Sándor Zsótér’s performances one would love very much or not. Those viewers, who are between the later ones, do not buy tickets on them, for the funs Lorenzaccio by Musset with the performance of Maladype Theatre is a real treat.

The recipe is well known: take a play, possibly a romantic sad one or a political historical drama, mix up the dramaturgical traditions and complete it with a little bit of actuality of today. Then sprinkle it with a little bit of humour, irony and decorate it with useful and creative usage of costumes and set. This menu is usually successful in the cultural dinner fights (I have already written about things like this), but it is similar to most of the Hungarian food: it is easy to prepare, but it can be spoiled well. So we have to take care of the rates.

Zsótér chooses Musset’s historical drama for his aims. It is a fortune, that however the programme promises all kinds of political ideas, and explains long the why and how of the performance, the staging and the actors’ performance make us forget what we have read, so do not push different kinds of messages into us. Mostly because, the performance keeps all through its time, its easy and ironic tone, and does not turn towards Hamlet-like philosophy nor towards sentimental tragedy (neither with the main character’s monologue before the murder). Anyway, we cannot giggle and laugh with full mouth; the director stops us, keeps us tight and does not let go wild, the jokes of underbody, and superficiality. We do not play clowns but we have sense of absurdity. An example: when the ghost is mentioned Zoltán Lendváczky in silly, thin voice, sings the theme music of Ghostbuster, which does not fit there. (Who does not know it; it is the Ghostbusters from the 80s. Other can be nostalgic with YouTube and Ray Parker.) Of course, it is funny. We can hear this melody again when the gloves-monster of the new prince gets to live: a ghost goes around Europe.

As we can read it on the website of Maladype, “Lorenzo Medici is a silent, introvert, scientist young man. Then suddenly gets to the dissolute, evil ruler of Firenze, to Alessandro Medici. [...] He hates people. He thinks he has known them. He treats the murder as a probe. Can they live with the sudden freedom? He thinks it well. They cannot. He is not happy because of his truth. He dies ugly, disillusioned, in an unworthy way. He is lynched. And those benefit on the confused situation, who are led by interests and not by ideas. Firenze chooses an untalented puppet to be the new ruler.”

One spiciness of the performance is given by the fact, that this whole Firenze, this whole play with twenty characters (originally it has four hundred characters, sixty changes of scenes, five acts) is performed by five people. The ratio of the weaker gender is one to four, so men perform more female roles. It suit especially well to Lendváczky. His performance first seems to be hammy, exaggeration, it has caricature-like effect, but then it is suitable in case of the lustful and spoiled woman. And then he does not go on with “joking”: in the role of Lorenzaccio’s aunt, we can see a calm, shy girl.

That “practicum” which is characteristic to the cast, can be connected to the stage too, to be more correctly to the place of performance too: one corner of the room is chosen for it. Here the viewers surround the performers, who are on the stage all through the performance, as there are not any covered places or paths and they solve the common changes of scenes easily, some tells that it is the palace of XY, and we are here then. The actors do not spend much time with changing dresses, who is not needed any more, can go to pose (see it later),or get immersed into handy work.

Both the “set” and the costumes can be characterised by eventuality. There is a white table, a lamp in the corner, which remains here from the 60s (?), some chairs, on the performers we can see all kind of dresses (yes, on the men too) from the pink Adidas tracksuits until red lurex skirts. There are some characteristic accessories too, for example a renaissance female tiara. So their property-like nature can be more emphasized; they are just suitable, they are good for this aim, and they are not results of traditional designer and set builder, costume designer work.

The reproductions, which are stuck in the corner, and well known from renaissance works, have special meanings too. Those actors, who “are not on the stage”, can be shown by pictures, for example as they are frozen in heroic positions. Unfortunately, because of the organisation and distance of the auditorium, these pictures cannot be seen well, and this fine performance cannot get their meaning well. Fortunately, I was sitting on a good place.

One strength of the performance is the crowd of gloves, which define the whole staging and choreography. This idea brings many possibilities of performance: many accidentally connected red, knitted gloves, sometimes they are dresses, armour, robe, blanket, which can be rolled up, put on, then they form a monster – oh, if the society rises! (Anyway, the red colour – variated with some pink – can feel the scenes with eroticism.) At the same time the symbolism of gloves and strings, which are in the performance in other forms too (rubber gloves, needles, balls), while they fill the text of the drama with meaning, and do not force a concrete interpretation on us (this means that and so on). The red strings are everywhere, sometimes in a lyric than a brutal way, for example the confessor cardinal pulls out thin red string from the woman’s ear. In the most important and most grotesque scene of the performance, the rubber gloves can make the killing painfully vivid. While Lorenzaccio is searching for his friend’s heart in the blanket from knitted gloves, he pulls out one by one the man’ internal organs (rubber gloves appear as guts), and the victim is watching wonderingly the process. Finally, he finds the heart – a red ball. Lorenzaccio hides it into one of the gloves, hits it to the ground, jumps on it. Maybe I do not have to talk about the sound effects more detailed.

The killing finally has no aim, all of those, who wanted to go against “the tyrant” with a private army, do not take seriously Lorenzaccio’s promise, they laugh at him incredulously, and by the news of killing they do not act in time. The council names a new one soon to the prince’s place – the great amount of gloves form a monumental, faceless sculpture-like figure, to form the new prince, who at the end of the performance makes his meaningless speech.

Szandra Szonday, Prae.hu, 2009

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)