Miroslav Ballay: The kitchen of the theatre
Arnold Wesker, the English play writer emphasizes social points of view in his play The kitchen (1957–1959). He painted in true metaphor the world, he shows us, its autonomous organisation, inside structure, connections, conflicts and hierarchy. Into the middle of his drama, which happens between working conditions with social inspiration, he puts the questions of social dialogues. The artists of the Andrej Bagar Theatre in Nyitra, during the present economic crisis, finds actual the performing of this play.
The performers of The “Kitchen” want to make us think about the indirectly shown but suitably performed problems of our world. From this point of view, the kitchen can become the significant symbol of the reality, which surrounds us. The micro world of the performance can be widen into universal in that way, and it can illustrate that theatrical rule, according to which a theatrical performance with its micro world, can illustrate in reality the macro cosmos, its concentrated, summing compression.
The actors of the Andrej Bagar Theatre from Nyitra can elevate the kitchen into the symbol of their own professional workshop too. Which means, that the performers have the opportunity to make sure of their own possibilities, to immerse together in those spiritual depths, which is carried and summed up in the play by a generation’s messages, thoughts, symbols. According to it the performance of The Kitchen can show the other less well-known side of the actors and the whole troupe, the way, how they can make a performance together. Let’s see, what do these performers prepare in the kitchen of the Andrej Bagar Theatre?
The Hungarian director, Zoltán Balázs, for the performance of the play, The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker, has chosen the circular shaped studio of the theatre. The choice of this circle shaped stage connects perfectly to the director’s concept, according to which, the performance is going on in a central place, which can ensure the place, which is suitable for both the centrifugal and the centripetal movements and it is an ideal place at the same time for the multidimensional overlaps. By entering the studio, it becomes totally obvious that the performers emphasize the fine artistic approaches. However, the fine artistic elements do not illustrate, but it can be connected to the topic of the kitchen. Instead of the hyper modern actual solutions, by the set design they build up very uniquely the visual world of gastronomy and of the staff, who are moving in the kitchen. Péter Polgár, the young Hungarian set and costume designer, does not put the place in front of the viewers with the ordinary fine artistic solutions, which he deprives from its naturalistic, documentary nature. He dresses the chefs and the waitresses in uniforms. He matches the costumes to each other according to surprisingly uniform ideas. The chefs and the waitresses appear on stage in innovative creatures of dresses instead of realistic working costumes. In the costume plan of “the kitchen” it is exemplary, that the dresses get into a seemingly neutral place from the ordinary stereotypes, where they can be renewed. Péter Polgár has not needed to offer crutches for the actors to from master chefs with his costumes. Everybody is dressed into unified, scarf like skirts, and he can balance that way the gender differences between men and women. While the actors’ strangely weird and characteristically long by the ground skirts, make us remember the Japanese kimonos mostly, the waitresses are wearing uniformed black and white miniskirts, which get their personalities.
We can state, that the Hungarian troupe with the special intercultural theatrical approach of the original play, can bring some fresh air into the Studio of DAB in Nyitra. The many nations of the kitchen (Irish, English, German, Italian, Cyprian and so on) in the play by Wesker, are made to be equal, not only by their kitchen uniform, but with their innovative “dresses” they can change refreshingly the traditional staging interpretation of the play too. The kimonos of the masters of kitchen with the Asian like make ups, together with their wigs and costumes refer to the eastern cultures. The performers put the multicultural kitchen into holistic perspective by the showing of another culture. By the fact, that the dominant kitchen gets an eastern-like appearance, the symbolic dimension of the performance becomes universal. It is generally true mostly in connection with the costumes, especially the men’s black and white kimonos, which are decorated by brown stripes. The chefs form an unified choir with the lowered skirt-like clothes. Surprisingly the director and the designer nuance the figures on stage by not emphasizing their nationalities (German, Irish, English, Cyprian and so on), and let the actors wide area to work out their characters.
