Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro is a well-composed comedy of tricks. I remember that I laughed a lot during its first reading, especially when the giving of slaps and kisses turn into a full chaos, but not without any system, everybody gets what deserves, according to the rules of a good humoured and truthful order. The story, the turns and the comic situations can hold our interests all through the performance. We can support Figaro (Ákos Orosz performs him) and his beautiful bride, Suzanne (Erika Tankó) to be able to fulfil the marriage, and maybe beyond it all, they can get a marriage portion too. Here are two talented young actors – I have seen Erika Tankó performed for the first time, she is a fresh member of the troupe of Maladype – from their performance we can feel that they inspire each other. They are a perfect couple. Figaro and Suzanne finally fulfil the plan over a bit, it turns out that who is skilful, who has fast mind and hands, can get two or three portions during a night. It is not doubt, that on which side we are. The other characters help or set back the aim, whether he is Don Gullible or a fatal gardener (Júlia Ungár’s fantastic invention). For the first sight, the front lines seem to be obvious.

For the second sight, the situation is more complicated than this. On the axle of the play and performance, there is the wedding – the characters are standing on the two sides of deep rock ditches of marriage. It is not easy to get to the other side, and if they can, there is no way back. Before the marriage there are Figaro and future Mrs. Figaro, after it, (by using the title of a János Háy’s collection of short stories) there are Count Almaviva (Ádám Tompa) and the Countess (the woman’s name, who is performed by Judit Kovács Ligeti, has not mentioned during the performance, as Mrs. Almaviva, she lives with her husband’s name in their marriage and the play too), in a relationship, which is a little bit shrivelled after three years of marriage. The young leader, because of his eager of sex or love, looks into the world with magnetic gaze, and the countess turns her pain into daydreaming towards a squire, which she feels because of her abandonment.

The third couple also show a typical situation: Chérubin, who loves all women, and Fanchette, who loves all the men. The fourth couple is formed by the old lady, Marceline (Mari Törőcsik) and the eternal bachelor, Bartholo, the doctor from Sevilla (Zsolt Páll). Sándor Zsótér’s perfect staging choice to make Mari Törőcsik performs the role of the old lady, by this he gives the role of Figaro’s lost mother to a great actress, who is much older than the others. The woman, who wants marriage in black dress – who sees only one aim in front of her: “Get married to him, get married” – that way she becomes a very caricaturesque and endlessly tragic phenomenon.

Marceline’s fate and past is opened beautifully and gradually: the fallen girl, who we can see as spinster now, who has suffered from her affair without marriage, all through her life. Mari Törőcsik’s voice cuts sharply the air, as she is disparaging the bride, and wants justice for herself, her face becomes childish, while she is admiring Figaro, but she talks about women’s fate wisely, without feelings and self-pity. Her monologue is wonderful, which, becomes stresses moment of the performance, which uses Júlia Ungár’s translation. According to the cast: Marceline, whom thing are put on. The intriguer is a victim herself. She asks justice for her whole life. While the comedy of intrigue is going on, because of desire and joy, for pleasure and money, her life and dignity have already faded. She is fighting. And she reaches her aim, in an unexpected way.

The Countess, similarly to Marceline, seems to be a side character for the first time, however she stands for a complex and exciting female fate. From the Countess, who is daydreaming in sun protector mask on the terrace, she becomes a wife, who is ready to face up with the truth. She goes to the garden, pretending to be Suzanne to meet her own husband, to hear with her own eras, as he tries to seduce another woman. Judit Kovács Ligeti performs nuancedly with good sense the teenager-like fantasy overacting towards the desire of love and the young wife’s disillusioned depressive days, she can give varying colours and sounds to the figure, whether she is fighting for or against the count.

Marceline is in black, the other women: the Countess, Suzanne and Fanchette are walking in wedding dresses, in the cross shaped place, which is formed in the flat, the borders of which are marked by the viewers. The place of the performance is the base of Maladype Theatre, a citizen flat, from the big room, two double doors open to the smaller ones, which are sometimes, pavilions, changing rooms, or they can get any other functions. In one of them, there many packages of newspapers, tided together, and put on one another (which is the set of one of the previous performance by the troupe), in the other one, we can see half pair of white tights drying on the heater. The place is not use as the reality of the civilian flat, but as a set instead, with that gift of flat theatres, that we can see the characters from the distance of some centimetres. The performance is the day of the wedding, both in metaphorical and concrete meaning. The whiteness of wedding, its colt celebrity nature and sterility are defining. The objects are emphasized with sharp contours between the white walls and white dresses, for example an old armchair and night cloth (a black woman’s bra).

In the couples we can see the different variations of the possibilities of marriages. The possibilities are reflected in one another. The picture is shocking, when we can see the two couple in the two doors for the first time. They are in front of each other, with red face, they are all driven by different passion. They are nice couples, but they are mixed up. Figaro is with the Countess, the Count is with Suzanne. A blonde and a black hair couple is standing in front of each other, as the men are ready to lead the girls in wedding dresses to the church. The mirror structure reflects on one another those, who are before, and those, who are after the marriage. We know, that the Count has fought, and eloped, he cheated the world for his bride, as his servant does it too – the picture of him, from the past, makes us remember Figaro. That is why, we have to ask, whether it is natural, what has happened to the Count-couple, will it be Figaro’s fate too?

Ákos Orosz’s Figaro gives us hope for the negative answer. His performance emerges from the powerful performances, with its tempo, naturalness and changings. Whether we give a vote of confidence for him or the figure he performs, if we do it – it cannot be separated. But the difference, which can be found in the last few sentences between the written and the performed text, can make us think it over again. It makes a difference, that whether “my wife and wealth give me respect and pleasure” or “leave my wife and wealth alone”. Figaro, the fighting intriguer, can hold hope, the as well as fight, he is also the same and maybe it is worth getting married.

Borbála Sebők, Revizoronline, 2011

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)