#sin #folklore #visionary

Confession is a communal experience: it not only allows the guilty to unburden themselves, but also draws its listeners into the mire of guilt. In his most recent play, Péter Kárpáti explores the psychological depths of violence, creating a ‘folklore of sin’, which he stages in collaboration with co-creators Lilla Barna, Tibor Boda, Anna Hámor, Ábel Horváth, Natasa Stork, Gáspár Téri, Brigitta Varga, Veronika Keresztesová and Ákos 'Papa' Lengyel.

"Our point of departure was the dark, murky world of the folktales from Karcsa, a kind of ethnographic Galápagos Islands. Over centuries, in this isolated region of the Bodrogköz, familiar stories evolved in unexpected and unfamiliar directions. These tales are strangely visionary and deeply psychological, with every twist carrying immense dramatic weight. Yet our own time and place is the worn-down rural Hungary of today. We tell fragmented, self-contradictory confessions of guilt: terrible stories that could not have happened exactly as they are told here, and yet something certainly did happen. Perhaps something far more terrible, and far more ordinary." (Péter Kárpáti)

"Péter Kárpáti and his collaborators seem to disregard conventional theatrical representation altogether. They cast off the conventions of acting as we know it, placing storytelling itself—both as a tool and as a gesture—at the centre of the performance. With striking delicacy, they make exquisite use of the empty, uncluttered stage." (Zsófia Molnár, Élet és Irodalom)

"It is this unique theatrical language that gives the performance its truly visionary, almost sacred power. The ruthless honesty and clarity of confession meet the elevated quality of the form. The production achieves a perfect sense of rhythm, a scenography stripped almost to nothing, and a direction that places its full trust in the actors. An extraordinary burden rests on the performers—and every one of them carries it with remarkable strength." (Bálint Keszte, Revizor Online)