Gardenia tells the story of four generations of Polish women from the same family who are fighting with their schemas, convictions and heritage. All the women present their story at the same age – great grandmother, grandmother, mother and daughter – 33 years old and get through historic circumstances starting with the Second World War till the present time. These circumstances shape partly women’s life but what influence them directly, they would say, is their mother.
Gardenia is produced within the European project Fabulamundi. Playwriting Europe, 3rd edition, co-funded by the European Commission within the program Creative Europe 2017-2020.
Zoltán Balázs (1977) graduated as an actor and director from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. He participated in several foreign workshops (Anatoly Vasiliev, Josef Nadj), studied with Robert Wilson in Paris, graduated from the European Theatre Union’s directorial course in Stuttgart. In 2001 he founded one of the most important Hungarian independent theatres, Maladype Theatre in Budapest and since then he has been its artistic director. He is a regular guest at festivals and theatres around the globe - not just with his own company but as a director, too. He directed in the France, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and US. His many-sided and versatile artistic work and his performances experimenting with new theatrical language have been honored with many theatre and state awards. Through his performances he ams to give the audience a theatrical experience which is complex, appeals to emotions and senses and raises the scenery, motion and music to the same level as the lyrics.
