WHILE YOU ARE READING THIS TITLE
WE ARE TALKING ABOUT YOU
Trafó House of Contemporary Arts
Premiere at 19.03.2016.
This documentary theatre production is based on a scandalous students’ performance of Peter Handke’s play Offending the Audience in the socialist area. The performance – which was held on the stage of the University of Theatre and Film Arts – was interrupted by Ottó Ádám, the head of the department, who left the room expressing his displeasure. This was a very frightening moment in that time – the students froze to death, they thought, they were fired and they had to say goodbye to their future career.
The director of the play While You Are Reading This Title We Are Talking About You interviewed those who were a witness to the case. The documentary performance starts with the reminiscence of this case, the actors – Angéla Eke, Alexandra Horváth, Márk Horváth, Judit Tarr, Tamás Rétfalvi – play those students who took part in the original performance. This collective reminiscence is just a springboard for the present actors to talk about the opportunities of an entrant, the actor training at the university, the possibilities of making a living by theatre, the generation gap in theatre etc. and mainly about lack of dialogue. The production is like a public event, a kind of group therapy and theatrical conference about these topics with different theatrical forms (presentations, stand up comedies, songs, interactive plays, video projections, etc.).
The performance is very personal due to the actors who share their own stories with exact details – for example, they are not trying to hide who they are speaking about so they say names of important professionals of the Hungarian theatre field – and are not afraid of telling their opinions to the public. The aim of this performance is to generate a conversation between the different generations of theatre-makers, but due to the generality of the questions everybody can connect to the performance.
“Through their own stories they are talking about us, those, who allows the old habitual strategies to survive because of laziness, fatigue and negligence.”
(Kornélia Deres, szinhaz.net)
“It is difficult to talk about this performance, there are so many relevant approaches and the raised questions are diverse: the Hungarian theatre and innovation; what we regard as a performance; can we look at ourselves in a losing position; is it allowed to be offended; problems and starting a career. I don’t mind, even so I feel that we are going to remember this brave attempt to deconstruct hierarchy many years later.”
(Noémi Herczog, Élet és Irodalom)
Trafó House of Contemporary Arts
Premiere at 19.03.2016.
This documentary theatre production is based on a scandalous students’ performance of Peter Handke’s play Offending the Audience in the socialist area. The performance – which was held on the stage of the University of Theatre and Film Arts – was interrupted by Ottó Ádám, the head of the department, who left the room expressing his displeasure. This was a very frightening moment in that time – the students froze to death, they thought, they were fired and they had to say goodbye to their future career.
The director of the play While You Are Reading This Title We Are Talking About You interviewed those who were a witness to the case. The documentary performance starts with the reminiscence of this case, the actors – Angéla Eke, Alexandra Horváth, Márk Horváth, Judit Tarr, Tamás Rétfalvi – play those students who took part in the original performance. This collective reminiscence is just a springboard for the present actors to talk about the opportunities of an entrant, the actor training at the university, the possibilities of making a living by theatre, the generation gap in theatre etc. and mainly about lack of dialogue. The production is like a public event, a kind of group therapy and theatrical conference about these topics with different theatrical forms (presentations, stand up comedies, songs, interactive plays, video projections, etc.).
The performance is very personal due to the actors who share their own stories with exact details – for example, they are not trying to hide who they are speaking about so they say names of important professionals of the Hungarian theatre field – and are not afraid of telling their opinions to the public. The aim of this performance is to generate a conversation between the different generations of theatre-makers, but due to the generality of the questions everybody can connect to the performance.
“Through their own stories they are talking about us, those, who allows the old habitual strategies to survive because of laziness, fatigue and negligence.”
(Kornélia Deres, szinhaz.net)
“It is difficult to talk about this performance, there are so many relevant approaches and the raised questions are diverse: the Hungarian theatre and innovation; what we regard as a performance; can we look at ourselves in a losing position; is it allowed to be offended; problems and starting a career. I don’t mind, even so I feel that we are going to remember this brave attempt to deconstruct hierarchy many years later.”
(Noémi Herczog, Élet és Irodalom)
Performes: Angéla Eke, Alexandra Horváth, Márk Horváth, Judit Tarr, Tamás Rétfalvi
Set: Virág Pázmány
Dramaturg: Orsolya Nagy
Assistant Director: Anita Totobé
Actors’ coordination: Veronika Vajdai
Production Manager: Klaudia Antal
Director, Concept: Kristóf Kelemen
Special thanks: Tamás Ascher, Itala Békés, Géza Bodolay, Zsuzsa Farkas, Ildikó Hámori, Magdolna Jákfalvi, Árpád Kákonyi, Márton Karinthy, Mihály Kornis, György Lengyel, Gábor Maros, István Nánay, József Székhelyi, Zoltán Váradi, Gábor Zsámbéki, Júlia Zsolnai
Photos: Lilla Szántói