Krétakör Színház

2006 SUMMER

The Astronomer's Dream - A Close Encounter

On 12th April 1974 the Hungarian-Soviet Air Space Control Centre recorded an Unidentified Flying Object in the stratosphere above Hungary. This object crashed at high speed into the Kapolcs Valley, more precisely into the St Imar Basin (the case bears the intergalactic registry number: 0156/2). This caused an 3- magnitude earthquake, and the only reason that it caused no major disaster was that it happened about 5 kilometres from the nearest residential area. The Hungarian Government's Space Committee contacted the Intercosmos Committee rightaway. The territory was closed off and a news' blackout was announced.
The Soviet Union sent a famous astronomer, an expert of extra-terrestrial civilisations, Comrade Professor Igor Suchev to investigate the case and coordinate the necessary steps. Professor Igor Suchev started to reveal the crashed object with the utmost care and intensity. His final objective was to excavate the entire spaceship, which seemed a more heroic task than bringing up the Titanic from the Atlantic, which is why Professor Suchev called his endeavour the Space Titanic Project.
They had to stop the excavation works in January 1975 (in the present state of the excavation), for the scientists experienced a sudden movement under the surface and concluded that there are living creatures in it. Thanks to the modern technology the signs, which were becoming stronger and stronger, were quite easy to follow and they all pointed to one end of the spaceship. After preparing everything and ensuring the safety measures those working on the surface left the entrance free, and after failing to lure the aliens to the open air, whose oxygen-content was apparently unbearable for them, descended rich in oxygen, Professor Suchev descended to the spaceship, where he has been staying ever since. He made close contact with the aliens and informed his supervisors constantly, as well as a code-breaking team of 15, who - with the help of the so-called Gradient-method - tried to solve the fairly complicated signs of the extraterrestrials. Professor Suchev communicates with his hosts in a rather unusual manner, for if we can believe the messages solved so far, exist in a quasi-dead state and have done so in the past 32 years. The crew of the spaceship use the professor as their medium, for otherwise they could not communicate with humankind. We learned it through the professor that the human translation of the spaceship's name is Intersputnik (its galactic code: TNA 57) and it comes from Planet Orbita, from the Solar System named Casegrain, which is about 1.4 billion light years from the Earth. The aliens' identification number is qpo.34.seria.6. We also learned that a similar spaceship by the name of Kentelmar and the galactic code TNA 03 landed here in 2006 B.C.).
A communication system between the aliens stuck under the surface of the earth and the scientists working above them started at the end of 1989. Igor Suchev played a crucial role in this process, for which he was give the Award of the Soviet Union's Hero, as well as the highest Soviet Award a scientist can get: the Golden Lenin Medal. Later the new Russian Parliament proposed him for the Nobel Prize, which he got in 1999, but since he was bound to this spot, his wife Irina went in his stead to thank the committee also in the name of the aliens.
After this communication started a team using a special kind of genetic manipulation started to work on a plant that would make it possible for the aliens to breathe hoping that with its help they will be able to leave the spaceship.
At the end of July of 2006 we can witness a world sensation in the St. Imar Basin. A group of the aliens try to leave the Intersputnik. However, since they are bodiless creatures or thoughts rather, in our material world they have to find a model, a body in which they can exist. This body is that of Professor Suchev. After 32 years of hard work transmutation became possible and the aliens will develop a body so that they can breathe and tolerate other characteristics of the earthly environment generated by the Sun, such as light, wind, water, sound etc.
On July 28th 2006 19 qpo.34.seria. is going to leave his natural environment behind and start out for the great adventure.
If we may use a term abused by the daily press, between 28 July and 5 August at 8.30 pm we shall witness Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind at the Taliándörögd Space Communication Base in the Kapolcs Basin.

Kretakor Newsletter - 2006 SPRING

Dear Friends,

After a longer tour in the United States and a somewhat shorter in Berlin, we are back in Budapest. Whilst our most loyal Hungarian audience had to tolerate the absence of shows for over five weeks, this was an occasion to show The Seagull and BLACKland overseas for the first time at the Montclair State University's invitation and more than that, in the framework of a residency program, subsidised by the Hungarian Cultural Institute of New York, this became an opportunity for the company to find out about the culture of "the capital of the world".

The experience in Big Apple - for most of the company the very first in the US - was unparalleled in Krétakör history. The original idea was to try and react to the city in a way similar to BLACKland. But the three weeks, rich with an unforgettable gospel mass, a visit to the Hassidic Williamsburgh in Brooklyn, another to Ellis Island, a talk to Gerald Schonfeld, uncrowned king of Broadway among other things, as well as countless jazz concerts and shows, turned out to be too intense to prepare anything on the spot. We are still trying to digest all we learned, only time will tell what will come out of it.

The start of the run of The Seagull at Montclair was difficult: we had less audience than expected but the only review which came out in the leading Jersey paper, the Star Ledger praises the "soaring Seagull" for its intensity, truthfulness and called it "the most erotic show with not a single naked body-part."

