By: József Katona
Directed by: Andrej Visky
Playreader: Johanna Bertóti
Costume Designer: Andrea Kürti
Assistant Costume Designer: Anita Kürti
Featuring:
Gertrudis – Orsolya Veres (former cast: Maja Sebők)
Bánk bán – Zsolt Csepei
Melinda – Emőke Pál (former cast: Tímea Udvari, Zsuzsanna Vass, Emese Simó, Margit Molnár)
Ottó – Levente Imecs-Magdó
Biberach – Endre Rácz (former cast: Wilhelm Buchmann, Bence Molnár, Tekla Ravasz)
II. Endre – Endre Rácz (former cast: Nándor Vetési)
Petur bán – Levente Imecs-Magdó (former cast: Nándor Vetési)
First run: April 5, 2012, at Apáczai Csere János High School
Duration: 40 minutes
Language: Hungarian
Bánk bán? Present! is a play that addresses high school students. This rather untraditional performance reshapes a compulsory reading of the high-school curriculum: Katona József’s Bánk Bán.
Our school-room performance is not meant to invite the students to our own show rooms but to watch the play in their own learning environment, i.e. to be invited to their own classroom. While knocking on the doors of all the schools we are trying to spread the play in as many schools as possible. Our focus is expanding it to outside Kolozsvár as well paying special attention to the regions where the access to culture is rather limited.
What are the aspects of texts, our national tragedy that could be transferred to a present day interpretation? What do we still have in common with it other than the fact that it is a compulsory part of the Hungarian literature curriculum? How can we approach a text written in the 19th century that recounts a story from the 13th century? These were the issues we focused on when deciding to elaborate and reshape this tragedy.
Festival participations:
May 11, 2023: Vendégváró Plus Festival, Theater Olympics – Budapest
March 23, 2018: HolnapUtán Festival – Oradea
June 2-8, 2014.: Lurkó Festival – Miercurea Ciuc
November 16, 2013: KISZT – Cluj-Napoca
September 27 – October 6, 2013: Colloquium of Minority Theaters, 10th edition – Gheorgheni
August 1-4, 2013: Köz-ép-pont Meeting – Sfântu Gheorghe
Éva Szilléry: Making Bánk bán contemporary
in Magyar Nemzet, 14th May 2023
“The stakes of the school dramas in general are whether the students can be engaged, whether they can go along with the play, whether they can take ownership of the story. It’s a very difficult acting task in front of a teenage audience that is sensitive to everything. The sincere and natural presence of the cast of Váróterem Projekt ensured that the members of the tenth grade class became fully part of the tragedy.”
Eszter Brassai: A Bánk Bán story with chalk powder
szigligeti.wordpress.com, 23rd March, 2018
“This performance puts the spectator in front of some important questions. For a teenager, Bánk Bán has more important messages about characters, tangled feelings, or the relationship between the individual and the power, and the creators have managed to present these things perfectly. They offer this performance not as a teaching material, nor as a substitute material, but they offer it as an opportunity for students to find themselves and their surroundings through this drama over an hour. ”
Nagy Székely Ildikó: Catharsis in the classroom
e-nepujsag.ro, April 27th, 2015
„The company likes to experiment, and we thought that the high-school age group is quite neglected regarding the theatrical performances. The Bánk Bán is part of the compulsory curriculum, so we wanted to bring closer to the students it’s message and it’s language also.”
Jászay Tamás: With the power of surprise
Tiszatájonline.hu, 27th April, 2015
„The secret of the plays succes leis in it’s flexibility and energy, in the way that the actors are adapting to the ever changing „here and now”s of the story. They are mostly relying on gestures, mimicry and on unexpected and humorous actions, but they are also playing with the melody of the text, the acoustics, tearing down the wall between the stage and the auditorium.
Katalin Jancsó: Bánk bán and Verespatak
Székely hírmondó, 18th November 2013
“(…) they provide freedom of space for experimentation while they are looking for the answer to the question: How can this classical masterpieces be voiced in such a way as to deliver a modern message?”
Bea Kovács: bankban.zip
kolli-baci blog, 4th October 2013
“The WTP group have tried a new genre again, and their Bánk Bán is not in shortage of striking ideas, ideas that are immediately understood and enjoyed and savoured by the young generation.”
Panna Adorjáni: Bánk bán is Present!
Játéktér, 1st issue
“This Bánk bán uses the language of fourteen-year-olds, it is from the same age and medium as them, lives in the same environment embracing their simplicity or rather simplified nature, it truly understands them and fills their shoes. In other words this play: takes responsibility over a layer of society that is neglected with great perplexity not just by the theatre but by all layers of society”
Tímea Rácz: Bánk Bán? Jelen! –What Does Queen Gertrude Do with a Horsewhip?
Transindex.ro, 29th May 2012
“They have involved a considerable amount of humour while presenting the requirements of the conspirators against the queen: The members of the audience could write a petition in which they express their opinion according to which the queen oppresses and mortifies her subjects.”
