Action Theater Productions
We Are '56!
Bemutató: 2021. október 23.
Contributors
Writer-Producer: Balogh Rodrigó
Dramaturg: Illés Márton
Director: Szegedi Tamás András
Assistant Director: Lukács Kálmán
Actors: Farkas Ramóna, Nemcsók Nóra, Varga Norbert, Varga Dávid
Extras: Szegedi Szilárd, Zábó Anna, Eszter Plakát
Sound Recordings: Horváth Vilmos
Short description
This interactive promenade theater performance is set in the last days of October and the first days of November in 1956. The audience itself becomes revolutionaries, guided by the four main characters, who share their personal stories and dilemmas. These four characters were inspired by real Roma revolutionaries, created through a cooperative workshop process by the theater’s creative team.
What does freedom mean today? What grievances do we carry, and why was the revolution important? What do we risk when we take up arms and confront power? This performance takes the audience on an imaginary journey, immersing them in the atmosphere of the revolution. We find ourselves on the battlefield, where there is no time to think—only to act. Participants must help transport food, medicine, and weapons, take cover, or guard the armory. We are part of the struggle, united in a common goal, supporting one another, and leaving no one behind.
Kosovo mon amour
Háborús trash hat részben
Contributors
Actors: Boda-Novy Emília, Budai József, Csiki Gellért, Farkas Rozália, Kazári András, Lakatos Dániel, Pászik Cristopher, Szegedi Tamás, Varga Norbert
Music: Babindák István, Kovács A. Máté
Short description
This play by Ruždija Sejdovič and Jovan Nikolič offers a glimpse into the Kosovo War, which ended over two decades ago. Recognized as one of the most outstanding works of European Roma drama, it was originally planned as a staged reading at RS9 Theater in Budapest in honor of International Theater Day. However, due to the prevailing circumstances, the performance was adapted into a video compilation filmed with mobile phones in the actors’ personal spaces.
The play, first shown on March 27, 2020, at 9:00 PM on the Independent Theater Hungary's social media platforms, raises questions still relevant today:
How can we protect our families, property, and identity?
When is the right moment to flee, and where can we escape when war rages everywhere?
How can incitement to hatred lead to conflict in a society that once embraced peaceful coexistence?
Unlike traditional portrayals of Roma communities as impoverished outcasts, this production focuses on the existing Roma middle class, which found itself caught between Serbs and Albanians during the Kosovo War. The production was presented in six episodes and is available on the official YouTube channel.
The series is available on our official YouTube channel.
Supported by: Goethe-Institut Budapest
Rikárdó Cooked Something Up
Short description
Under the title Rikárdó Cooked Something Up..., the Goethe-Institut organized a highly diverse event in District 8, Budapest, on October 28, 2017. The Independent Theater Hungary joined the initiative.
A Story Commando was dispatched across the streets and pubs of District 8.
he theater team collected personal stories from the Teleki Market and conducted interviews with Roma artists and creators. These gathered narratives were then transformed into a theatrical performance, presented as the closing act of the event.
Dog Fight
Creators
Short description
Do you also feel that instead of addressing real problems and finding solutions, society is fed scapegoats and distractions? The Independent Theater Hungary and Közkép dive deeper, investigating the realities beyond what is typically covered in mainstream media.
We dare to think beyond the headlines—but we don’t claim to hold absolute truth.
We are young and not-so-young. Roma and non-Roma. Poor and relatively well-off.
We don’t want to be divided constantly. Instead, we share our experiences and seek your perspectives.
Maybe, if we don’t take ourselves too seriously and resist every attempt to be divided, we might even shape the world around us. If you find any similarities between our videos and real-life events or people—well, that might just be coincidence... or reality itself.
Public Work – “Arbeit Macht Frei”
a Holokauszt Emlékévhez kapcsolódó akciószínházi előadás
Performers
Short description
Our political and social system is justified by a paradox: despite social inequality, marginalized groups often support the very system that oppresses them.
Systemic critique is widespread in our society—even among those who benefit from it. This critique gains momentum when change seems possible but dwindles into apathy when it seems unlikely.