BLACKland, on the other hand, - although it had to be cancelled once on account of the weather and too few tickets sold - turned out to be a hit with the American audience. Again, we performed for half houses, but the reaction was one of the best we encountered. The Star Ledger called it "the Hungarian version of Saturday Night Live", "a terrific production" with "wild and crazy buffoonery".

In Berlin, however, the first two nights of the same show met with silent audiences and very little reaction - a phenomenon we had not experienced with BLACKland anywhere in the world. The other two nights, found an understanding and enthusiastic public:
"Thirteen actors of the Krétakör company whisper Babits' sad poem: "I dreamt of a black land, where all was black", as if it were a children's song. Humourless ladies and gentlemen sit in their evening attire on the stools, without a single muscle in their face moving, while they sing the melancholy and witty poem. Hearing this hundred-year old poem sung in such a playfully gentle and comfortingly sad manner, you wish they would never stop" (Berliner Zeitung)

The Seagull was a hit at the Berlin Hebbel Theater and was praised for instance at berlin online as "a miracle of simplicity, where the actors seem not to play, but to think up the drama every moment".

Before another intense period of touring, we are saying farewell to several shows that have been on our repertory for years, to keep only The Seagull, Peer Gynt and The Nibelung Residency, as well as BLACKland for touring on our programme when starting a new, slightly different season in September.

W- Worker's Circus
On April 29, 30 and on Mayday we shall be performing our W - Worker's Circus at a unique venue, the Óbuda Gázgyár (Gas Works). The idea to perform this show of Büchner-fragments and Attila József poems - a milestone in Krétakör's work - in the natural environment of its characters: a factory. The 2001 production has won numerous awards and was praised as "the most genuinely moving piece of theatre" among other things. For this special Mayday edition we are organising a series of discussions and a concert of our Actors' Band.

Liliom
The last dates for Ferenc Molnár's great classic, the internationally most well-known Hungarian play to date, in a show interspersed with music hall songs of the twentieth century will be May 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Before/After
Although the young German playwright, Schimmelpfennig's play only opened half a year ago, since it is a collaboration with the Katona József Theatre and this complicated to schedule, the three nights in May (7,8,9) will be the last ones.

Kasimir and Karoline
The second production in our repertory directed by the German director, Wulf Twiehaus and designed by his team is definitely a must-see! For one thing it is a show with an entirely different vision from anything you could have seen from Krétakör and it is a great play, very little known outside the Austro-Hungarian-German cultural circle. Last dates are May 11, 12.

The Misanthrope
Moliere's great classic is set in a special milieu, where the love and jealousy-conflicts of the play win a new sharpness and tension: in a gay community of today. Praised as a "clever, entertaining evening" by The Guardian, The Misanthrope is a production you will have no trouble enjoying, even if you can't appreciate the ingenious verse of the congenial poet, György Petri. The dates are May 13, 14.

Leonce and Lena
This magic tale told by our company on a rug as the only set element (á la Peter Brook) and a box full of puppets as our only property is one of the Krétakör productions most well-liked by an international audience and will be last shown on 23rd and 24th May.

If you have missed the above shows and have the opportunity to come to Budapest in May, please contact one of the undersigned about tickets.

Workshop

A few of the actors have just arrived back from a one-week workshop in Vilnius with a handful of prestigious Lithuanian actors, led by Árpád Schilling. This workshop was the next step in our endeavour to submerge in another culture and learn about another country as much as we can, instead of just performing a show or two. Searching for new ways of communication and getting to know the world through the theatre is what we are most intrigued by at the moment and what we are trying to look into deeper in the coming season.

Premiere of a ten-year old classic

We continued our series of rehearsed readings with a Hungarian classic, György Spiró's The Árpád Dynasty, a hilarious comedy of Hungarian kings, bloodline and competing brothers ready to blind and castrate each other - all of this between the two turns of national elections, on 15th April at the Budapest Műcsarnok (Kunsthalle). The reading was directed by László Keszég and we had the playwright as our guest for Q&A. The event turned out to be a hit.

As you can see, the rehearsed readings of contemporary pieces play a very important role in our repertory. If there are any you recommend, please do not hesitate to call our dramaturg's attention to it.

- Eszter Csákányi, member of Krétakör since 2002 was awarded the greatest state prize in Hungary, the Kossuth Award for "her brave and innovative art and work with experimental groups".

- This year our company will again be performing at the Valley of Arts Festival, the biggest Hungarian open-air festival in July-August, an event we shall keep you posted about.

Please, excuse us our appearance on the web, renewing our Hungarian homepage took many months, which is the reason why we are so much behind with the English version. Bear with us, please and we'll let you know in a special newsletter, as soon as our renewed site is ready. Until then, please find all the information with the old layout. If you have any questions, please, feel free to write to our dramaturgs or our managing director.