours, we could see a series of memorable performances there too, but it worked differently. István K. Szabó’s direction is generous: he leads the performance, plays with the pace and rhythm, nicely distributes the colors and emotions, and therefore lets the viewer’s imagination run wild. Specific and indicative moments alternate, we have the opportunity to imagine where we are, what is happening on the scene. Of course, this apparent laxity is far from accidental.
As we move towards the end, everything slowly makes sense. We feel the weight and serenity of this game, this strange story, this life.
We get something extra that is difficult to find words for. You don’t have to. It is enough to arrive at why it is worth going to the theater.
More photos and full cast on the website of the Csokonai Theatre.
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