Rudolf Forgács is a young comedian from Transylvania, half Roma and half Székely, who recently graduated from the music academy in Cluj-Napoca. He is joined by Dániel Said, a comedian who is half Hungarian and half Syrian, a regular returning performer at Showder Klub and Dumaszínház, who has spent his entire life in Budapest’s 8th district.

“So Rudi is a musician Gypsy, and Dani happens to live near the Musicians’ Gypsy Park.

Perhaps that’s why Rudi and Dani get along so well. Or maybe because both of them would like to believe they are ‘decent’—whatever that means. (Probably that they don’t steal and aren’t terrorists.)

Everyone has heard, and maybe even said, something like this about someone: ‘He’s a Gypsy, but he’s decent!’ Rudi has heard this too. About himself. These three words, intended as a compliment, surprisingly conceal a great deal—both on a personal and a social level. What effect do these three words have? What does it take to move beyond our prejudices, and can we ever move beyond them completely?

The two comedians and the audience can together explore the boundaries: what can be joked about, and what cannot—and for whom. By the end of the performance, everyone can decide for themselves what they think about the Gypsy they saw on the stage of Trafó, and whether that changes their opinion about people they haven’t even met yet.”
(Rudolf Forgács)

The Stand Up Roma call for proposals, launched in cooperation between Trafó and Independent Theatre Hungary, aims to give space to storytelling from a Roma perspective and to create opportunities for new productions in which creators with Roma ancestry hold decision-making roles. The winning projects — by Rudolf Forgács, Csaba Gerner and Kristóf Horváth — approach the question of self-representation from different perspectives and experiences.

The slogan of the call refers, on the one hand, to the genre of “stand-up,” which uses (self-deprecating) humor and irony to expose dominant stereotypes and speak candidly about current social processes; on the other hand, it also invokes the meaning used more in activist contexts, testing the possibilities of collective solidarity and advocacy.