Sacred Cows
2014. március 27-én, a Nemzetközi Színházi Világnapon mutattuk be a Szent tehenek című előadást, amely társadalmunk megszokott és jól bevált kirekesztő gyakorlatait mutatta be.
Contributors:
Director – Balogh Rodrigó
Dramaturg – Illés Márton
Assistant Director – Fátyol Hermina
Actors – Budai József, Horváth László, Krasznahorkai Ágnes, Kroó Balázs, Nyárai András, Lakos Száva
Short description
This street theater performance started from Fővám Square in Budapest, with six remarkable performers leading the audience through the following themes:
- Corruption in high politics
- Scapegoating and inflammatory political rhetoric
- Racist media narratives
- Hate crimes fueled by societal hatred
- Systematic discrimination against women
- Crushed human dignity
- Mass economic migration caused by systemic issues
Mass economic migration caused by systemic issues
Filmek, korrajzok és szabad látásmód
Contributors
Balogh Rodrigó – Artist-Pedagogue
Boros Tamás – Human Rights Activist
Illés Márton – Goverment
Szegedi Tamás – Entrepreneur
Curator: Pócsik Andrea
Short description
The Independent Theater Hungary’s expanded cinema project combined film screenings, live performances, and symposium presentations, critically examining Hungarian Roma history and cultural policies.
Extended Cinema – performed by the artists of the Independent Theatre, where film characters, spectators, creative artists, and symposium speakers all found their place.
The film montage, created for the symposium held on January 10, 2014, evoked the socio-historical background in which the presenters developed their cultural guidelines.
Our performance aimed to intervene in the process of audience reception by expanding the narratives of films and the socio-cultural space of cinema: through the performative act of “asking back,” we created a reflexive position. Furthermore, we raised numerous questions about the set of problems commonly referred to as the “Roma question”—problems attributed to cultural and/or social causes and stretching into the present day.
One of the central questions of the performance was how power, under the guise of ideology, has been able to conceal oppressive policies with greater or lesser success, suppress, or distort the self-organizing efforts of the Roma in Hungary.
- Gypsies – documentary, 1962, Dir.: Sándor Sára
- There Are Changes – documentary excerpt, 1979, Dir.: Gyula Gulyás, János Gulyás
- Cséplő Gyuri – feature film excerpt, 1978, Dir.: Pál Schiffer
- The Selection – documentary excerpt, 1970, Dir.: Gyula Gazdag
- The Ragged Princess – documentary excerpt, 1975, Dir.: István Dárday
- Feather Picking – feature film excerpt, 2012, Dir.: Márton Illés, Rodrigó Balogh, Róbert Maly
DREAMS OF JUNK – Earth Eaters
Contributors
Writer – Márton Illés
Director – Rodrigó Balogh
Choreography – Hajnal Lisztóczky
Costume design & production – Boglárka Dani, Zsolt Paráda
Music – Zsuzsanna Mészáros (Marge), Tamás Papp (Tmx)
Technical support – Áron Farkas
Cast: Orsolya Ádám, Anna Barabás, Tamás Boros, Gellért Csiki, Franciska Farkas, András Nyárai, Edmond Oláh, Péter Ónodi
Short description
This is just sci-fi. Reality is far more exciting. In Earth-Eaters, our European contemporaries share their lives and reflections. To the environmental, social, and economic issues they raise, only we ourselves can provide the answers.
On Earth Day, at Millenáris Park, citizens gathered on the green lawn watched the theatre’s Peer Gynt scholarship holders embody eight Europeans in costumes made from recycled materials.
DREAMS OF JUNK
Short description
Citizens’ initiative: People working to ensure that bulk waste collections do not disappear, but instead become joyful community events—where, led by artist-trainers, children from diverse backgrounds create artworks from junk and street performances out of nothing. Participants in these actions come closer both to art and to one another, experience the creation of value from waste, and realize their power to shape their environment.
We believe the street is the perfect venue for arts education, for encounters, for collective creation, and for shared success—in which every passerby has a role, regardless of where they come from or where they are going…
