Stand-up special, performance
Verbal, in English
16+

“I’ve always wanted to talk about my body, the body that speaks for me...” The opening of Ádám Fekete’s stand-up monodrama is an absurdly extended rabbit joke that leads us into the labyrinth of the Hungarian healthcare system, from which, like something straight out of Gogol’s (or Lynch’s?) overcoat, more rabbits and carrots keep emerging. Before long, we find ourselves at hip replacement surgery, around which this fragmented yet engaging autobiographical cabaret, interwoven with fiction, takes shape. Pain as an integral part of identity is laid on the table – or rather, the surgical tray – alongside a critical examination of the everyday experience of disability, sexuality and the overactive male ego. And throughout it all, we laugh a lot. Even at the terrifying operation, which Fekete’s stage persona recounts step by step, with a uncontrived naturalism. Anyone who has been through something similar will likely find themselves involuntarily recalling their own experiences. As for me, I didn’t mind in the end: I was able to take part in taming fear and the paralysing loss of control. The self-vivisection continues, with a succession of funny and/or awkwardly personal episodes and fragments: childhood memories, strange dreams and crushes. Ádám Fekete’s acerbic yet deeply human, sarcastic humour is at its sharpest in this performance. He resorts to one of his favourite creative strategies: throwing the spectator off balance, while avoiding the obvious. Even in speaking about the body, he seeks his own nonconformist narrative. (Judit Böröcz, curator)

In 2020 Ádám FEKETE (writer, theater maker, influencer, self-made collage artist) underwent a serious hip replacement surgery, and got home just before the first wave of the Covid pandemic. This operation changed his relation not only to his life long disability (cerebral palsy), but to the whole world.
Fekete is well know for his sarcastic sense of humour presented on his Youtube channel called Taigetus Show, and now he packs it into his first feature-length stand up special. The operation is more of a stepping stone: dancing around his hip deformity he aims to deconstruct the institution of identity itself, and to exploit the shapeshifting self-image of a handicapped man. Meanwhile he plays different characters, puts on several masks, and he even attacks the ever so celebrated "auto-fiction" genre.
EXCAVATED is vivisection and multiplication, transfusion, trepanation and cutting oneself in half. “I’ve always wanted to talk about my body, this body, which likes to talk instead of me, this big turncoat. Which of us will have the last word? And can we open up like we used to, on that operating table? Who will squeeze out who? That should be at stake in our ambiguous dramatic monologue.”

CREDITS

Writes, directs, performs and also perforates himself: Ádám FEKETE
Sound and light management: Ádám LANGÓ
Roger: András FEHÉR

Partners and sponsors: FÜGE Productions, Municipality of Budapest, Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Jurányi Art Incubator House

REVIEWS

"And let’s be honest, we want exactly that, because while Fekete Ádám keeps telling about his ruddily unique yet outrageously average life, which is so ridiculous and absurd that it could reduce us to tears, and also painful because it is always self-confronting in its presentation, we are equally suffocated and liberated by his story. His life, which he lays at our knees, is so everyday and self-evident in a way, that it’s really one of a kind."
– Csatádi Gábor (Pótszékfoglaló)

"Even though the title refers to it, this performance is not about a hip surgery. In a strict sense it is not about anything: it’s more fragmented, rambling and dispersed – just as its narrator. […] But in between the jokes and the stories he talks about one subject for a relatively big amount, and that is sexuality, and we have to highlight this because, as far as I know, this is a new theme of Fekete Ádám’s performances and self-vivisections."
– Váncza Kristóf (színház.net)  

BIO

Ádám FEKETE is a writer, performer, theatre maker. He graduated as a theater dramaturg on the University Of Theatre and Film Arts in 2016. In the first years he cooperated as a dramaturg with the main theatres and independent companies of Budapest. Later he started to write and direct his own plays, and he also appered as an actor on stage. As a performer he works with his own disability, cerebral palsy, which is due to the lack of oxygen at birth. In 2012 he recieved the Junior Príma Prize, in 2016 he recieved the Szép Ernő Prize. In 2018 Magvető Kiadó released his first book of poetry 'Sour Days in The Room with Sturgeon-Bound Wallpaper', in 2026 they released his first novel 'Invocations'. He appeared as an actor in Attila Till’s movie Kills on Wheels, dealing with people living with physical disabilities. He worked as co-headmaster of the theater dramaturgy class on SZFE, then on freeSZFE, on the side of Péter Kárpáti. He had a Youtube channel called 'Taigetos Show' for two years, during Covid. Recently his work incorporate visual arts (drawing) and music making, practicing various techniques of improvisation and collaging. He participates in various improvisation-based shows on the verge of stand up comedy, performance art, dadaism, trash and experimental poetry.

CONTACT

Ádám FEKETE
turtlekat@gmail.com
@jumpingjackflashbury