Performance(s)
Venue and date:
Hírös Agóra, Kecskemét
2023. 10. 26., 19:00
Petőfi Sándor Theatre, Veszprém
2023. 10. 28., 19:00
Company:
Háromszék Ensemble
Háromszék Táncegyüttes: Tragédia – Fotó: Kátai Jocó
Dance

Tragedy

Performance(s)
Venue and date:
Hírös Agóra, Kecskemét
2023. 10. 26., 19:00
Petőfi Sándor Theatre, Veszprém
2023. 10. 28., 19:00
Company:
Háromszék Ensemble
Author:
Imre Madách
Choreographer:
Árpád Könczei
Stage and costume designer: 
Gyöngyi Balázs
Choreographer: 
Zoltán Zsuráfszky Jr.
Dramaturge: 
András Kozma
Composer: 
Árpád Könczei
Ligths: 
János Madarász
Choreographer's assistant: 
Endre Melles
Choreographer's assistant, ballet master: 
Ágnes Cseke
Costume designer's assistant: 
Eszter Csüdöm
Cameraman: 
Barna László
Synopsis

Can the complexity and philosophical dramatics of Madách’s text be expressed by a music-dance-movement-visuals-movie toolkit and an abbreviated text, or will the piece be inherently doomed in the spirit of Lucifer’s cold logic and nit-picking argumentation?  British writer, poet and philosopher Aldous Huxley wrote his most famous work, the dystopical novel Brave New World, in 1931. The novel plays out in a distant imaginary future with a perfectly organised society, a science-based caste system, free will rooted out by methodical education, serial partner-swapping sexuality instead of families, slavery made bearable by the use of the perfect drug called “soma”.  It was the study of Huxley that led Árpád Könczei to the work of Imre Madách. In Madách’s time, London was the most developed power in Europe, or even in the world. However, Madách did not finish his most famous work with the London scene, that is, with his own present, but looked further into Adam and Eve’s future. The Phalanstery, the Space and the Eskimo scenes are all pessimistic prophecies foreboding the fall and destruction of man. We think that Madách’s lines we use in the dance-theatre drama are still valid: “Man has become more powerful than God.” (the Pharaoh) “Don’t you think / That nationalism was a petty concept? The whole world is a single nation now.” (Lucifer) Adam, with his feet on the ground, answers: “I’ve one regret: the nationhood ideal, / Which could have survived and been adapted to / The scheme of things, even as they stand.” Indeed, the new scheme of things, the brave new world is taking shape now, reusing the nice promises and grand slogans of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!” Brainwashing, as prophesied by Huxley, can herd the masses into pens or phalansteries once again by these never implemented buzzwords. By this performance of the Tragedy, Könczei intends to provide some food for thought. By the means of dance, he asks questions about the relationship between man and woman, about the connection between the individual and the masses, about faith, love, freedom, competition, phalanstery existence, and tries his best to find the answers as well.

Cast
Tamás Fazakas
Angels - Iffiú Boróka, Kocsis Tekla, Kocsis Ünige, Kolcsár Zonga, Szilágyi Katalin, Vetró Bodoni Flóra
Csaba Márton
Edina-Emőke Márton
Endre Melles
Judit Erőss
Adorján Kiss
Júlia Ádám, Eszter Both
Rebeka Ráhel Podholiczky, Tünde Vass
Norbert Portik. Sándor Szvinyuk
Levente Fazakas
Réka Lukács
Norbert Portik
Adorján Kiss
Zoltán-József Fülöp
Réka Lukács
Lilla-Tünde Kocsis
Pável Hunor-Mihály, Szvinyuk Sándor
Júlia Ádám, Eszter Both, Mónika Fazakas, Gabriella Gere, Lilla-Tünde Kocsis, Réka Lukács,Rebeka Ráhel Podholiczky, Tünde Vass, Dorottya Vitályos, Ernő Bakos, Gergely Balla, Zoltán- József Fülöp, Csaba Gere, Adorján Kiss, Hunor-Mihály Pável, Norbert Portik, Sándor Szvinyuk
Heveder Ensemble - Fazakas Levente, Fazakas Albert, Szilágyi László, Bajna György
Stage manager - Karácsony Endre
Lightning- Alpár Bedőházi
Sound – Csongor Szanday
Staff - Fegyver Botond, Maksai Gábor, Vajda Attila
Dresser - Gabriella Kis, KInga Para
Director - Endre Virág
Infos
Runtime: 85 min
Acts: 1
Age limit: 12 years
The Director
Könczei Árpád

Árpád Könczei composer, choreographer
Árpád Könczei (1959) is a Uniter prize-winning (2012) composer and a Ghyssa Éghy (1994) and Harangozó (2019) prize-winning choreographer, with an outstanding artistic career. As a composer, he is a unique follower of Bartók's path, his music combines folk music tradition with contemporary, modern trends. Primarily, he composes chamber music for different ensembles, moreover, he has significant orchestral pieces. Having composed 11 pieces applying tárogató, he popularized the Hungarian instrument. Many of his works has been performed at various contemporary music concerts, primarily in Budapest, where he has had 9 author's recitals so far, as well as in Cluj, Târgu Mureș, Oradea, Sfântu Gheorghe, Odorheiu Secuiesc, Miercurea
Ciuc, Bucharest, Szeged, Klagenfurt, Berlin, Milan.
Árpád Könczei is one of the initiators of the dance house movement in Cluj, in Transylvania, the founder of the Kodály Ensemble in Cluj, the Studio Ensemble, the Háromszék Dance Ensemble in Sfântu Gheorghe and the Arany Folk Dance Ensemble in Gyál. Since the 1980s, he has been an innovator and pioneer of the Transylvanian stage folk dance, a dedicated artist of dance theater, alongside staging authentic folklore. In 1980, he published his gap-filling essay: Methodology of Teaching of Folk Dance.

He worked as a guest choreographer in Budapest at the Honvéd Ensemble, the Danube Art Ensemble, and the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble.

His most defining performances and
choreographies:
Párkereső (Matchmaker) 1988 Studio Dance Ensemble
Apám tánca, (My Father’s Dance) 1992 Háromszék Dance Ensemble and 2017 Udvarhely Folk Dance Ensemble
Ábel 1997, 2005, Száz évig (For a Hundred Years) 2011, A banda (The Band) 2013, Mundruc 2017, Tragédia (Tragedy) 2022 Háromszék Dance Ensemble
Sodrásban (Drifting) 1998, Fehérlófia 2004, Most múlik (Ending Now) 2016, Sárga rózsa (Yellow Rose) 2023 Maros Art Ensemble Kiáltó szó (Acclamation) 2018, Móka 2020 Udvarhely Folk Dance Ensemble

Inviting Theater
Hírös Agóra
Petőfi Sándor Theatre