theatre
In Hungarian with English subtitles
Trigger warning: 18+
3 hours 30 minutes, two intervals

Since its premiere at the end of 2023, Jakab Tarnóczi and Zsófia Varga’s Ecstasy has been one of the most successful productions on show at the Katona József Theatre, particularly appealing to younger generations. The three-and-a-half-hour house party offers a snapshot of the insecurities, loneliness and attempts to connect experienced by Generations Y and Z. Botond Devich’s hyper-realistic apartment set periodically opens up for the audience as well. The space is further expanded by a live feed from two moving cameras: vertical screens on both sides of the stage show events that take place behind the scenes, their format evocative of smartphone displays.
In the apartment, which turns into a busy hub, people come and go, drink, play music and dance. Instead of a grand narrative, from small events and unfinished sentences the mood of an entire generation unfolds, for whom happiness seems to be at once a basic expectation and a task increasingly difficult to fulfil. The electronic music, the dancing and the live camera feed at once heighten the intensity of the party and reveal its moments of loneliness. Ecstasy is a portrait of a generation that seeks connection by every means possible, while being repeatedly faced with just how difficult it is to achieve. (Léna Szirmay-Kalos, curator)

Our play Ecstasy invites the spectator to a discovery. It invites to a constructed mini universe; to an alternative Budapest labyrinth condensed on stage. The multimedia event – running on several storylines and timelines – follows the everyday life of a group of young people, who are looking for the answer to this simple question: how is it possible to be well or at least better. The peculiar world of Ecstasy agglomerates by using the form language of music, dance, theater and film. Every spectator can put together their own narrative from the dialoges and the scenes by poring over this world.

Is the state of happiness sustainable? If yes, does the community or the individual have a bigger part in it? How does generations Y and Z see the future of Hungary? Is it possible to quit the whirl of periodic problems or only an artifically made sanctuary could help inside the societal system?

ecstasy (greek. eksztaszisz, ‘exit’, lat. exstasis), fascination, rapture, trans, ‘rüttetés, elrüttetés’ in old Hungarian language (flying): in general, state of delirium, in which a thing of natural or supranatural (divine or demonic) origins weakens or suspends the relation to the material world by affecting the senses and consciousness.

CREDITS

Cast: Barna BÁNYAI KELEMEN, Bence BÉRES, István DANKÓ, Bernát GLOVICZKI, Balázs JAKAB, Adél Jordán, Kata KANYÓ
Benjámin LENGYEL, Júlia MENTES, Nóra TROKÁN, Hanna PÁLOS, Dániel PÁSZTOR, Zsófia TÓTH.                                                                         
Set design: Botond DEVICH
Assistant of the set designer: Barnabás KUN
Set design intern: Anna LIPTÁK
Stage masters: István FODOR, Péter FÓRIÁN
Costumes: Ilka GILIGA
Assistant costume designer: Nina KASZÁS
Dramaturg: Zsófia VARGA
Music composer: Levente BENCSIK, Máté HUNYADI
Video: Marcell TÖRÖK, Bálint KOVÁCS
Editor: Réka NAGY
Choreography: Emese CUHORKA
Lights: Bence BÁRÁNY, Bertalan TÓTH
Prompter: Anita BONCZA
Stage manager: Anna HÉRICZ
Sound: Ferenc NÉMETH
Assistant to director: Judit TÓTH
Director: Jakab TARNÓCZI

BIO

Jakab TARNÓCZI has focused in recent years on original stage projects, often as a writer or co-writer. That’s how he created his notable works at Katona Theatre including God, Homeland, Family (2021), Lonely Lives (2022), Ecstasy (2023), and Radical Relax (2024). His experimental production Melancholy Rooms was invited to the Lessingtage Festival, Hamburg in 2023, leading to international collaborations in the German language area. Within a year he developed the production, Das Gastmahl (2024) in Theater Aachen, directed the Austrian premier of Githa Sowerby’s Rutherford and Son (2025) in Schauspielhaus Graz, and directed the first premiere of Asiimwe Deborah Kawe’s The Promised Land (2025) in Residenztheater München. In 2026 he returned to Schauspielhaus Graz, to produce the stage adaptation of Marlen Haushofer’s Wir töten Stella. His most recent production is his second play written by him, Requiem in Katona Theatre, Budapest. 

His multimedia installation winterreise.box, based on his Winterreise production at Örkény Theatre, Budapest represented Hungary at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial and won an award.

The Hungarian Theatre Critics’ Association named him the “Most Promising Young Artist” in 2019, and since then, several of his productions and collaborators have been nominated for or received awards from the Association. In 2023, he received the Junior Prima Award. Since 2021, he has also been teaching at the Freeszfe Association.

He is currently working on the premiere of Stereophonic in the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, developing his final show in Katona Theatre, Budapest, Queenland, and working on an adaptation of Edouard Louis’ Change for Schauspielhaus Graz.
https://www.jakabtarnoczi.eu/about

CONTACT

igazgatosag@katonaszinhaz.hu
Carstensen & Oegel International GmbH
Antje Oegel - oegel@cointernational.de

Tarnóczi Jakab's website: https://www.jakabtarnoczi.eu/
Katona Theatre website: https://katonajozsefszinhaz.hu/en/about/