Theatre
Verbal, in Hungarian with English subtitles
Trigger warning: smoke, nudity, and loud noises, 16+

Emőke Kiss-Végh and Tamás Ördög, founders of the independent theatre company dollardaddy's, begin let’s go japan with the kids with a table read, exposing not only the making of a performance but also the conditions in which it is being made. After almost two decades of working together — with the theatre company, romantic relationship, family and workplace largely overlapping — they take stock of where they have arrived as artists within a Hungarian independent scene shaped by increasing precarity and restrictive cultural policies. Joined by artists and theatre students from different generations, they expand this personal reckoning into questions of responsibility, power relations, artistic ambition and the conditions of sustaining a life in theatre. A stalled residency project in Japan turns into a familiar fantasy of elsewhere, particularly resonant in a Hungarian context where emigration and the possibility of leaving have become part of many people’s lives: perhaps somewhere else one could be free, begin again and become a different person. In what they call their “big shared, cheerful, miserable life”, work and private life, artistic collaboration and family roles become increasingly entangled. Moving between rehearsal, domestic arguments, confession, satire and surreal fantasy, this dense and multilayered work becomes both an intimate account of a shared life and a portrait of a broader social mood marked by exhaustion, stagnation and cynicism, confronting all of it with uneasy honesty and dark humour. (Gábor Thury, curator)

"Our most personal performance to date. A lecture, a confession, and a reckoning. We’re going with the kids to Japan, and then we’ll see what happens." (Emőke KISS-VÉGH, Tamás ÖRDÖG)

The founders of dollardaddy’s – Kiss-Végh Emőke and Ördög Tamás – push at the boundaries between work and private life, as artists and as parents.
As parents of young children and as artists, their focus has shifted to family in recent years. They participate in residency programs together with their two children. By examining their experiences there, they create theatrical performances, the first of which was the show titled 'let's go japan with the kids', premiered in Budapest in November 2025. Their goal is to raise awareness about balancing creative life with parenthood and to share their experiences in this regard with the audience.
Unadorned, hyperrealistic, visceral, provocative, super close-up. These are the first things that come to mind when thinking about ​​dollardaddy’s performances. With the candor audiences have come to expect from them, they juxtapose the banality of everyday life with the desire for artistic self-realization and the current state of Hungarian cultural politics. They invite collaborators onto the stage – an actor, a dancer, a director, a set designer, a video artist, and their students – each bringing their own realities into the performance.

CREDITS

Cast: Éva KEREKES, Sándor ZSÓTÉR, Emese CUHORKA, Zsombor KÖVESI, Lili IZSÁK, Máté KALICz, Emőke KISS-VÉGH, Tamás ÖRDÖG and the second- and third-year acting students of the Keleti István School of Arts
Written and directed by: Emőke KISS-VÉGH and Tamás ÖRDÖG
Residency: SAIKONEON artist-in-residence program, Japan

Supported by: Trafó House of Contemporary Arts

REVIEWS

"The performance is truly masterful; despite its brutal simplicity, the first half is chilling, in which absolutely nothing – and I mean nothing – happens other than Emőke Kiss-Végh and Tamás Ördög, who are known to be a married couple in real life, sitting across from each other on separate chairs – with all the other actors, who occasionally comment on their words with gestures but are otherwise virtually absent from the scene, sitting between them as silent observers – and talk about their everyday lives. This is a dialogue with a wonderful rhythm; interpreted as stage text and drama, it is a tour de force, and it doesn’t matter at all how much 'realism' it contains, since, as text spoken on stage, it is, by definition, fiction."
– Bálint Kovács, critic, HVG.hu, 2025 

BIO

Emőke KISS-VÉGH and Tamás ÖRDÖG are Hungarian actors and theatre-makers, known for their unorthodox shows and projects staged in flats and unusual venues. Dollardaddy's (Dollár Papa Gyermekei) are one of the youngest Hungarian ensembles, true risk-takers in every sense: experimenting on the boundaries of real life and theatre in a minimalistic style. Their original acting style invites the audience to be part of a uniquely intimate relationship with the performers. Everything is happening just within their grasp.
They have many ties to Finland. One in one was presented at the Lainsuojattomat Theatre Festival in Pori. Chekhov was performed at Tampere Theatre Festival. East was created in coproduction with the Tampere University and was performed at the Workers Theatre. They have also been invited to two artist residencies: AARK in Korpo and Skogshyddan AIR in Skogby. Emőke KISS-VÉGH and Tamás ÖRDÖG were both grantees of the Finnish Kone Foundation.
Dollardaddy's is one of the most touring Hungarian theater companies. Their performances have been staged in Norway, Finland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, and the United States.
Next to dollardaddy’s they works regularly for other companies and theaters too, like Örkény István Theater or  Radnóti Miklós Theater. They both teach and regularly hold workshops for professional actors as well.

CONTACT

Tamás ÖRDÖG
dollarpapagyermekei@gmail.com 
dollardaddys.tumblr.com