Mikolt Tózsa: God, Homeland, Kitchen
“Mikolt Tózsa, a graduate student of Freeszfe’s first Theatre and Performance class, titled her exam piece after one of the most frequently uttered slogans of Christian conservative ideology (God, Homeland, Family), which has by now become a political product. The regime that has taken this as its banner not only contributed to the birth of God, Country, Kitchen by bringing about Freeszfe and performance training as a result of the violent reorganisation of the University of Theatre and Film; the play also features the opinions of its prominent representatives as a sound collage. These public reflections, which prescribe rather than describe the place of women, serve as a background foil for the performer’s private self-reflection. What remains of a relationship when it is over? What to do with its material, linguistic remains, its embodied memory? These are questions that Mikolt Tózsa reflects on, sometimes literally, balancing between the material manifestations of national and female identity, involving the audience. God, Homeland, Kitchen is at the same time a personal and political, emotional and critical generational overview of the present in which we live.” Beatrix Kricsfalusi, curator
Creator, performer: Mikolt Tózsa
Light: Antal Szász
Sound: Zoltán Mózes
Staff: Tímea Oláh, Benjamin Pestalits
Mentors: Gábor Goda, László Hudi, Ádám Czirák
Special thanks: Zsófi Rebeka Kozma, Olga Kocsi, Noémi Szántusz, Ádám Tóth, Günther Sarah, Péter Janicsek, Hanna Stern, Dániel Szijártó, Bettina Piller, Zoltán Imely
“Mikolt Tózsa's [...] performance is political, though she does not do politics, and is relentlessly self-ironic, while highlighting the absurdities of the system. At the same time, she asks the age-specific questions of today’s thirty-something generation: how can one leave behind the limited role models to live a life of fulfilment for oneself (and not for the big politics that focus on our wombs)? How much of public life can we allow to seep into our private sphere and still maintain our balance?”
Orsolya Bálint, Népszava
“There isn’t a more weighthy moment in a performance than when the spectator can feel that the happenings on stage are really important to the person who performs it. Not just important as a good role, as the next job in the queue, but in the sense that if she couldn’t perform it, her life would be less. That she performs it because what she says needs to come out of her, like a howl or a sigh, depending on her habitus. Because if she feels that her life would be less without the performance, then our lives will inevitably be more because of it.”
Bálint Kovács, HVG
“The audience is not slow to let loose, but indulges immediately with a low roar of laughter. The personal tone draws the audience in, and we surely can relate to our own experiences. The performer puts her body to the test, she doesn’t spare it; it becomes the symbol of everything, an object with which to contemplate, to impose, to show and to cover, that is, to use. […] The performance effectively punctuates the unbroken ironic self-reflection with flickering humour.”
Hedvig Ferencz, Thealter.hu
“She gives room to condensed and double-entendre interpretations with the kind of light-hearted charm that comes from her personality.”
Kata Benczur, Kultuzóna.blogspot.com
“This fresh and original performance demonstrates what is relatively under-reported in the professional community: how exciting and innovative Freeszfe’s training is.”
Panni Puskás, Magyar Narancs
Mikolt Tózsa
… is a Budapest-based performer and theatre-maker, graduated from Freeszfe Society’s theatre and performance studies course, the first education programme in performance art in Hungary. With a social and theatre science background, her work is based on critical practices, defined by experimentation with the boundaries of theatre, the social and communal dilemmas that shape the present, and thinking about gender roles. She sees theatre as an event where the spectator is an active participant. She works with living material in her creations, her work is dynamised by the impulses of her social environment and her personal experiences. She has recently been focusing on politics and its impact on everyday life. She stands for a collaborative creative process. Theatre pedagogy is a significant element in her work.
“God, homeland, kitchen - or an attempt for a U-turn in the middle of the highway” is a solo performance created during the Freeszfe course. The performance is inspired by her own experiences. It presents a range of areas in which the performer fails to meet the roles expected of her (or has set up for herself). She focuses on those moments where the pressure creates a vulnerable state. She is currently working on the “It's a MATCH - or will be - maybe -” Staféta-winning performance, where she explores the relation between intimacy, addiction, and loneliness through the phenomenon of online dating.
