 |
Director István TASNÁDI
Set, costume Rita VERECZKEI
Music János SZEMENYEI
Dramaturgy Anna VERESS
Production manager Eszter GYULAY
Premiere:
January 17th 2000 |
|
|
|
CAST |
|
Phaedra |
Eszter CSÁKÁNYI |
Hippolytos |
Bálint JASKÓ |
Theseus |
Péter SCHERER |
Sauros |
Tamás OLT |
Minotauros |
László KATONA |
Priest |
Gergely BÁNKI |
Choir, Doctor |
Erzsébet JELINEK |
Choir, Girl |
Bea LASS |
|
|
|
|
| KoMa & ALKA.T COMPANIES - BUDAPEST (Hungary) |
|
|
|
ALKA.T was founded in 2009, led by István Tasnádi, as a successor of Krétakör Theatre's former actors and creative associates. It is a casual company of creative people who worked together on numerous productions and felt that the common passion and similar artistic taste destines them to stay together Phaedra Fitness is a collaborational performance with Company KoMa, an independent company specialized in staging contemporary Hungarian plays. |
|
|
P E R F O R M A N C E...... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Phaedra, the beautiful queen falls in love for her step-son and, rejected by him, she
denunciates him before her husband claiming that he had raped her– this case, ending
tragically for all involved, is a basic story of humanity, with mythical roots. Its
first known adaptation for the stage is from Euripides, and during the almost 2500
years since many playwrights found it topical enough to deal with the material from
the point of view of their ages.
István Tasnádi’s Phaedra Fitness is definitely a contemporary work, but instead of simply
transposing the tragical love story into the 21. century, it shows the ancient legend
as today’s life so that it emphatically interconnects it with its mythical roots. Using
a classical form with contemporary speech, showing archetypical human relations
in todays well-known characters, using instruments of the antique theatre together
with ‘postdramatical’ theatre means makes us see the subject in a double refraction,
showing the mythos together with our approach to it today. |
|
|
|
S E L E C T O R ' S...R E P O R T...... |
|
|
|
|
A shocking story about Phaedra and Hippolytus, unrequited love,
slander and jealousy in the concept of the Hungarian author and
director of the younger generation István Tasnádi, is placed in a
real fitness centre, where the actors and the audience are confronted
with a completely un-theatrical environment that is supposed
to symbolise the eternal human aspiration towards youth
and strength (opposite from aging and decline). In a very witty
and at the same time shocking manner, this talented author has
succeeded, with the help of a fantastic actors ensemble (a few
prominent members of Árpád Schilling’s troupe, Krétakör) led by
the sensational Eszter Csákányi, in connecting the unconnectable
and making a bold play the audience at many European festivals
liked very much.
 Nikola ZAVIŠIĆ |
|
|
A
U
T
H
O
R
|
|
 |
I
S
T
V
Á
N
T
A
S
N
Á
D
I |
|
|
ISTVÁN TASNÁDI
born in 1970, is one of the most successful
and with no doubt most played member of Hungarian
playwrights. More than 20 of his plays have been performed
in almost every Hungarian theatre, in Budapest, in the country
and abroad. He has received many prizes and awards,
two of his plays were chosen as ‘the best new play of the
season’ by Hungarian theatre critics (recently Finito in 2007).
Tasnádi has been preoccupied by the Phaedra subject for almost
ten years and this present play includes the experiences
of several antecedents. In 2001, Krétakor theatre – a company
where Tasnádi was a resident playwright for several years –
made a 3-weeks workshop together with Schaubühne from
Berlin using the first version of the play, titled Menopause,
and showed it at the F.I.N.D. Festival in the direction of Árpád
Schilling, with actors of both companies.
A further version was published 2004 in a volume with five
of Tasnádi’s theatre plays.
In 2005 a next version, Phaedra, directed also by Árpád Schilling,
was premiered in the Young Director’s Project of the
Salzburg Festival. The bilingual – German and Hungarian –
performance was shown also in Zürich, Wroclaw, Stuttgart,
Berlin and Budapest.
szinhaz.hu |
|
|
|
|
The text is sensationally lively – it is rare that texts written in the slang of the youth should sound so natural on stage as in this show. (...)
For there aren’t any more great men to challange the Gods. There isn’t any hybris. In this world of the fitness-clubs you won’t find heroes anymore. Even Phaedra is not one.
Bálint Kovács, revizoronline.hu, January 26th 2009
This Fedra Fitness is the work of a director who deals equally well with words and images, who can build a mature construction and who has a synergistic relation with his actors. (...)
In the superb effect of the changes of tragic and comic the actors have an excellent share – before all Eszter Csákányi in the title role. (...)
The others have to build characters rather then arches, and we can enjoy cameos one better then the other. (...)
The two troups with different past, age and experience play together smoothly, in the most natural way.
Balázs Urbán, Színház, January 18th 2009
Eszter Csákányi is simply fantastic. (...) It is a great feeling to see the superb teamwork of actors of such a quality
György Karsai, kultura.hu, January 18th 2009 |
|
|
|
|
