Theater Olympics 2023 also commemorates the work of the famous Hungarian writer, Imre Madách, who was born 200 years ago, on January 20, 1823.
Madách Project
Nearly two hundred foreign and domestic students are participating in the large-scale project, in the first phase of which youngsters from each country will perform one scene of The Tragedy of Man in their own language, using the sets and costumes they have dreamed up. The results of the workshop will be presented at the Thália Theater, Budapest on 10 and 11 June. The aim of the cooperation between the countries is that the students of the participating universities can show their talents and build professional relationships in an international environment.
In the second part of the Madách Project, the students, under the direction of Attila Vidnyánszky, create a joint performance during a two-week rehearsal process as a featured program of the Theater Olympics. The director of the National Theater of Hungary said that the play, which has already been adapted in many different ways, will be performed in a unique way, in a dozen languages, on 23 June at a special location in Budapest.
MITEM
The Madách International Theater Meeting contributes about 40 performances to the rich program of the 10th Theater Olympics. The program of MITEM, which takes place between 1 April and 1 July, includes productions by Greek, Japanese, Georgian, Italian, Chinese, English and Mexican companies, for which tickets have already gone on sale.
With the festival founded in 2014, the goal of the organizers was to put Hungary on the map of international theater meetings: in recent years, the audience could watch more than 200 performances by companies from about 30 countries within the framework of the program. According to Attila Vidnyánszky, the main organizer and founder, the most important goal of the festival is to rebuild the bridges destroyed by politics and they are looking for performances and creators who strive to find and renew their own national theater tradition.
Madách installation
Also in connection with the Madách commemorative year, as an accompanying program of the Theater Olympics, an exhibition will open in the first floor lobby of the National Theatre of Hungary. The Madách installation is assembled from the National Theater History Museum and Institute’s own materials. What makes the exhibition interesting is that the collection of documents and photographs is displayed on fifteen monitors, for which the award-winning set designer Mira János dreamed up a theatrical frame.
The exhibition, which can be viewed between 16 April and 1 July, focuses on Madách’s main work, The Tragedy of Man. The directors of the installation strove to display the legendary stage adaptations of the play’s history, so memories of the performances of directors Miklós Szinetár, Róbert Alföldi, Imre Kerényi or even Attila Vidnyánszky, among others, can be viewed as part of the unusual exhibition.
