Jurányi
Opened: 2022
Non-verbal
“An inspiring collaboration of two puppeteers and three dancers in Domokos Kovács’ latest physical puppet theater production with all-female performers. The choreographer-director, who studied puppetry, draws inspiration from images of the world’s increasingly widespread forest fires, resistance movements and revolutionary uprisings, as well as from the personal experiences of the performers, to speak of the turmoil in the world and the human soul in this textless performance pulsating in the dynamics of destruction and rebirth. The visual world, designed by Panna Kárpáti, is sometimes reminiscent of animals fleeing from a world in flames, sometimes skeletal, like the arches of a cathedral. The semi-figural puppets and the performers who animate them, accompanied by Bernadett Tarr’s suggestive music, tell a sensual story not only of the natural and constructed world that is consuming itself time and again, but also of human culture and its achievements as it decays and constantly rebuilds itself from the ashes. The production is Domokos Kovács’ first in which he himself does not appear on stage as a performer.” Júlia Sándor, curator
CREDITS
Performed by: Bea Egyed, Katalin Lőrinc, Csilla Nagy, Petra Mária Nagy, Laura Podlovics
Scenery: Panna Kárpáti
Composer: Bernadett Tarr
Dramaturge: Orsolya Nagy
Light designer: András Váradi
Project manager: Dóra Gulyás
Production assistant: Veronika Vajdai
Director: Domokos Kovács
|| 14+ ||
REVIEWS
“The opening scene of reburn a cathedral is a gentle invitation to a game of recognizing movements and images. And we really recognize these and feel clever, a soothing and joyful experience for us – and in this gesture of calling on the audience to think together, we can obviously recognize the ars poetica of the director, Domokos Kovács. [...]
For us, it was a staggering experience to see the scene in which the human bodies started to move unintendedly, and which the partners, either understanding or misunderstanding it, began to silence. We experience something similar continuously when we face the basic mechanism of Hungarian society, how leadership wants to turn back time and doesn’t let natural changes happen. A well-intentioned, appeasing grandmotherly spirit is an obstacle to the next generation’s ability to take ownership of the present.”
Két Lámpás, Kétlampas.blog.hu
“The presence of Bea Egyed also creates a bridge between Csilla Nagy and Katalin Lőrinc who have been moving wisely and calmly in the contemporary dance scene for a long time now, and the younger colleagues who originally graduated as puppeteers. The fact that Laura Podlovics and Petra Nagy are puppeteers can be felt immediately, when – alone or with partners – they touch the puppets of ethereal structure. With as much love and grace as they manipulate them, they also make their own bodies move as if they were puppets themselves as well. This is particularly true for the ecstatic and ardent solo of Podlovics in which fury, anger, and exhaustion all appear at the same time. [...]
In the finale of reburn a cathedral, all performers dance off tension alone, without puppets, separately from each other but with the same quality of movements, until the lights go out. They are connected, and at the same time, they are not. For how long is it possible to live in this intense state - alone or together? We don’t know. Maybe Domokos Kovács will also create a performance about the ash that will one day cover the world, in the spirit of Gesamtkunst and «rebuilt».”
Fruzsina Lilla Németh, Prae.hu
TOURS & FESTIVALS
Abstract Festival – International Contemporary Puppet Festival, Budapest (HU) 2023
Ördögkatlan Fesztivál, 2023
Domokos Kovács
… (1993) graduated at the University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest (SzFE) in 2017 as a puppeteer. Since then, he has worked as a freelance performer: dancer, puppeteer, actor;; and creator: choreographer, director. He works with different companies, theatres and independent collectives. He is based in Budapest and also works in the Netherlands, Germany, Serbia, and France.
In 2019, he worked as a guest lecturer with Eszter Gál at SzFE. In 2022, he was resident artist at the L1 Association.
He spent his traineeship in Amsterdam at Duda Paiva Company, where he learnt a unique way of puppet manipulation combined with dance. In his own works, he experiments with the combination of contemporary dance and puppet theatre, creating a new theatrical form called physical puppet theatre. He researches the connection between the moves of the animated object and the capacities of the manipulator’s body, how the limits created by the object determine and inspire the movement quality of the manipulator at the same time.
Besides contemporary dance, he also studied tai chi for seven years, due to which his movement language is rooted in the Chinese martial arts. In his projects, he focuses on merging the two movement techniques: the tai chi-based contemporary dance that works from the inside centre of the body and puppet manipulation where the impulses come from an external object outside the body.
Other works include Dancing On A Grinder (2021), H.A.N. (2015) and Blind (2015).
CONTACT
Domokos Kovács
kovdomokos@gmail.com
+36.30.657.3906
Facebook ▷▷ domokos.kovacs, eszmeegyesulet, fuge.produkcio
Instagram ▷▷ kovacsdomokos
SUPPORTERS
Municipality of Budapest, Staféta, Füge Productions, New Performing Arts Foundation, ESZME - Association of European Freelance Artists, Ministry of Human Capacities, MU Theatre, Jurányi Art Incubator House
The production was realised within the framework of the Staféta programme supported by the Municipality of Budapest.