Northern Theatre Harag György Company

The repertoire of the Harag György Company has been expanded with the production of Ludas Matyi in Satu Mare, a version of which was already performed with great success in the 2013/2014 season. However, the performance based on the concept of Bessenyei István and Csibi Katalin was reborn: thanks to the direction and dramaturgy of Bessenyei Gedő István, the audience can see the popular production in a renewed form, which includes an important part of the Hungarian folk art, folk song and folk dance of Satu Mare, The Szamoshát Folk Dance Ensemble, the Pentecostal Roses Folk Dance Ensemble, the Röpike Folk Dance Group and the Bokréta Folk Dance Ensemble, from which choreographer Kispál Nándor selected the ten most outstanding dancers, have played a major role in the production.

”The result is an important production, with which we would like to shape the future generations of viewers, to address young people. Nevertheless, the performance is still recommended for everyone from 7 to 97 years old who is touched by the story of the hero seeking justice and who cares about the world of Hungarian folk traditions and the rich heritage of folk culture in Satu Mare. It is a fortunate situation, but it is also an important responsibility, given that the student population changes every eight years, with new generations of students taking to the classroom. One of the most important virtues of the current production, which was presented ten years ago, was that it brings the melodies, the dance and the love of folk culture of Satu Mare under the skin of children, along the lines of this well-known and popular story. It's good to see the children's mouths literally hanging open as they watch the dancers during the pre-show warm-up - when the lobby and even the street are filled with the magic of Satu Mare folk music and folk dance. It was very important to my father that this everlasting story about the search for justice, the sense of justice and humanity should always be embedded in the folk culture of the region, so he created a transcript that deeply embedded the story in the folk culture.” – introduced the concept of the transcript and the performance by Bessenyei Gedő István, the director of the production.

This is the fourth staging of the transcription by Bessenyei István: the original version was first performed in Miercurea Ciuc, in the first season of the Csíki Játékszín (then Ludas Matyi was played by Nagy Csongor, now famous as an actor from Satu Mare, and the Döbrögi of the performance was Hunyadi László, whose name the studio of the Miercurea Ciuc theatre bears). The interesting thing about the performance, which was embedded in the folk culture and folk music of Ciuc and Gyimes, was that it was accompanied live by the Gyimes prima player Zerkula János, who later became world famous.

The Satu Mare version of the production was presented in the 2013/14 season, embedded in the Satu Mare folk culture, but since then a version embedded in the Jász and Kun folk culture has also been produced in Szolnok, by the Szigligeti Theatre. The latter version was directed by Nagy Orbán, who played Döbrögi in the Satu Mare production, with the help of Bessenyei Gedő István, based on the original concept.

”After ten years, the time is ripe to stage the production again in Satu Mare, as it has been one of the most successful productions of the last decade, appealing to all generations, and it also serves to strengthen national and local identity, to promote our own folk culture, while bringing the story of a two-century-old masterpiece closer to today's generations. It is particularly gratifying that, as the chosen performance, hundreds of adult audiences were also curious to see the stage version of the well-known story” - says the director of the production, who believes that the presentation and promotion of Satu Mare's folk culture also has an identity-building effect. ” My father was a man from Tövishát to the core, and where he came from was important to him throughout his life. It saddened him that the Hungarian communities in Partium seemed to attach less importance to local identity, to embracing their own traditions and folk culture than he had experienced in Székely Land, for example. That is why he wanted to create a Satu Mare version. Fortunately, a lot has changed since then, noticeably: ten years ago, even the selection of dancers was a problem, but now we could choose from the best of four dance groups, and fortunately we could do it under the guidance of a professional who was used to theatre work. And not only in terms of music and dance, but also in terms of costumes, for example, a more authentic performance could be created with far fewer compromises. The only shortcoming, which is still a painful one, is that it has still not been possible to hire a professional folk orchestra for the production, as the one that accompanied the Miercurea Ciuc version back then. But there are also efforts under way to address this - and it is a joy and a pleasure to see a new generation beginning to discover the rich heritage of their great-grandparents, which their grandparents' and parents' generation rather ungratefully let slip into oblivion. If the Harag György Company can contribute to this huge task, which is nowadays embraced by NGOs, camps, folk dance ensembles and, fortunately, local public leaders, the Harag György Company can also contribute with its own means, we can only be happy. I am convinced that children who are immersed in the special world of this performance will be more open and sensitive to the world of Satu Mare traditions, dances, folk songs, folk ballads - and thus prouder of their Satu Mare roots, wherever they are in the world. The success of the performance in Miercurea Ciuc, Satu Mare and Szolnok proves that children are almost instinctively receptive to the often-forgotten folk culture of their own region and still feel close to the story of the truth-seeking folk hero, Lúdas Matyi.”

