Kult: Sándor Fábry called from the past to ask for the new performance of Béla Pintér

There is an explanation, of course: the piece takes place in an imaginary future, at the beginning of the 21st century, when it is still devastated by the current pandemic; At the time of the plot, the governor and politicians are forced to resolve serious conflicts over the vaccine, while revealing a couple of dark secrets that fit into the Greek drama. The epidemic is similar to the coronavirus, which tragically wiped out the majority of the country’s white population a few hundred years ago, which is why almost all important political and public positions in Hungary are held by Roma, who may be in the white position. , constantly forced to endure the racism of the majority society. .

So the reason for the imitation of the dialect is obviously not racism, the creative intention may have been more to highlight the stereotypes to draw attention to them, but there are cases where the intention not to harm is not enough. In the film industry, for example, there has been a consensus for decades that a white actor, if he plays a “black role”, cannot darken his face and skin because, regardless of intention, members of the summoned minority can find it offensive, hurtful, insensitive and voila. A civilized white male no longer begins to demonstrate that, but the victim’s Negro should not have taken it seriously because it is not his opinion that matters, but that of the imitated man, because no one but the members of that group can judge what it is harmful. for the community.

Well, I would have tended to believe that by the end of 2020, after a cultural revolution with demonstrations and decisions about statues, it was so clear to the cream of the Hungarian intelligentsia that

The inappropriate tool for deciphering anti-gypsy stereotypes is to embrace the simplest and obviously most hurtful phantom gesture out there, and to create an overall serenity when speaking Gypsy in a way that may not have been done even in the Whimsical Seasons.

Not to mention, even if we put the questions of principle and political correctness aside, this gameplay is simply as low as the panty-throw in tabloid theaters – it works, just plain tacky. Also, it wouldn’t have been necessary, as both the fictional Roma nature of the characters and the presence of racism can be seen in much more sophisticated and performance-worthy cues. But this time, Pintér doesn’t seem to want to be sophisticated and (for him) dignified: this time, the fantastically humorous writer regularly sharpens his jokes to discover that some highly respected man is called, say, Rafael or Kalányos. (That’s right, it works too: polite audiences will laugh to be sensational, well, he’s a gypsy too!)

At the same time, Pintér does not explain why he chose his fictional Hungary in two throughout the Roma-non-Roma divide. And the question arises only because it really only takes a little bad faith to see serious racism behind things, which is only justified by the career of Béla Pintér so far, the maximum good faith is certainly a misunderstanding: that in that In classical Greek in the drama from which the story is inspired, incest also plays a role.

So if anyone associates this with gypsies, they don’t have very good acoustics,

if it is not really very precise why the conflict between the Roma and non-Roma population comes to the fore, and we do not say, since the drama is a political issue anyway, the left-right, conservative-liberal national division or even any fictitious division. After all, the basic situation in the future two hundred years later can provide an opportunity for anything, even an alien invasion (it is true that Pintér had already shot it in a previous work). The gypsy identity, on the other hand, does not have a specific dramaturgical role, beyond being a source of jokes, that makes it irreplaceable.

And although Béla Pintér uses the great ideas of her lectures with a sure hand and good sense, the above is not the end of the list of problems. It’s true, Mari Benedek’s wardrobe, Gábor Tamás outfit and Lilla Gergely-Farnos masks and, of course, the creativity with which Pintér wears them, for example, while reinterpreting all of our new favorite fashion pieces, the mask or give the lecture. The songs and music of Antal Kéménczy work well, they are also effective, but the standard is several times lower than where Béla Pintér and her company usually work.

For a long time, the writer Pintér chose a surprisingly simple solution, no less imaginative, to outline the basic situation. The characters, quasi members of the operational tribe, look at the audience and tell for a long, long time what happened in the last two hundred years and the last months before the play began, then explain for another long time what happened. since the piece started. And only then could it be kindly said that indeed it began, now that we had squashed the long inscription that had just started with the words “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away” at the beginning.

But when the plot begins, another problem arises, although this can be fine-tuned over time after the presentation. As soon as the first really serious conflict arises, the other great actors, led by Béla Pintér, who is usually a great actor at the helm, almost raise their voices to dominate and thus represent intense emotions in the least sophisticated way. and less challenging at the actor level. ) presents the remaining text. As with the dialect of art, perhaps the explanation for this is that everything in the performance – the plot, the biases, and the emotions – is condensed, and that condensation seems magnified by the audience. Even more memorable and functional are the parts where the actors express feelings differently. Like Péter Jankovics, who plays a commissioner loyal to the government who takes on all the important artistic positions, like running the stadium’s acting academy, showing more calmly and succinctly what a truly effective return to power is, or the Gypsy Jewish Archbishop exiled. for a long time he also hides it well from viewers, he scratches his chestnut when he gets the chance, and he is not as helpless as shown.

But the biggest problem with Blood Red Off-White Poison Green, however, is that it is ultimately a huge mistake.

Pintér seems to be about to make up for such a painful deficiency in Hungarian theater: he presents a performance that reflects on the public life that surrounds us here and now, and is not afraid to talk politics. There is a pandemic, politicians who are trying to deal with it, but obviously only looking at their own interests, and several mid-sentence references to today’s political events, and in the end, it still says nothing about the public life that surrounds us here. And now, apart from one or two, not least, generalities. (that, for example, those in power can always be easily corrupted and that politicians tend to prefer their own pockets to those of their people). However, starting from the basic theme, Pintér could have made statements on many important topics: the treatment of the virus at the level of politics or of little people, the problems of the current Hungarian political elite, the opposition, the national official chief physician with a minimum of smiles. But instead, he ran into jokes at the most, even though they worked fine.

If someone says the wrong thing about a Béla Pintér performance, they usually have to add what I mean, of course. That, of course, a lower level Béla Pintér is also better than the average high, just not as much as usual at best. It’s a rarity when you don’t have to imagine “compared to” the low standard.

This is a great opportunity.