In the performance of The Kitchen the intercultural phenomenon can mean the existence of two cultural worlds at the same time. The performers, who are consistently and inventively stylizers, emphasize the symbolic, metaphoric and transcendental meanings of the situations of the Wesker’s play. The set harmonises well with the special forms of the creatively stylized costumes. The place, which is similar to a painting, is full of creative signs. It is characterised by versatile functionality: with its emphasized concrete elements it can emphasize a controversial micro-world, which is placed then into a sacral surrounding. The stage with its circle shape makes us remember a mandala, where the power of yin and yang can be found too. The mystical and eastern element, which appears in Wesker’s “kitchen” can bring a sovereign and intercultural element into theatre. The set designer, Péter Polgár, puts a monumental copper pot into the middle of the mandala, of the circle shaped stage of the studio. All rubbish from food get here. The button of the pot as the whole stage too is covered by sand. The greyish material with its neutral colour together with the actors’ uniforms have an interesting effect, it gains almost archetypical dimension. The set designer can create a light set, which is stuck to the ground at the same time, from the dusty sand, where the idea can operate well, according to which, they throw and blow through the unified material all over the surface of the circle. The actors can move silently with bare foot on the sand, and it changes the kitchen into the space-time of the moments, which are passing fast. The sand, which has been put on the grand is formed by the designer with light and circular lines, and that way he fills the place with the meditational stresses of Japanese gardens. With it, he subjects the whole place to the finely cult and universally connected conception at the same time. Partly we have already referred to that punctually worked out minimalism, which characterizes the whole performance. We cannot say that the conception would have made the kitchen realistically bigger. Péter Polgár’s set has abstracted the kitchen otherwise, he has tried to form it into an artistic piece of work. The symmetrically hanged copper discs form its most characteristic properties. We can see copper circle working surfaces with different sizes, which are hung from above, together with knives keepers, potholders, kitchen tools, scales, which are the chefs’ creative working stands. Everybody is working hard, but they form just dull white mixture of flour instead of real professionals. The chefs choose the right ingredients, they make portions from them with sharp knives, and they form the imagined portions of food onto the plates. The whole mechanism of the kitchen is organised well over-thought, with its well-matched tools and properly formed parts, makes us remember an imagined factory.
We can say generally that the image of the stage is one characteristic of the performance. The relationships between each elements to one another. In the middle, with more circle discs, there is a cobber pot, which is there to prepare food in it. The strange company of chefs, who are standing on the wooden podiums, are connected to it. It is a shame, that the viewers do not have a better view on the whole of it, from a higher perspective, for example from the balconies, which are around the studio. From a kind of bird’s-eye view, we could get a unified picture of the micro world of the symmetrically designed area (Originally Wesker imagined his “kitchen” into the basement of a big restaurant.)
The visual unity of the whole performance is supported well by the sensitive enlightenment, which divides the scenes too at the same time. We can see the ordinary working days of a staff in a working place, in the simple kitchen of a restaurant, who change rude and sometimes friendly words with one another, as they are mostly tired of their work. Above them, similarly to a queen, there is Marango on a throne (Daniela Kuffelová), the mystical owner of the restaurant, who supervise from above the operation of the kitchen. While the foods are prepared, the individual portraits of the slaves of the kitchen, appear. They are characterized by unrestraint, competition, fear and subjection, but one thing is common in them: they are absolutely loyal to their boss, to Marango. The monotonous cycles of the order and preparation of foods are running in a continuously faster and faster speed, until they have reached their final top trade. Under the stronger lighting, the work is going on with the speed of a carousel. In this bustle of the kitchen, the mysterious Marango, who is affecting in the role of the gods, from above comes down sometimes between the ordinary people. She is the only character, who moves carefully and does not get into connection with the sand. She walks on the stairs, signed by the pedestals, which the culinary masters, who are standing on the circular arc, put down in front of her legs, one by one.
The director, Zoltán Balázs can handle the actors and actresses of the national troupe unbiasedly. He gives roles surprisingly to the younger actors, he gets involved even the younger generation too, for example Jakub Rybárik, Alena Pajtinková. At the same time, he guards the more talented actors with fresh and innovative method. Arnold Wesker’s dramatic masterpiece does not give the possibility for the individual artistic performances to stand out. The director continuously encourages the actors to shout down one another in one part, to react intensively with their voices to the happenings or to tell the texts as stereotypes, similarly as they are by a conveyor belt. It is a shame, that from the point of view of the sound effects of the play, the performers have not played on with the rhythmical sounds: sound, noise, chaos, bustle and so on. From the sound system of the staff’s monotonous work, a more pulsating composition could have been formed.
