The questions asked by Vote possess both urgent currency and relevance across the eons of history. What can one do, what is one to do when the fundamental principles of our social life, which we have taken for granted, are suddenly overthrown? A new performance by The Symptoms, Vote makes use of an interactive technical solution to treat the themes of collective decision and individual responsibility — with the participation of the audience.
There is an invisible boundary somewhere. It does not become visible until you have crossed it and everything has become irreversible. We are approaching it.
The question is not what we want to talk about but what we want to hush up.
And I mean major issues, not the small ones.
A sound or gesture; darkness or light; a reality you want to forget about, or theater; a program for life or just something to do for the night — it’s your choice. At the push of a button. The person sitting next to you decides what you are going to watch.
There are two things that fill me with profound wonder: the dominion of circumstance over me, and the trouble around me that is inside.
How do we deal with our traumatic historic experiences in an age when history is considered by all political forces to be no more than a sheer means of self-legitimization, and is constantly rewritten as a result? And if we spare ourselves the trouble of coming to terms with and assuming responsibility for history, what is the guarantee that the tragedies of the past will not reappear in a new guise in the future? Is history, like nature, unpredictable and uncontrollable, or do the macro processes remain amenable to being shaped by individual human force?
The inexorable logic of collective decisions is both frustrating and helpful in shirking personal responsibility, even if the thing to decide is no more than what should happen on stage. The real protagonist, playwright, and director of Vote is everyone in the audience — as many as there are voting buttons. The concatenation of decisions does not end when you take your seat in the auditorium. The outcome of the fact that everyone has a choice at each moment is a uniquely different performance each evening.
Celebrating its 10th year of existence in 2012, The Symptoms have spruced up the old creative team with a brace of new, young dancers, an orchestra of versatile musicians recruited for the occasion, and even a handful of historians and psychologists. As usual, each member of the team makes a creative contribution to the process of designing the performance.
“In the early 1990’s I had a friend from Voivodina, south of the Hungarian border. We went to the same university in Budapest. His younger brother had stayed back home; he had a job in Subotica. By 1991, the climate there had become quite tense. My friend kept begging his brother to move to Budapest. But what is the precise moment — what does it take for someone to leave behind his or her work, family, and sweetheart? What makes us finally realize that we are in a mess? The younger brother procrastinated and never came. Then one morning he woke up and found that the borders had been shut down, the Yugoslav war was on, and he was conscripted. We didn’t hear from him for three days. He had smuggled himself to Hungary across the border risking his life. You see, deserters had to face the death squad if caught. Luckily, he arrived in Hungary safe and sound.”
— Réka Szabó, director
“…we forgot to apologize to each other. To start with the mirror.
What I have in mind is not those who did something, not those who acted out of fanaticism or in bad faith, because them I do not care about. I am thinking of those who did nothing.
Or almost nothing.
A little. This and that. Or a lot, but not enough.
Those who would just get up in the morning and turn in at night, quietly legitimizing the regime. Even in their sleep.
Simply by breathing the same air.”
(Endre Kukorelly : Ruin – The History of the Soviet Onion)
Dircted by: Réka Szabó
Actors: Ayelet Yekutiel, Emil Bordás , Bea Egyed , Dóra Furulyás, Dániel Szász
Dramaturg: Krisztián Peer
Lighting: Attila Szirtes
Music: Albert Márkos
Musicians: Márton Bakai - violin, Albert Márkos - cello, Ernő Hock – double bass, Zoltán Ernő Rubik - piano, LászlóTömösközi - percussion
Special technology: Zsolt Korai
Costume: Juli Balázs, Luca Szabados
Special thanks to: Balázs Barna, István Gáti, Csaba Trenka, Sophie Teheux
Sponsors: Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, National Cultural Fund, Open Society Institute
We are thankful for Bonbonetti for supporting the creation of piece.
www.tunetegyuttes.hu
www.facebook.com/thesymptoms
There is an invisible boundary somewhere. It does not become visible until you have crossed it and everything has become irreversible. We are approaching it.
The question is not what we want to talk about but what we want to hush up.
And I mean major issues, not the small ones.
A sound or gesture; darkness or light; a reality you want to forget about, or theater; a program for life or just something to do for the night — it’s your choice. At the push of a button. The person sitting next to you decides what you are going to watch.
There are two things that fill me with profound wonder: the dominion of circumstance over me, and the trouble around me that is inside.
How do we deal with our traumatic historic experiences in an age when history is considered by all political forces to be no more than a sheer means of self-legitimization, and is constantly rewritten as a result? And if we spare ourselves the trouble of coming to terms with and assuming responsibility for history, what is the guarantee that the tragedies of the past will not reappear in a new guise in the future? Is history, like nature, unpredictable and uncontrollable, or do the macro processes remain amenable to being shaped by individual human force?
The inexorable logic of collective decisions is both frustrating and helpful in shirking personal responsibility, even if the thing to decide is no more than what should happen on stage. The real protagonist, playwright, and director of Vote is everyone in the audience — as many as there are voting buttons. The concatenation of decisions does not end when you take your seat in the auditorium. The outcome of the fact that everyone has a choice at each moment is a uniquely different performance each evening.
Celebrating its 10th year of existence in 2012, The Symptoms have spruced up the old creative team with a brace of new, young dancers, an orchestra of versatile musicians recruited for the occasion, and even a handful of historians and psychologists. As usual, each member of the team makes a creative contribution to the process of designing the performance.
“In the early 1990’s I had a friend from Voivodina, south of the Hungarian border. We went to the same university in Budapest. His younger brother had stayed back home; he had a job in Subotica. By 1991, the climate there had become quite tense. My friend kept begging his brother to move to Budapest. But what is the precise moment — what does it take for someone to leave behind his or her work, family, and sweetheart? What makes us finally realize that we are in a mess? The younger brother procrastinated and never came. Then one morning he woke up and found that the borders had been shut down, the Yugoslav war was on, and he was conscripted. We didn’t hear from him for three days. He had smuggled himself to Hungary across the border risking his life. You see, deserters had to face the death squad if caught. Luckily, he arrived in Hungary safe and sound.”
— Réka Szabó, director
“…we forgot to apologize to each other. To start with the mirror.
What I have in mind is not those who did something, not those who acted out of fanaticism or in bad faith, because them I do not care about. I am thinking of those who did nothing.
Or almost nothing.
A little. This and that. Or a lot, but not enough.
Those who would just get up in the morning and turn in at night, quietly legitimizing the regime. Even in their sleep.
Simply by breathing the same air.”
(Endre Kukorelly : Ruin – The History of the Soviet Onion)
Dircted by: Réka Szabó
Actors: Ayelet Yekutiel, Emil Bordás , Bea Egyed , Dóra Furulyás, Dániel Szász
Dramaturg: Krisztián Peer
Lighting: Attila Szirtes
Music: Albert Márkos
Musicians: Márton Bakai - violin, Albert Márkos - cello, Ernő Hock – double bass, Zoltán Ernő Rubik - piano, LászlóTömösközi - percussion
Special technology: Zsolt Korai
Costume: Juli Balázs, Luca Szabados
Special thanks to: Balázs Barna, István Gáti, Csaba Trenka, Sophie Teheux
Sponsors: Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, National Cultural Fund, Open Society Institute
We are thankful for Bonbonetti for supporting the creation of piece.
www.tunetegyuttes.hu
www.facebook.com/thesymptoms
