In Zoltán Balázs’ staging of Macbeth in Trafó two performances seem to be condensed. The first one is very imposing, repeatedly associative, it would happen in an extreme place, next to the skeleton of a giant rat, on a podium, which surrounded by strings, which go up the sky, with a fraught gate that leads into nothing, and with rock like music of bones. Bodies are moving in it in the dimness that are naked, half-naked or partly covered by tights, the rhythm and way of their movements can become the characters of the story on their own. In a performance like this, we can see those dimensions of Macbeth’s story, which are over the happenings; the title, which is completed in comparison to Shakespeare’s one, also refers to it. Macbeth, who kills his own guest, the king just to live up to the expectations of his woman and his own rise, and his relationship to the Lady, who has given the sword into his hand, the sufferings of the conscience must be in the centre: not the action itself but the human reflections on it.

But this performance can happen only with its outlook: Pál Péter Szűcs extravagant musician, who is wearing underpants and suit jacket, on his special guitars can serve both the immersion and humour. He can make even more special the wordless parts of the performance with his excellent music, in which live rats get their role as well as a puppet of a man of sticks. It has such a strong ending picture, from which we cannot see many during a lifetime.

Anyway, Macbeth/Anatomy is not without words, as in these characteristics we can see the second performance. In which with the connection of some roles (only Ákos Orosz and Andrea Petrik perform all through the performance Macbeth and the Lady, all the other characters are performed by Zoltán Lendváczky and Erika Tankó) and with some cut, they perform from the beginning till the end Macbeth by Shakespeare, with Lőrinc Szabó translation. From it we cannot learn that Zoltán Balázs or the Maladype besides the creation of strong visual world, how differently can see the literary work, than other directors, and why is it important for them. The actors cannot live through well their roles, mostly they do not tell their texts understandably, in the big area they many times tell them incomprehensibly. That way the deep inner reflexion cannot be formed in connection with the happenings; the artistic concentration can be felt for no reason, the so far unknown dimension of the Macbeth-story do not appear. During the very few movements, we can feel the tension, but its internal and external results cannot be found, and it is hard to follow the story that way – and which is a much bigger problem is that as well as the inner changings of the characters and actors.

The first more formal performance encroaches on the second one, and the second one does not help to interpret, live through the first one, so both of them make weaker the other one – above all by the end the form gets tired too, which cannot make the telling of the text more vivid. None of them can show their whole value: so the question marks on the viewers’ forehead have not been written on by the changings of the soul of a man, called Macbeth – as they cannot get closer to it finally.

Bálint Kovács, Egyfelvonás, Origo/Kultúra, 2013

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)