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THEALTER 2000 / July 27, Thursday

 

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Péter Halász: 'A Madman's Diary' or The Minesweeper's Notes - -

27. Thursday 20:00     Old Synagogue

210'

’It might have been the atmosphere of a conversation, the company, or I don’t know what, that made me accept my own challenge and, despite everything, try to perform a classic play. I like to work against my own aesthetics and principles. This is one of my energy sources. And Gogol’s work is really that of a genius, thanks to the last sentence of the diary. Suffering illuminates P.’s mind and makes him cry out loud. He calls his mother to shed a tear for her suffering son and embrace him. It’s not about the Spanish king any more. We might think this is the end of madness, but no. At the end of the diary Gogol dashes off an embarrassingly inappropriate sentence: ’And do you know that the bey of Algiers has a big wart right under his nose?’ Cruel. Really humorous. Back inside the impassable walls of mental disorder. Gogol shows no mercy to P. Cruel black humour…
…What should my madman be like? What should he do on the stage? Should he do anything at all?
I met Géza in 1964 in a mental institute. Stretched out rigid. In almost complete catatonia. In this sense, it was not a meeting at all. There I saw, and from the recounting of the professor I learned, what the problem was. Géza had become conscious of elementary movement, that is, he had to plan each of his movements and carry them out accordingly. If he didn’t succeed, he had to do it again. It was the same with speaking. What a deranged condition, what a modern disease! No, he wasn’t a modern patient, he was a villager, and didn’t have the slightest idea about how modern his disease would be thirty-five years later. Not as a disease, but as the discomfort of normality. The discomfort of everyday existence. (Not to mention my own compulsions.) So, let this be P.’s character.’
Péter Halász
’Who is he? A deranged bomber of our age, who started making bombs in his early childhood. He wanted to become a doctor and was forced to become a fireman. His physician becomes caught up in his tragic fate. She is unable to resist this perverted fate. The madman touches himself under his blanket. She spreads her thighs. But the much desired union does not take place. ’Margó, restrain yourself,’ go the directions. With the detached mind of a medical student, we follow a life thrown together in a kaleidoscope of the madness of a derailed life. Is it that of Péter Halász? His family? His generation? Let the audience decide for themselves.’
Attila Ditzendy

Cast

Egri Márta, Halász Péter, Juhász Gabriella

directed by

Halász Péter

stage design

Halász Péter

costume

Kovalcsik Anikó

assistant

Juhász Gabriella

 
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