National Performance Theatre Collective
On 15 March 2023, three members of the “first performance class”, Zsófia Rebeka Kozma, Noémi Noya Szántusz, and Mikolt Emese Tózsa, formed the National Performance Theatre Collective. The three performance artists experiment with immersive theatrical forms in the spirit of collective creation. In their four months of operation, they created a performative walk entitled “The Great Eight” for the STEREO10 festival, a theatre game “Interlude” staged at the MU Theatre and a creative workshop about adaptation for the Marom Club Association. Their aim is to research and develop immersive theatre techniques and to create and promote events using progressive theatre forms imbued with critical thinking both in Hungary and abroad.
SUPPORTERS
Artus Contemporary Art Association, Freeszfe Association
Creator, performer: Mikolt Tózsa
Light: Antal Szász
Sound: Zoltán Mózes
Staff: Tímea Oláh, Benjamin Pestalits
Mentors: Gábor Goda, László Hudi, Ádám Czirák
Special thanks: Zsófi Rebeka Kozma, Olga Kocsi, Noémi Szántusz, Ádám Tóth, Günther Sarah, Péter Janicsek, Hanna Stern, Dániel Szijártó, Bettina Piller, Zoltán Imely
“Mikolt Tózsa's [...] performance is political, though she does not do politics, and is relentlessly self-ironic, while highlighting the absurdities of the system. At the same time, she asks the age-specific questions of today’s thirty-something generation: how can one leave behind the limited role models to live a life of fulfilment for oneself (and not for the big politics that focus on our wombs)? How much of public life can we allow to seep into our private sphere and still maintain our balance?”
Orsolya Bálint, Népszava
“There isn’t a more weighthy moment in a performance than when the spectator can feel that the happenings on stage are really important to the person who performs it. Not just important as a good role, as the next job in the queue, but in the sense that if she couldn’t perform it, her life would be less. That she performs it because what she says needs to come out of her, like a howl or a sigh, depending on her habitus. Because if she feels that her life would be less without the performance, then our lives will inevitably be more because of it.”
Bálint Kovács, HVG
“The audience is not slow to let loose, but indulges immediately with a low roar of laughter. The personal tone draws the audience in, and we surely can relate to our own experiences. The performer puts her body to the test, she doesn’t spare it; it becomes the symbol of everything, an object with which to contemplate, to impose, to show and to cover, that is, to use. […] The performance effectively punctuates the unbroken ironic self-reflection with flickering humour.”
Hedvig Ferencz, Thealter.hu
“She gives room to condensed and double-entendre interpretations with the kind of light-hearted charm that comes from her personality.”
Kata Benczur, Kultuzóna.blogspot.com
“This fresh and original performance demonstrates what is relatively under-reported in the professional community: how exciting and innovative Freeszfe’s training is.”
Panni Puskás, Magyar Narancs
Mikolt Tózsa
… is a Budapest-based performer and theatre-maker, graduated from Freeszfe Society’s theatre and performance studies course, the first education programme in performance art in Hungary. With a social and theatre science background, her work is based on critical practices, defined by experimentation with the boundaries of theatre, the social and communal dilemmas that shape the present, and thinking about gender roles. She sees theatre as an event where the spectator is an active participant. She works with living material in her creations, her work is dynamised by the impulses of her social environment and her personal experiences. She has recently been focusing on politics and its impact on everyday life. She stands for a collaborative creative process. Theatre pedagogy is a significant element in her work.
“God, homeland, kitchen - or an attempt for a U-turn in the middle of the highway” is a solo performance created during the Freeszfe course. The performance is inspired by her own experiences. It presents a range of areas in which the performer fails to meet the roles expected of her (or has set up for herself). She focuses on those moments where the pressure creates a vulnerable state. She is currently working on the “It's a MATCH - or will be - maybe -” Staféta-winning performance, where she explores the relation between intimacy, addiction, and loneliness through the phenomenon of online dating.
National Performance Theatre Collective
On 15 March 2023, three members of the “first performance class”, Zsófia Rebeka Kozma, Noémi Noya Szántusz, and Mikolt Emese Tózsa, formed the National Performance Theatre Collective. The three performance artists experiment with immersive theatrical forms in the spirit of collective creation. In their four months of operation, they created a performative walk entitled “The Great Eight” for the STEREO10 festival, a theatre game “Interlude” staged at the MU Theatre and a creative workshop about adaptation for the Marom Club Association. Their aim is to research and develop immersive theatre techniques and to create and promote events using progressive theatre forms imbued with critical thinking both in Hungary and abroad.
SUPPORTERS
Artus Contemporary Art Association, Freeszfe Association
