AGON 18

“I am the accused! It is I who will solve the mystery!”

“Agón is the acute, pained and anxious cry of a sensitive, fragile and self-consuming Man who wants to experience and understand the world, who realises that he is adrift, but can neither accept nor change that. His is an insightful diagnosis, an apocalyptic vision. A trial wherein the accused turns into an accuser. The condemned rebels against his condemners,” says Attila Vidnyánszky, director of the première.

Péter Pál Józsa (1960-2019), creator of the script, orchestra music and stage space, reaches back to the oldest roots of theatre: ancient Greek tragedies. He presents the spiritual struggle (agón: contest), i.e. the agony of the world – the chorus – and Man.

The audience and the actors sit together in the arena-like space reminiscent of Rome's Colosseum – In other words, we are all part of the great trial. The events are presented by four opera singers, the Honvéd Male Choir and eight actors. The production is an interdisciplinary encounter of contemporary theatre and music, a vision of the world by an unknown author and a well-known director.

"Cultural correlations, references, associations come rushing in. It's almost impossible to understand it all, to take it all in," adds the director. "Reference is made to Xerxes, the Bible, the Twin Towers. The most fascinating thing is that the work spans millennia, it shows the interconnectedness of human history. By turning the space into an arena, I've created an exciting setup - the circle is closed. Everyone sees everyone else. The spectator is totally flooded by a continuous barrage of impulses. Since there is no dramatic story in the classical sense, I have built in subtle hints, relationships and potential links, so that the spectator can hold on to some impulse and start fragments of stories in his mind about men and women, about people in power and victims. My fellow creators and I invite the audience on a tough and painful, yet exciting intellectual adventure.”