Lúdas Matyi of Fazekas Mihály, written in 1804, is based in all its elements on authentic folk tales, and its fairy-tale twists and language are closely aligned with this genre of folk art. At the heart of the story is the clever peasant boy, Matyi. It is easy to identify with the cunning, honest but somewhat self-righteous folk tale hero almost from the first encounter, while we can also follow the initially "lazy" lad's maturation into a man, cheering his righteous rebellion against injustice.

Based on Fazekas' work, Móricz Zsigmond wrote a realistic stage play, and added the female protagonists Éva and Kobak to the original story. Because Móricz's detailed depiction of the village people and fairground scenes somewhat distances the story from the world of the fairy tale, the work was sharply criticized on its publication. Despite the critics, Móricz wanted to see his work on stage, so he revised and refined it several times. Actor-director Bessenyei István developed a unique script from the classic story, which he used to stage an exciting and meaningful performance. The director has filtered Móricz's sprawling text and focused primarily on the fairy-tale elements and playfulness, which he presents to the audience with folk music accompaniment.

The story of Ludas Matyi is evoked by a sudden conflict in which the figures of Ludas Matyi and Döbrögi, representing the forces of good and evil, are embodied. In the turmoil surrounding the conflict, the puppet turns into Döbrögi, and the people of the village act out the classic story of the simple folk hero punishing the overbearing landlord three times. Finally, the forces of good and evil are reconciled, and the evil personified is reduced to dead matter, a mere puppet.

Satu Mare folklore, local music and folk dance play an important role in the performance, but the world of Satu Mare folk beliefs and the specific language of the region are also integrated into the story. The setting is a widely known folk tradition, the burning of puppets. The action takes place in a village community, where a puppet embodying evil is carried around to symbolically destroy it, in accordance with carnival customs.

”The story is eternal. However, it is our responsibility to choose which part of it to highlight: if we are not careful, the motive of revenge can become stronger than the search for justice. Even in the original version, made a quarter of a century ago, it was important that the character of Matyi should not be one of revenge, but of justice and even mercy. Matyi can only be morally superior to Döbrögi if he himself does not become a sadist for a minute. He returns the beating to teach the corrupt landlord the tools he uses against his own people every day - and how humiliating and painful they can be. And at the end of the performance, he shows mercy. Moreover, unlike other heroes in folktales, Matyi does not want "half the landlord's kingdom", nor even his daughter. He is motivated neither by wealth nor power, but by his sense of justice and the most beautiful human emotion: love. It is important to show the story of love for justice without falsifying the original story, enriching it with purely authentic elements and story threads of folktales, but leaving all forms of cruelty in the background, without reducing it to a mere revenge story. In this way, the story of our hero can become a parable not of war that wants to retaliate, but of the love of justice that is capable of Christian mercy, in which Matyi cannot for a moment become the same as Döbrögi was to him. And the most important thing is to see in the "evil" of the folktale the redeemable man who, after his bitter lessons, may well be able to rule as a more just, better man. And it is never the man that should be burned, but only the evil within him. Because there is always the possibility of purification - as the wisdom of our popular culture deeply carries and teaches." - summed up the creative intention behind the production.

Cast: Erdei Máté, Nagy Orbán, Sosovicza Anna, Kovács Nikolett, Gaál Gyula, Péter Attila Zsolt, Poszet Nándor, Moldován Blanka, Gál Ágnes, Orbán Zsolt, Kovács Éva, Keresztes Ágnes and Budizsa Evelyn. Dancers: Antal Rajmond, Berecki Krisztián József, Éles Vivien, Jakab Viktória Beatrix, Kengye Ádám, Kispál Nándor, Krisztián Szintia, Lőrincz Csilla, Medgyesi Mátyás and Nagy Vivien.
The director's collaborator: Nagy Orbán, choreographer: Kispál Nándor, set and costume designer: Szabó Anna, puppet: Baráth Csaba, Music associate: Bakk-Dávid László, choreography consultant: Szabó Franciska, stage director: Szabó Ritta, prompter: Simionaș Varga Anna.