Emőke Sárosi: Macbeth, the dinner of the rats
How can Shakespeare’s short, dark, Scottish play become a contemporary performance? There are rats, 3D drawing and a glass guitar – all of it with a little bit of circus-like magic with Zoltán Balázs’ staging in the Macbeth/Anatomy.
The story, which is thought to be a classical one, is given: Macbeth, the criminal play by Shakespeare, which is about the desire for power, the killing of a king and the compulsory punishment. The new performance of Maladype Theatre is prepared from it, which advertises itself according to the idea of the “anatomy of curse”. According to their professional marketing advertisement “they are looking for the balance between the sacral and profane one in a world, which is ruled by the sexual and diabolic powers”. The performance, which wants to deal with taboo topics, also concentrates on the phases of Macbeth’s double personality – according to the advertisement, which promises a lot. However, the main character has more sad eyes, he is a little bit shy, he performs the figure of Hamlet, who talks to ghosts, with his typical asexual attitude. The primer desires, which take over Macbeth’s human side (sexuality and power) remain hidden, in the mask of the middle leader, who fights with his existential difficulties and impotency.
György Katus’ sculpture takes the middle place of the open stage of Trafó, the giant rat skeleton, which is first similar to a dinosaur and Macbeth’ (Ákos Orosz) naked, huddled thinker. All of it is on the lengthened podium, which has been similar since his staging of The Tempest, which speciality in this present time is the sandbox under the skeleton and the glass made structure of glass that can be enlightened, in which vivid rats are running up and down. It needs courage to make so many terrifying animals, which can raise panic, perform in a place, where the auditorium and the stage are not separated. Fortunately the actors are ready to catch some rats when they need to, because they climb out of the set; the soldiers are about to escape, the help arrives at the last moment, and the viewers remain in safety too.
The picture of the rat skeleton burns into the viewers’ minds, but its function remains hidden. The actors take it apart, than put its pieces to somewhere else during the ending scene of the performance, the place of the monster is taken by Macbeth’s head, which is closed in the cage, as the night snack for the rats. It is horrific, expressive and very long. Besides the killers, all the other roles are performed by Zoltán Lendváczky and Erika Tankó, who are fighting through agonizing moments, to be able to dig deep enough the cage into the sand, as the rats are separated only be it, from their desired freedom. Next to shivering, the humour has a special creation too, Róbert Bánky has designed a special character, the man of sticks, who is well known from the virtual world, the 3D puppet of pencils. Its death as Macduff’s son is a grotesque dessert of humour in the darks special atmosphere of the performance.
The dramaturgical mistake is noticeable, which does not come from the (sometimes very small) cuts of the text, but from the translation by Lőrinc Szabó: in the story the Macbeths has no children, anyway the killer refers to the Lady’s (Andrea Petrik) breastfeeding past, while proving her determination to become a queen. Then the husband wants a future male descendant from his wife. Their dialogue can have exceptional importance and attention, as during the performance this is the only moment where sexuality appears. The naked bodies, which appear occasionally, are objective, they are bio sets, and they affect as the figures, which can be known from books of anatomy, they are without any eroticism.
The unique nature of the performance is raised by Péter Üveges’ collection of instruments, the patent of the guitar design, which is called the “system of Y”, which he has shown to the public for the first time. The newish sounding and form world of electronic instruments, which are made of steel, aluminium and glass, is filled with content by Pál Péter Szűcs’ music. As a doorman, his necessary joke is the song by Guns N’ Roses, the Knocking On Heaven’s Door, which we can listen to at the moment of knocking.
Zoltán Balázs’ staging conception is exceptional again. He expects artistic teamwork, the closed examining work before the performance, the resonation on one another from his performing partners. The movements and feelings, which are fixed precisely, cannot fill the auditorium anyway. In spite of the Zoli Balázs-like circus-like magic – the coherence of vision, music, form and content – the play is static and silent. What do deep Freud psychology, the investigative phase studying of the processes of psyche and the reflexions on the double poles nature of the human individuality mean, if there is not any action, and the viewers cannot hear the text?