Between the chefs, Martin Nahálka in the role of Hans, was the most outstanding one with his disciplined, concentrated performance, he can build his character with his special tone of voice too. Milan Ondrík, who performed Peter, impressed me with his punctual, immediate reaction, which was without any compromises, with the cool almost civilian tone of his speech. He could draw attention to himself with especially strong emotional expressions, at the moment of the escalation of the riot, when the disorder broke out in the kitchen. At the end of the performance, after the fight with the staff and the leader, as a hurricane, he ruined everything around him as a protestation. When he stands into the central copper pot of the food rubbish (into the middle of the mandala) he could stir up all the rubbish of the world, with his assertive movements. He could show the spontaneous power of his nature in the most suitable moments, his temperaments, which could be matched the most to the situation and place. Jakub Rybárik’s strict Alfredo, the pragmatic man, who has risen to him his reasonable limits, he emphasized his emotional restrictions with his consistency.
Between the actresses many could stand out by their role formations. Gabriela Dolná performed the aggressive Bertha without useless comic models, with impressive drive during physical fights, tactfully in case of more harmful ones. For Daniel Kuffelova it was enough to give artificially tough appearance to Marango’s character to be able to evolve at the end of the performance during her attractively strong speech towards the angry Peter (Milan Ondrík). It is a captivating voice, which gained the maximum from the actor’s minimalism. Kristína Turjanová, who performed the English actress, could ease the hard working rhythm of the kitchen, and at the same time she could soften the stresses of her love affair with the German Peter chef (Milan Ondrík). It was an extraordinary performance, as she could show the hidden, inside stresses of the secret love affair on their working place. Her rude, mechanical mask did not cover her pain, but in contrast to it, it could emphasized it. The expressive character of the machine like waitress suited well to Alena Pajtinková, with her performance, she could give the necessary drive and some boldness to her Violet.
To sum it up, the creative Hungarian performing troupe with their newish approach could enrich refreshingly the DAB theatre of Nyitra. The ruling aesthetic ideas of the director’s conception reflected inventive and trans-cultural point of view. The biggest benefit of the performance of The Kitchen, was the fact that the performers could make experiments with the original play and staging forms, using real courage.
Miroslav Ballay, KOD, 2011
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
The performers of The “Kitchen” want to make us think about the indirectly shown but suitably performed problems of our world. From this point of view, the kitchen can become the significant symbol of the reality, which surrounds us. The micro world of the performance can be widen into universal in that way, and it can illustrate that theatrical rule, according to which a theatrical performance with its micro world, can illustrate in reality the macro cosmos, its concentrated, summing compression.
The actors of the Andrej Bagar Theatre from Nyitra can elevate the kitchen into the symbol of their own professional workshop too. Which means, that the performers have the opportunity to make sure of their own possibilities, to immerse together in those spiritual depths, which is carried and summed up in the play by a generation’s messages, thoughts, symbols. According to it the performance of The Kitchen can show the other less well-known side of the actors and the whole troupe, the way, how they can make a performance together. Let’s see, what do these performers prepare in the kitchen of the Andrej Bagar Theatre?
The Hungarian director, Zoltán Balázs, for the performance of the play, The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker, has chosen the circular shaped studio of the theatre. The choice of this circle shaped stage connects perfectly to the director’s concept, according to which, the performance is going on in a central place, which can ensure the place, which is suitable for both the centrifugal and the centripetal movements and it is an ideal place at the same time for the multidimensional overlaps. By entering the studio, it becomes totally obvious that the performers emphasize the fine artistic approaches. However, the fine artistic elements do not illustrate, but it can be connected to the topic of the kitchen. Instead of the hyper modern actual solutions, by the set design they build up very uniquely the visual world of gastronomy and of the staff, who are moving in the kitchen. Péter Polgár, the young Hungarian set and costume designer, does not put the place in front of the viewers with the ordinary fine artistic solutions, which he deprives from its naturalistic, documentary nature. He dresses the chefs and the waitresses in uniforms. He matches the costumes to each other according to surprisingly uniform ideas. The chefs and the waitresses appear on stage in innovative creatures of dresses instead of realistic working costumes. In the costume plan of “the kitchen” it is exemplary, that the dresses get into a seemingly neutral place from the ordinary stereotypes, where they can be renewed. Péter Polgár has not needed to offer crutches for the actors to from master chefs with his costumes. Everybody is dressed into unified, scarf like skirts, and he can balance that way the gender differences between men and women. While the actors’ strangely weird and characteristically long by the ground skirts, make us remember the Japanese kimonos mostly, the waitresses are wearing uniformed black and white miniskirts, which get their personalities.
