B32
Kálmán Day is about the time of life when the characters realise that everything is just repetition, with no further important turns or twists to anticipate, and no more risk taking, only maintaining hold of what they already have, because there is no time or energy left to start again.
The stories are always the same, only as time passes, they keep reappearing in different refractions of light. In order to make these fundamental stories sound authentic, one has to find the suitable language and tone. This is a powerful motivation for all of us. To bring the archetypical characters to life and make them contemporary, so that they can be recognised and identified. The aim is to catch the present in the act, to seize it, and, through identification, to trigger further thinking and present a basis for solving problems.
The story – our story – is seemingly simple, a nuance, an extremely common case, a trivial matter. And it is precisely this tiny bit that we want to show. Because we believe that what is invisible on paper becomes visible on stage, that small things become larger, just the right size for them to be identifiable, to provide a basis, confirmation, or perhaps even consolation for the spectator.
CREDITS
Orsolya TÖRÖK-ILLYÉS, Szabolcs HAJDU, Nóra FÖLDEÁKI, Domokos SZABÓ, Imre GELÁNYI
Stage: Balázs ANTAL
Music: Nándor HEVESI
Production’s coordinator: Fruzsina ESZES
Light: Csaba BÁNTÓ
Sound assistant: Tamás TESZLER
Writer and director: Szabolcs HAJDU
REVIEWS
“…Hajdu and his team continue to speak genuinely about the problems of middle-aged intellectuals, but, similarly to Not the Time of My Life, they don’t stop at raising a problem, but carry on to offer a solution. As in the previous works by Hajdu’s ensemble, Kálmán Day is also imbued with an attitude towards life that says, ‘we must move forward’ and ‘we must not give up’. Besides raising questions and making us think, they also recharge our energies, so we leave the theatre with a huge smile on our face. We can now dare, at last, to think that life is actually not that terrible after all.” András Soós, artandgo.hu
"Kálmán Day is really good. There is probably not a single studio theatre or apartment in the country whose tiny audience would be able to resist its power. This bittersweet yet subtly funny diagnosis of middle age, a tragi-comedy of failures that compels us to grimace in discomfiting reflection, is bound to be a success. In our uneasiness all we can do is award this quiet and meticulous revelation of our grievances with lengthy applause.” Tamás Tarján, szinhaz.net
"Hajdu has moulded his text in a way that allows the profound tensions of the 90-minute show to dissolve in humour; as a result, the shocking and funny moments alternate with a rapidity that makes the audience members feel as if they were caught in a rapid current, only momentarily able to stick their heads above the water. This rhythm strikes us with a sense of strangeness in the barren and minimalist space, where the actors have to rely almost entirely on their bodies alone to create the desired effect…” Árpád Kulcsár, multikult.transindex.hu
TOURS & FESTIVALS ABROAD
TESZT, Timisoara, 2017.
LÁTÓKÉP ENSEMBLE & SZABOLCS HAJDU
Látókép Ensemble is a creative community led by Szabolcs Hajdu, producing works for theatre and film. It is an open community, where each artistic project brings about a new alliance between its members.
Director and scriptwriter Szabolcs Hajdu began his career as an actor. In 2001 he directed his first feature film, Sticky Matters, which received recognition at several Hungarian and international film festivals. It was followed by Tamara, a film based on Hajdu’s successful theatre production of the same title. White Palms and Bibliotheque Pascal (the former premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and the latter at the Berlinale) received dozens of national and international awards, and were Hungary’s Oscar nominees in 2006 and 2010, respectively.
Hajdu wrote and directed the theatre performance Not the Time of My Life in 2015. Based on the play, he produced a film with the same title, which received the Crystal Globe (the grand prize of the Karlovy Vary film festival), while Hajdu received the award for best actor. Following Tamara and Not the Time of My Life, Kálmán Day can be regarded as the third part of Hajdu’s trilogy of chamber theatre performances.