János Vitéz

Or the hero's wonderful journey and wonderful arrival

Presentation: 16 November 2011.
Director: Gábor Boka

People always need a bit of cheer, a liberating laugh, and even more so in times of crisis, to relieve the tension of a stifling grey day. Perhaps this played an important role in the decision of the Harghita National Szekler Folk Ensemble to ask director Gábor Boka to stage the play.

János the Valiant is quite different from the usual ones. It avoids the operetta tinsel and does not fall into the trap of the fashionable musical. Petőfi's work is rather a skeleton, a framework for the show. The performance interweaves elements of the fairy tale and situational comedy with mischievous, sometimes veiled, mischievous humour. There are allusions to the realities of our times, and of course there is plenty of dancing. The show, with its minimalist means, evokes the atmosphere of the performances of the travelling actors of the old fairs, and is fun for children and adults alike, as the subtitle says: "dance pictures for young and old, based on the work of Sándor Petőfi".

The director has treated the dancers of the ensemble as partners in the work and, in addition to entrusting them with the choice of dances and music for the scenes, has given them ample scope for improvisation in the solution of both stage images and text passages.

Nor should it be overlooked that the structure of the show and its almost unbelievably small set allow it to be performed on tiny stages in remote villages. This will allow the ensemble to bring a ray of joy to the villages of Harghita County after the premiere in Ciuc, and then to the small communities of the region ... and perhaps the opportunity to enjoy this extraordinary performance of John the Vytetus in Hungary.

I daresay that the young Petőfi, as a wandering actor, would have imagined János Vitte in a similar way. I dare say he would have been happy to perform in this production.

József Rangyák
November 2011