Maladype Theater celebrates its 18th anniversary this year. It is one of the most significant creative workshops in the independent theater sphere in Hungary and is a regular guest at international festivals in many countries of Europe, Asia and America.

Zoltán Balázs is the founder and artistic director of the company and he is also a recurring director of many theaters and festivals around the world. His directions have been followed by professional attention in America, France, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania.

Zoltán Balázs’s latest direction was premiered on October 23rd, 2019 at the Odeon Theater in Bucharest. Based on the work of a contemporary Italian author called Pier Lorenzo Pisano, “For your own good” –similar to Balázs’s previous successful direction Gardenia came together within the framework of the international project FabulaMundi Playwright Europe.

In the season 2019/20, both productions of the Odeon Theater will be seen in China, Lebanon, Colombia, Spain and Italy.

The Maladype Company lost its permanent place, the Maladype Base, in April 2019 due to the carelessness of a flat-mate, thus the daily function and survival of the theater were in danger. The Mikszáth Square’s apartment theater, which served as a rehearsal room a performing place, has been flooded, the technical equipment, sets, props and costumes of the performances on repertoire have been destroyed. The significant financial and technical damage to the theater forced the company to reduce the number of company members to half and permanently leave the seven-year-old property they’ve owned. However, the reduced conditions and the lack of a stable performing place does not allow them to hold their festival prized performances (Richard III, August) in Hungary as well.

Maladype has started the 2019/20 season with tours overseas. The independent theater’s company has received for the first time an invitation to Vietnam, in Hanoi, at the International Experimental Theatre Festival which was organized for the fourth time, they’ve been also invited to the SKAMPA International Contemporary Theater Festival in Elbasan and Tirana, Albania. August, a non-verbal performance based on the stories of Bruno Schulz, had been in Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia as part of the Western-Balkan Cultural Season program series organized by the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The multi-award-winning performance will next be seen at the BITEF Theater in Belgrade on 13th December. Since the foundation of the internationally renowned theatrical workshop in 2001, Zoltán Balázs, the leader of the companies goal is, that its theater can redefine itself, gain new insights in new contexts. He considers change as a natural process of theater-making. In the spirit of this concept is Witold Gombrowicz’s Yvonne play currently being rehearsed at the Fészek Artist’s Club, where the company has been given an opportunity to perform and rehearse. The long-awaited premiere of Maladype, directed by Zoltán Balázs, could be seen on January 25th, 2020 in the Theatre Hall of the Fészek Artist’s Club.

szinhaz.org, November 23, 2019.