We can state, that the Hungarian troupe with the special intercultural theatrical approach of the original play, can bring some fresh air into the Studio of DAB in Nyitra. The many nations of the kitchen (Irish, English, German, Italian, Cyprian and so on) in the play by Wesker, are made to be equal, not only by their kitchen uniform, but with their innovative “dresses” they can change refreshingly the traditional staging interpretation of the play too. The kimonos of the masters of kitchen with the Asian like make ups, together with their wigs and costumes refer to the eastern cultures. The performers put the multicultural kitchen into holistic perspective by the showing of another culture. By the fact, that the dominant kitchen gets an eastern-like appearance, the symbolic dimension of the performance becomes universal. It is generally true mostly in connection with the costumes, especially the men’s black and white kimonos, which are decorated by brown stripes. The chefs form an unified choir with the lowered skirt-like clothes. Surprisingly the director and the designer nuance the figures on stage by not emphasizing their nationalities (German, Irish, English, Cyprian and so on), and let the actors wide area to work out their characters.
In the performance of The Kitchen the intercultural phenomenon can mean the existence of two cultural worlds at the same time. The performers, who are consistently and inventively stylizers, emphasize the symbolic, metaphoric and transcendental meanings of the situations of the Wesker’s play. The set harmonises well with the special forms of the creatively stylized costumes. The place, which is similar to a painting, is full of creative signs. It is characterised by versatile functionality: with its emphasized concrete elements it can emphasize a controversial micro-world, which is placed then into a sacral surrounding. The stage with its circle shape makes us remember a mandala, where the power of yin and yang can be found too. The mystical and eastern element, which appears in Wesker’s “kitchen” can bring a sovereign and intercultural element into theatre. The set designer, Péter Polgár, puts a monumental copper pot into the middle of the mandala, of the circle shaped stage of the studio. All rubbish from food get here. The button of the pot as the whole stage too is covered by sand. The greyish material with its neutral colour together with the actors’ uniforms have an interesting effect, it gains almost archetypical dimension. The set designer can create a light set, which is stuck to the ground at the same time, from the dusty sand, where the idea can operate well, according to which, they throw and blow through the unified material all over the surface of the circle. The actors can move silently with bare foot on the sand, and it changes the kitchen into the space-time of the moments, which are passing fast. The sand, which has been put on the grand is formed by the designer with light and circular lines, and that way he fills the place with the meditational stresses of Japanese gardens. With it, he subjects the whole place to the finely cult and universally connected conception at the same time. Partly we have already referred to that punctually worked out minimalism, which characterizes the whole performance. We cannot say that the conception would have made the kitchen realistically bigger. Péter Polgár’s set has abstracted the kitchen otherwise, he has tried to form it into an artistic piece of work. The symmetrically hanged copper discs form its most characteristic properties. We can see copper circle working surfaces with different sizes, which are hung from above, together with knives keepers, potholders, kitchen tools, scales, which are the chefs’ creative working stands. Everybody is working hard, but they form just dull white mixture of flour instead of real professionals. The chefs choose the right ingredients, they make portions from them with sharp knives, and they form the imagined portions of food onto the plates. The whole mechanism of the kitchen is organised well over-thought, with its well-matched tools and properly formed parts, makes us remember an imagined factory.
We can say generally that the image of the stage is one characteristic of the performance. The relationships between each elements to one another. In the middle, with more circle discs, there is a cobber pot, which is there to prepare food in it. The strange company of chefs, who are standing on the wooden podiums, are connected to it. It is a shame, that the viewers do not have a better view on the whole of it, from a higher perspective, for example from the balconies, which are around the studio. From a kind of bird’s-eye view, we could get a unified picture of the micro world of the symmetrically designed area (Originally Wesker imagined his “kitchen” into the basement of a big restaurant.)
