Performed by:
actors of Forte Company
dancers of the Corvinus Közgáz Folk Dance Ensemble
students of the Academy of Drama and Film

Featuring: Balázs Fülei – piano, Attila Mihó and friends
Dramaturgy: Nóra Földeáki
Stage set, design: Imre Bukta
Video: Dávid Egon Burkus, Ágnes Éva Molnár
Costumes: Mari Benedek
Lighting: Ferenc Payer
Choreography: Zoltán ‘Batyu’ Farkas, Ildikó ‘Fecske’ Tóth
Director: Csaba Horváth

The premiere was presented as part of the Bartók Spring.

The production was inspired by the rich folk traditions of Mezőség, one of the most colourful regions in Transylvania. The prose layer is based on András Sütő’s novel, Mother Promises a Light Dream, a book about his homeland, with an account of the history of his home village, Pusztakamarás, its demographic conditions, folklore, the fate of its inhabitants and the lives of the author’s own family embedded in history. This work for the stage invokes those stories from the novel in which good humour and serenity are the means of self-preservation, and which portray with dramatic force the efforts of the Hungarian minority in the region to preserve their mother tongue, where the necessity of adaptation is the commandment of survival. The choreography incorporates the most typical dances of the Mezőség dialect and the production features such original music that people in Mezőség would dance to. Now forming some contrast to folk music, now being in harmony with it, Béla Bartók’s piano pieces are the musical pinnacles of abstract representation in the production, elevating the realistic stories to a universal plane.

© Szilvia Csibi, Müpa

Pianist Balázs Fülei takes the opportunities of concerts in foreign countries to act as an ambassador for Bartók’s music, especially outside Europe. Attila Mihó teaches violin at the Folk Music Programme of the Liszt Academy, plays the instrument in the Vujicsics band, and is an expert on Transylvanian folk music. The visuals of the production are based on the concept of Imre Bukta, an artist who depicts rural life from a very original perspective, without romantic illusions. The costumes were designed by Mari Benedek, who has a long-standing working relationship with the Forte Company. The choreography is the work of Zoltán ‘Batyu’ Farkas and Ildikó ‘Fecske’ Tóth, both of whom have been closely affiliated with the Muzsikás ensemble as dancers and choreographers over the past few decades. Forte Company, founded by director and choreographer Csaba Horváth, is seeking to bring a new approach to storytelling, situations, scenes, stage time, playing space, the dramaturgy of effect, and elicits exciting and original acting. The Corvinus Közgáz Dance Ensemble is a regular participant in major festivals, and seeks to find forms and ways of expression that can make folklore an exciting experience for people in the 21st century.