Bálint Kovács: The Echo
The class of puppet actors by Csizmadia – Meczner has an exam on the stage of the University of Theatre and Film Arts, from Andor Szilágyi’s drama, the Leander and Lenszirom – now without any puppets. The performance was directed by Róbert Alföldi, and as it usually happens the name attracts the viewers too. It is a lucky class: Zoltán Balázs directed their latest – still running – exam, The Mikado. We should not think about whether they would meet thanks for their fate, good directors like they after they have left the university. The crying would not be actual now: in case of the performance of Leander and Lenszirom we could not find only with magnifier any evidence of Alföldi’s characteristic features.
The mentioning of the perfect Mikado is really justified: the actors can be recognised not only by their face but by their gestures, techniques and dictions too. To sum it up: they play this modern fairy drama the same way as the old operettas. But that mannerism which becomes the tool of the expression of irony and fine sarcasm in case of Leander it becomes the easiest – the most stereotypical – one from the possible ways of performance.
We have no reason to think about irony: while we are watching and listening to the performance, we cannot feel any kind of contradiction, which would indicate sarcasm. Therefore, the other version remains: the actors are playing for children. There would not be any problem with it if it does not seem like Alföldi would direct for adults – the all black costumes, the animals, the similarity between the fairy tale and human creature, and the lack of set would be too monotonous for children (For whom anyway, some special but very important words of the performance cannot be understandable too). The older ones cannot be luckier too: the drama (or the dramaturg’s work?) is sometimes illogical and simplified even to a fairy tale. It is sad, that this performance was made neither for the children nor for the adults just for the “boards of examiners”.
Bálint Kovács, Magyar Narancs, 2008
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
The mentioning of the perfect Mikado is really justified: the actors can be recognised not only by their face but by their gestures, techniques and dictions too. To sum it up: they play this modern fairy drama the same way as the old operettas. But that mannerism which becomes the tool of the expression of irony and fine sarcasm in case of Leander it becomes the easiest – the most stereotypical – one from the possible ways of performance.
We have no reason to think about irony: while we are watching and listening to the performance, we cannot feel any kind of contradiction, which would indicate sarcasm. Therefore, the other version remains: the actors are playing for children. There would not be any problem with it if it does not seem like Alföldi would direct for adults – the all black costumes, the animals, the similarity between the fairy tale and human creature, and the lack of set would be too monotonous for children (For whom anyway, some special but very important words of the performance cannot be understandable too). The older ones cannot be luckier too: the drama (or the dramaturg’s work?) is sometimes illogical and simplified even to a fairy tale. It is sad, that this performance was made neither for the children nor for the adults just for the “boards of examiners”.
Bálint Kovács, Magyar Narancs, 2008
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)