Szabó Éda: Report on the performances “Mosaic” and “Father, Son, …” at the 14th HolnapUtán Fesztivál

The second day of the HolnapUtán Fesztivál in Oradea began at the Mihai Eminescu National College, where the Figura Stúdió Színház presented its theatre-in-education performance titled Mosaic. The title of the production alone already sets a wide range of thoughts in motion within me, which are then clarified through Barti Lehel-András’s ice-breaking association game. The starting concept: FAMILY. What follows: “support,” “safety,” “belonging.” The words keep piling up, the chalk wears down, and then suddenly clap — the performance begins, and we are immediately drawn into the life of what at first seems to be an average family, gathered for an evening of the board game Activity.

The challenge: who? Dani, Tünde, Nóra, and Nicu (Barti Lehel-András, Pascu Tamara, Bartha Boróka, and Faragó Zénó); when? During a school class period. What do they do? They portray the life of a blended family through an improvised performance inspired by their own experiences. Keywords: harmony, selective waste collection, crushing plastic bottles, tolerance, rebellion, electric toothbrush, toilet, Romanian, Hungarian, marriage, parent, child, ceramics, composing music, basketball, dad, disharmony, giving, receiving, sea, silence, storm, growing together.

And finally? A reflection workshop: the actors step out of their roles and reflect together with the students on what they have seen. A discussion begins about the characters’ personalities, the emotions and reactions they experienced, and the intentions behind their actions. The students are also given space to express their own opinions: they can share what they would do differently if they could step into one of the characters’ shoes, and which parts of the story they could or could not relate to. And how would they continue the story? They show it — through tableaux vivants coordinated by the actors.

Then we move on. The location is the Transilvania Stage. The Ariel Youth and Children’s Theatre presents Father, Son, … directed by Gyevi-Bíró Eszter. Three men, two actors: Szabó Dániel and Bonczidai Dezső, along with a moderator drama teacher, Fehér Csaba. “Father, Son, …” is a theatre-in-education performance about the relationship between a father and a son. More precisely, about the absence of such a relationship. More precisely, about what we do when a long-unseen family member suddenly reappears in our lives. As adults, do we handle such situations better than we did as children? And what does it even mean to be an adult? How long can we blame our parents for our own fate and our misguided decisions? Do we dare face our own fears? Can we take responsibility for our actions? Can we become the brave, heroic pirates of our own lives? Or do we rather lull ourselves forever into uncertainty just to avoid facing the truth?

The aim of the reflective workshop following the performance is to help answer these questions through the story presented on stage. The session employs the method of safe distancing: participants are not asked to speak about themselves directly, but rather to formulate advice for the protagonist regarding his life path. This method allows students to reflect indirectly, through the character’s fate, on their own life situations and decisions.

Szabó Éda is a first-year theatrology student at the University of the Arts Târgu Mureș.