Award ceremonies, especially annual ones, do not exist in a vacuum, and so it is with the 39th Theatre Critics’ Awards for the 2017/2018 season. What dominated this year were the number of big-name winners, as well as nominees from the countryside (i.e., outside Budapest) and even beyond the present-day borders of Hungary (Sepsiszentgyörgy, Újvidék, and Kolozsvár).
The latter phenomenon can be seen as a positive trend, or possibly reverse snobism – a reaction to those ...
The theatre season was off to a slow start in September, but now it has kicked into high gear, with more premieres than one individual can possibly see. While I am catching up, here are my tips for the entertainment options on offer in October 2018.
Entries are arranged by theater or venue.
This former cinema retains its classy, nostalgic interior, and there is a great buffet with tasty cakes, coffee, and drinks. Still, ...
The theater season is off to a slow start in September 2018, but there are still plenty of options to choose from. Here are my tips arranged by theater or venue. Meanwhile, I will be checking out the promising new premieres!
This former cinema retains its classy, nostalgic interior, and there is a great buffet with tasty cakes, coffee, and drinks. Still, expect steeper than usual prices (for the tickets, too). The stage ...
Pál Mácsai has enjoyed a brilliant career as an actor, director, theater manager, and star of the HBO television series Therapy. To figure out what makes him tick, I sat down with Pál Mácsai (always a pleasure) in his office and tried my best not to fawn.
[This interview was conducted in Hungarian, then translated into English, which the subject had an opportunity to read over and correct. Since Mr. Mácsai and I share the same initials, I have adopted the pseudonym “Theatre ...
Though the title may seem flippant, promiscuous young minority women have an impressive pedigree as heroines in Hungarian literature – no doubt partly on account of the prestige of their accomplished Hungarian male creators. When these figures are brought to the screen or to the stage – in the case of Sándor Weörös’s Psyché at the National and Péter Esterházy’s 17 Swans at Fischer Iván ...
Here is your guide to the performance options in June 2018.
Entries are arranged by theater or venue.
This former cinema retains its classy, nostalgic interior, and there is a great buffet with tasty cakes, coffee, and drinks. Still, expect steeper than usual prices (for the tickets, too). The stage was never remodeled. We are gazing at where the movie screen used to be, so the sight-lines are a little wonky. Clever directors are ...
Here is your guide to the performance options in May 2018
Entries are arranged by theater or venue.
This former cinema retains its classy, nostalgic interior, and there is a great buffet with tasty cakes, coffee, and drinks. Still, expect steeper than usual prices (for the tickets, too). The stage was never remodeled. We are gazing at where the movie screen used to be, so the sight-lines are a little wonky. Clever directors are able to work around ...
When the Neue Oper Wien (New Opera of Vienna) makes its occasional visit to Budapest, the company always brings something remarkable. Modern opera, of course, as their name implies. Not to everyone’s taste, but certainly never run-of-the-mill.
Tonight and tomorrow (April 9 and 10) at Palace of the Arts ( Művészetek Pálotája ), they will present Bernstein’s opera A Quiet Place . There could hardly be ...
Have you ever wanted to be on the stage of Budapest’s National Theater? Well, with the current production of Isten Ostora (Scourge of God), the nearly 3-hour adaptation of Miklós Bánffy’s original play about Attila the Hun, you finally get the chance.
We are seated onstage, sitting on four sides of the deep acting area with a rotating platform on one end, then a ramp and a torn cyclorama depicting the Colosseum on the other. At the ...
Here is your guide to the performance options in April 2018.
Entries are arranged by theater or venue.
* = with English titles
This former cinema retains its classy, nostalgic interior, and there is a great buffet with tasty cakes, coffee, and drinks. Still, expect steeper than usual prices (for the tickets, too). The stage was never remodeled. We are gazing at where the movie screen used to be, so the sight-lines are a little wonky. Clever ...