The visual unity of the whole performance is supported well by the sensitive enlightenment, which divides the scenes too at the same time. We can see the ordinary working days of a staff in a working place, in the simple kitchen of a restaurant, who change rude and sometimes friendly words with one another, as they are mostly tired of their work. Above them, similarly to a queen, there is Marango on a throne (Daniela Kuffelová), the mystical owner of the restaurant, who supervise from above the operation of the kitchen. While the foods are prepared, the individual portraits of the slaves of the kitchen, appear. They are characterized by unrestraint, competition, fear and subjection, but one thing is common in them: they are absolutely loyal to their boss, to Marango. The monotonous cycles of the order and preparation of foods are running in a continuously faster and faster speed, until they have reached their final top trade. Under the stronger lighting, the work is going on with the speed of a carousel. In this bustle of the kitchen, the mysterious Marango, who is affecting in the role of the gods, from above comes down sometimes between the ordinary people. She is the only character, who moves carefully and does not get into connection with the sand. She walks on the stairs, signed by the pedestals, which the culinary masters, who are standing on the circular arc, put down in front of her legs, one by one.
The director, Zoltán Balázs can handle the actors and actresses of the national troupe unbiasedly. He gives roles surprisingly to the younger actors, he gets involved even the younger generation too, for example Jakub Rybárik, Alena Pajtinková. At the same time, he guards the more talented actors with fresh and innovative method. Arnold Wesker’s dramatic masterpiece does not give the possibility for the individual artistic performances to stand out. The director continuously encourages the actors to shout down one another in one part, to react intensively with their voices to the happenings or to tell the texts as stereotypes, similarly as they are by a conveyor belt. It is a shame, that from the point of view of the sound effects of the play, the performers have not played on with the rhythmical sounds: sound, noise, chaos, bustle and so on. From the sound system of the staff’s monotonous work, a more pulsating composition could have been formed.
Between the chefs, Martin Nahálka in the role of Hans, was the most outstanding one with his disciplined, concentrated performance, he can build his character with his special tone of voice too. Milan Ondrík, who performed Peter, impressed me with his punctual, immediate reaction, which was without any compromises, with the cool almost civilian tone of his speech. He could draw attention to himself with especially strong emotional expressions, at the moment of the escalation of the riot, when the disorder broke out in the kitchen. At the end of the performance, after the fight with the staff and the leader, as a hurricane, he ruined everything around him as a protestation. When he stands into the central copper pot of the food rubbish (into the middle of the mandala) he could stir up all the rubbish of the world, with his assertive movements. He could show the spontaneous power of his nature in the most suitable moments, his temperaments, which could be matched the most to the situation and place. Jakub Rybárik’s strict Alfredo, the pragmatic man, who has risen to him his reasonable limits, he emphasized his emotional restrictions with his consistency.
Between the actresses many could stand out by their role formations. Gabriela Dolná performed the aggressive Bertha without useless comic models, with impressive drive during physical fights, tactfully in case of more harmful ones. For Daniel Kuffelova it was enough to give artificially tough appearance to Marango’s character to be able to evolve at the end of the performance during her attractively strong speech towards the angry Peter (Milan Ondrík). It is a captivating voice, which gained the maximum from the actor’s minimalism. Kristína Turjanová, who performed the English actress, could ease the hard working rhythm of the kitchen, and at the same time she could soften the stresses of her love affair with the German Peter chef (Milan Ondrík). It was an extraordinary performance, as she could show the hidden, inside stresses of the secret love affair on their working place. Her rude, mechanical mask did not cover her pain, but in contrast to it, it could emphasized it. The expressive character of the machine like waitress suited well to Alena Pajtinková, with her performance, she could give the necessary drive and some boldness to her Violet.
To sum it up, the creative Hungarian performing troupe with their newish approach could enrich refreshingly the DAB theatre of Nyitra. The ruling aesthetic ideas of the director’s conception reflected inventive and trans-cultural point of view. The biggest benefit of the performance of The Kitchen, was the fact that the performers could make experiments with the original play and staging forms, using real courage.
Miroslav Ballay, KOD, 2011
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)