Gábor Murányi: Victor Kravchenko, I Chose Freedom

“A man sits in front of fifty people and reads out loud. This statement is correct by not being true: there is a thick sheaf of papers in front of Zoltán Balázs, and yet, he recites the whole thing by heart. Sometimes he improvises, sometimes he condenses; he brings about shocking and memorable moments with heart-wrenching stories alternating throughout the performance. The audience of Maladype’s new production is part of an exciting confrontation; disturbing sections of the performance get burned into their minds and encourage us to keep recalling them later on. The Soviet functionary who ‘defected’ during WWII once – rather precisely, as we know today – described the mechanisms of police socialism: in vain, as policymakers of the world considered it farfetched. It was not like that at all – it was the pure reality.”

Gábor Murányi: Victor Kravchenko: I Chose Freedom (excerpt), hvg.hu, 2015.