Recommended for ages 18+
A world famous psychiatric hospital in Hungary was forced to close down a few months ago. The building has since become dilapidated; the garden isovergrown with weeds and a handful of patients have been left to vegetate alone on the fourth floor. The patients with developed dementia are living in the empire of amnesia... We have to face the following questions: How could society ever profit from one mental patient living a few years longer? What is the point of helping those who suffer when it all leads to death anyway? And besides, suffering is what propels humanity. When we numb ourselves with modern medicine we forget about religion and philosophy for good, albeit humanity found shelter in them before.
This production at the Proton Theatre, which shifts from documentary-like realism to a more abstract world of the subconscious, manages to create a faithless postmodern reality is frighteningly similar to our own, and seems to suggest that the ways in which we treat our elderly and our mentally ill is a window into deeper aspects of our society.
"This latest production by Mundruczó is embarrassingly humorous, parodying elements of operetta and comedy in order to address important social matters. What we find here is the surrealist, comic endgame of human life.” (Klaudia Antal, szinhaz.net)
Bartonek: Ervin NAGY
Dr. Szatmáry: Roland RÁBA
Dóra, nurse: Annamária LÁNG
Mercédesz Sápi: Lili MONORI
Henrik Holényi: Balázs TEMESVÁRI
Lady Oci: Orsi TÓTH
Lukács: Gergő BÁNKI
Dentist: László KATONA
Set, costumes: Márton ÁGH
Dramaturg: Viktória PETRÁNYI, Gábor THURY
Music: János SZEMENYEI
Assistant director: Zsófia CSATÓ
Director: Kornél MUNDRUCZÓ
Producer: Dóra BÜKI
Production assistant: Ágota KISS
Technical director, light designer: András ÉLTETŐ
Sound technician: Zoltán BELÉNYESI
Light technician: Zoltán RIGÓ
Video: Zoltán GYORGYOVICS Prop master: Gergely NAGY
Dresser: Melinda DOMÁN
CO-PRODUCERS:
HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany; Theatre National de Bordeaux
Aquitaine, France; HELLERAU - European Center for the Arts, Dresden,
Germany; Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest, Hungary; Festival De
Keuze/Rotterdamse Schouwburg, The Netherlands; Noorderzon Performing Arts
Festival, Groningen, The Netherlands; SPIELART Festival, Munich,
Germany; Festival
Automne en Normandie, Rouen, France; Maria Matos Teatro Municipal, Lisboa,
Portugal; Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main, Germany;
KunstenFestivalDesArts, Brussels, Belgium
A world famous psychiatric hospital in Hungary was forced to close down a few months ago. The building has since become dilapidated; the garden isovergrown with weeds and a handful of patients have been left to vegetate alone on the fourth floor. The patients with developed dementia are living in the empire of amnesia... We have to face the following questions: How could society ever profit from one mental patient living a few years longer? What is the point of helping those who suffer when it all leads to death anyway? And besides, suffering is what propels humanity. When we numb ourselves with modern medicine we forget about religion and philosophy for good, albeit humanity found shelter in them before.
This production at the Proton Theatre, which shifts from documentary-like realism to a more abstract world of the subconscious, manages to create a faithless postmodern reality is frighteningly similar to our own, and seems to suggest that the ways in which we treat our elderly and our mentally ill is a window into deeper aspects of our society.
"This latest production by Mundruczó is embarrassingly humorous, parodying elements of operetta and comedy in order to address important social matters. What we find here is the surrealist, comic endgame of human life.” (Klaudia Antal, szinhaz.net)
Bartonek: Ervin NAGY
Dr. Szatmáry: Roland RÁBA
Dóra, nurse: Annamária LÁNG
Mercédesz Sápi: Lili MONORI
Henrik Holényi: Balázs TEMESVÁRI
Lady Oci: Orsi TÓTH
Lukács: Gergő BÁNKI
Dentist: László KATONA
Set, costumes: Márton ÁGH
Dramaturg: Viktória PETRÁNYI, Gábor THURY
Music: János SZEMENYEI
Assistant director: Zsófia CSATÓ
Director: Kornél MUNDRUCZÓ
Producer: Dóra BÜKI
Production assistant: Ágota KISS
Technical director, light designer: András ÉLTETŐ
Sound technician: Zoltán BELÉNYESI
Light technician: Zoltán RIGÓ
Video: Zoltán GYORGYOVICS Prop master: Gergely NAGY
Dresser: Melinda DOMÁN
CO-PRODUCERS:
HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany; Theatre National de Bordeaux
Aquitaine, France; HELLERAU - European Center for the Arts, Dresden,
Germany; Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest, Hungary; Festival De
Keuze/Rotterdamse Schouwburg, The Netherlands; Noorderzon Performing Arts
Festival, Groningen, The Netherlands; SPIELART Festival, Munich,
Germany; Festival
Automne en Normandie, Rouen, France; Maria Matos Teatro Municipal, Lisboa,
Portugal; Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main, Germany;
KunstenFestivalDesArts, Brussels, Belgium
A House on Fire and NXTSTP coproduction with the support of the Cultural Program of the European Union.
Producer:
