The Second Madách International Theatre Meeting - Preface

Theatre companies traveled to Budapest from an array of countries to participate, including Russia, Norway, Lithuania, Georgia, and Serbia, as well as companies representing national minorities, such as the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. I remain firmly convinced that this meeting of creative minds, which is part of the international circulation of ideas pertaining to the theatre, is of immense importance. It is important for us to be able to observe how national theatres, independent companies, directors, playwrights, and theatre experts from various parts of the world react to the challenges of the 21st century. In the world of today, which on the one hand is marked by fervent globalization but on the other is threatened by new divisions, and more specifically in Europe, which is seeking both its place and its path, art—and in particular the theatre—is a source of new, fecund and provocative ideas that exert an influence even on our everyday lives. It is extremely important for us to be able to meet and communicate with the artists of different nations, admire one another’s work and strive to understand one another. For this will better enable us to discover ourselves in the other, much as we discover the other in ourselves, for at a certain level our standpoints and our goals no longer differ. This is why I feel that this meeting embodies a vision of these points and a gaze fixed on lofty heights. 

 

It will be interesting to discover how the artists of the Macedonian National Theatre, which only recently opened, conceptualize national culture and how the same question is raised in the Burgtheatre of Vienna, which looks back on a long history. And of course we too will share our views on these questions in the National Theatre in Budapest. If we are truly interested in Europe’s diversity, then we must welcome the wide array experiences that await us with wide open gates. Then, with proper gravity, we must carefully consider and even debate what we have seen and experienced.

 

How will a dense series of performances form a communal experience that has a clear arc, substance, and enduring expressive power? How do independent works for the theatre create a genuine festival? We strive to ensure that the productions performed at MITEM will be shared experiences of the artists, the audience, and the experts of the craft. This is why we have included the term “meeting” in our title, with which we wish to emphasize the importance of creative cooperation and togetherness, in contrast with competition. The festival industry of Europe and the world is characterized with increasing subtlety by the attitude of the curator and the priority of profitability. Clearly they are both important perspectives, and these festivals have had important roles for a long time, but I am quite convinced that MITEM, which has a distinctive, artistic vision, adds color to this palette. 

 

    A few years ago, on two occasions the Gyula Illyés Hungarian National Theatre of Beregszász organized a festival, which we named after Andrei Tarkovsky’s famous film Stalker. The stalker guides a writer and a scientist through the dangerous and desolate land to the room where a person’s innermost desires are fulfilled. I look on the actor and indeed the theatre as a kind of “stalking.” Art is a means of guiding the soul and at the same time gazing with wonder on the path of the soul. We have taken great pains to ensure that within the framework of this festival, organized in the National Theatre, this “stalker” message will be clear to all. 

 

Attila Vidnyánszky,

 

Director of the National Theatre,

Budapest