Emőke Sárosi, Ellenfény online, 2013
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
The story, which is thought to be a classical one, is given: Macbeth, the criminal play by Shakespeare, which is about the desire for power, the killing of a king and the compulsory punishment. The new performance of Maladype Theatre is prepared from it, which advertises itself according to the idea of the “anatomy of curse”. According to their professional marketing advertisement “they are looking for the balance between the sacral and profane one in a world, which is ruled by the sexual and diabolic powers”. The performance, which wants to deal with taboo topics, also concentrates on the phases of Macbeth’s double personality – according to the advertisement, which promises a lot. However, the main character has more sad eyes, he is a little bit shy, he performs the figure of Hamlet, who talks to ghosts, with his typical asexual attitude. The primer desires, which take over Macbeth’s human side (sexuality and power) remain hidden, in the mask of the middle leader, who fights with his existential difficulties and impotency.
György Katus’ sculpture takes the middle place of the open stage of Trafó, the giant rat skeleton, which is first similar to a dinosaur and Macbeth’ (Ákos Orosz) naked, huddled thinker. All of it is on the lengthened podium, which has been similar since his staging of The Tempest, which speciality in this present time is the sandbox under the skeleton and the glass made structure of glass that can be enlightened, in which vivid rats are running up and down. It needs courage to make so many terrifying animals, which can raise panic, perform in a place, where the auditorium and the stage are not separated. Fortunately the actors are ready to catch some rats when they need to, because they climb out of the set; the soldiers are about to escape, the help arrives at the last moment, and the viewers remain in safety too.
The picture of the rat skeleton burns into the viewers’ minds, but its function remains hidden. The actors take it apart, than put its pieces to somewhere else during the ending scene of the performance, the place of the monster is taken by Macbeth’s head, which is closed in the cage, as the night snack for the rats. It is horrific, expressive and very long. Besides the killers, all the other roles are performed by Zoltán Lendváczky and Erika Tankó, who are fighting through agonizing moments, to be able to dig deep enough the cage into the sand, as the rats are separated only be it, from their desired freedom. Next to shivering, the humour has a special creation too, Róbert Bánky has designed a special character, the man of sticks, who is well known from the virtual world, the 3D puppet of pencils. Its death as Macduff’s son is a grotesque dessert of humour in the darks special atmosphere of the performance.
The dramaturgical mistake is noticeable, which does not come from the (sometimes very small) cuts of the text, but from the translation by Lőrinc Szabó: in the story the Macbeths has no children, anyway the killer refers to the Lady’s (Andrea Petrik) breastfeeding past, while proving her determination to become a queen. Then the husband wants a future male descendant from his wife. Their dialogue can have exceptional importance and attention, as during the performance this is the only moment where sexuality appears. The naked bodies, which appear occasionally, are objective, they are bio sets, and they affect as the figures, which can be known from books of anatomy, they are without any eroticism.
The unique nature of the performance is raised by Péter Üveges’ collection of instruments, the patent of the guitar design, which is called the “system of Y”, which he has shown to the public for the first time. The newish sounding and form world of electronic instruments, which are made of steel, aluminium and glass, is filled with content by Pál Péter Szűcs’ music. As a doorman, his necessary joke is the song by Guns N’ Roses, the Knocking On Heaven’s Door, which we can listen to at the moment of knocking.
Zoltán Balázs’ staging conception is exceptional again. He expects artistic teamwork, the closed examining work before the performance, the resonation on one another from his performing partners. The movements and feelings, which are fixed precisely, cannot fill the auditorium anyway. In spite of the Zoli Balázs-like circus-like magic – the coherence of vision, music, form and content – the play is static and silent. What do deep Freud psychology, the investigative phase studying of the processes of psyche and the reflexions on the double poles nature of the human individuality mean, if there is not any action, and the viewers cannot hear the text?
Emőke Sárosi, Ellenfény online, 2013
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)