The reborn Csokonai National Theater – Debrecen is preparing twelve shows in the new season. The theater kicks off the season with a grand gala in mid-September.
“As a result of three years of work, a unique, two-building, five-seat theater awaits the public from autumn. The institution was renovated with HUF 20 billion and made into three departments, adding dance alongside prose and opera,” emphasized the theater’s director Szabolcs Mátyássy at the press conference on Monday.
Szabolcs Mátyássy took over the management of the theater on July 1, after the mandate of the previous director, Péter Gemza, expired, and the Debrecen city government supported his application in March. Szabolcs Mátyássy was appointed for five years.
The composer and theater artist spoke on Monday that Debrecen now has an ideal financial and cultural combination for operating a European-level theater. He added that the interest is huge, and the audience in Debrecen is looking forward to taking possession of the theater again.
“We have stage equipment of a unique quality in the country. I fundamentally believe in the folk theater structure, in the new season, in addition to the traditional, demanding plays, we will also present more experimental works in the smaller playgrounds. We agreed with the city administration that changes are needed, an important element of this is the passes, including the return of opera passes,” emphasized Szabolcs Mátyássy.
István Puskás, deputy mayor of Debrecen for culture, emphasized that as a result of the infrastructural development completed on September 16, the Csokonai Forum, handed over a year ago, is also available in addition to the Csokonai Theatre. He pointed out that Esterházy Marcell’s exhibition that opened on Saturday in Modem shows the city’s cultural effervescence, as well as the fact that the legacy of the writer János Térey, who died in 2019, will also be presented to the public in Debrecen on September 14.
Several of the theater shows are connected to anniversaries. Mihály Vitéz Csokonai, who was born 250 years ago, will be able to see Dorottya in the transcription of Ernő Verebes for the first time in November.
István K. Szabó, the theater’s artistic director, said that from an infrastructural point of view, the Csokonai National Theater – Debrecen has the best possibilities, “to that end, we are trying to bring artistic content into the walls”. The motto of the new season is a quote from Zoltán Latinovits – “Let’s move back into each other!” -, which symbolizes the expected meeting of the theater and the city community.
As stated, there will be four own shows in the old building, the Csokonai Theatre: in October, Puccini’s Bohemelete directed by János Szikora, in November by István K. Szabó Csokonai’s Dorothy, next January Moliere and Lully’s Citizen of Úrhatnám will be staged by Attila Keresztes, and in April Dostoyevsky’s Devils in Macedonia Directed by Dejan Projkovski.
In the Csokonai Forum, the performances will take place in two playgrounds, the Latinovits Hall and the Árpád Kóti Chamber Hall. In the former, they present Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, The Trojan Women written jointly by Euripides, Sartre and Gyula Illyés, in the latter A test történetei (III-IV) by András Visky, Szilárd Borbély’s play Ninctelenek, Csaba Kiss’s epistolary novel Perilous Relationships based on his work, Hanoch Levin’s Jákobi és Lájdentáj, and István Tasnádi’s Cyber Cyrano.
The Simor Ottó Stúdió is also available as a venue, where mainly stand-up, literary performances, and dance will take place, as well as the open-air stage.
Zsófia Nemes, head of the theater’s new dance department, said that the PR-Evolution Debrecen Contemporary Dance Group, which joined the theater, is twenty years old this year. “We will play three of our repertoire performances this season: the evening entitled Blue Men/És Fehér, Agapé, and Da Vinci’s Smile. Our latest performance is Toward the Completeness, inspired by the work of Sándor Weöres. We are also starting a junior program to search for young talents”.
At the press conference, the new music director of the Debrecen theater, Sándor Szabolcs, was introduced, and Gergely Kesselyák, who will conduct Puccini’s Bohémé, was also present. “I left the Opera House under rather stormy conditions. I think it is very important that there is opera life in Hungary outside the capital,” said the conductor.
(MTI)
