June 30, Friday and July 1, Saturday at 10:00 pm Tvornica, Šubiceva 2


The Peasant Opera, directed by Béla Pintér, featured at Eurokaz #19. His new project analyses the exchange of cultural stereotypes between Hungary and Croatia. The encounter between Croats as hosts and Hungarians as unruly tourists on the Adriatic coast is presented in an intelligent and humorous way. The starting point, as always in Pintér's productions, is trivial: through brief witty remarks, the characters gain weight, while the plot suddenly takes an obscure, though not completely immoral, and bizarre turn. In a word, Pintér's dramaturgy is a sort of innocent puzzle which in a flash gathers itself into heightened philanthropy.

The setting is an island in the Croatian Adriatic, and the action involves the age old shenanigans between guests and hosts. Pintér's sarcasm spares no one, but likewise insults no one, he respects all the traditions and cultural differences he touches upon, showing awareness of the collision between the world of today and the ghosts of the past. The benign philosophy of Pintér's production nevertheless slides upon the icy subtext of a line by Endre Ady: “What's the use, when a man is a Hungarian.” In this miracle, to use Držic's expression, where Dalmatia will be watched from Budapest, the pleasure will be enhanced by coloful popular Croatian music. Music is one of Pintér's long suits, whether he uses it to sharpen his irony, or to blunt its edge.       
Béla Pintér is certainly the most interesting personality in Hungarian theatre today. He began as a dancer and performance artist, and was involved in major experimental productions of the 1980s and 90s at the Szkéné theatre in Budapest, the only institution to join forces with the innovative European theatre in the West.  

A sharp and independent artist, in his productions Pintér fuses Hugnarian folk tradition and postmodern theatre. Dance and music undermine speech, becoming the mainstay of staged narrative. Each gesture, melody, motif, even the tiniest detail of costume, stimulate the play of meaning. The ossified classical forms collide with fragments of the quotidian, kitsch merges with authentic art, creating a surreal world throbbing on the edge of dream and banality. 

In 1998, Pintér founded the theatre troupe Pintér Béla eś Társulata, which consists of both professional and non-professional actors. Their first international success was The Peasant opera, awarded the Best Musical Production of the Year prize by the Hungarian critics. The number of awards and festival appearances makes them one of the major theatre troupes in Eastern Europe.