Devised színházi törekvések az ezredforduló utani erdélyi

Devised Theatrical Endeavours in Transylvanian Hungarian Theatre After the Turn of the Millennium

It took more than three decades for new theatrical styles, forms and genres to appear in the practice of Hungarian theatre in Romania, which broke the traditional theatrical hierarchy (text-director-actor), dared to use spaces outside the theatre, involved the audience in the creative process and force spectators to look at theatrical art from a different perspective.

My thesis examines the non-traditional, complex theatrical performances of the post-millennium period, of the last twenty years, which have been created partly or entirely through devised theatre methods by Hungarian theatre projects in Romania, at the same time, I ask the question to what extent it is possible to break out of the cultural rules and the theatrical framework accepted by the social consensus: how do theatre institutions, audiences and critics receive these experiments?

Undoubtedly, after the turn of the millennium, there were and still are several efforts in Transylvanian Hungarian theatre life, both within and outside the institutional framework, which tried to override the logocentric and directorial-authority-centred conception of theatrical performance, typical of official theatre (stone theatre)^[1], in the creation of which the actor participated as co-creator of the performance, and not only as executor of the director's ideas. The extent to which these attempts were successful, and to what extent the concepts of devised theatre were realised in them, I intend to assess, document and analyse by analysing the individual performances.

I have a degree in acting, and I participated in the creation of the performances and projects analysed in the second part of my thesis, as a full-fledged creator, so I also tried to show aspects of these processes that those who were not part of the creative team could not see as much. My main objective was to research some exemplary Hungarian theatre projects in Romania over the last twenty years, based on personal experience, but also informed by theoretical and scientific methods and literature, which departed from the logocentric and directorial authoritarianism of the stone theatre, outside and inside institutional structures.

I describe and analyse all these phenomena through the theatrical concepts used in the devised theatre method. I aim to prove that the performances I have highlighted, which move away from the logocentric and directorial-authority-centred theatre model and are created in an unconventional space, are of pioneering importance, and help to bring Hungarian theatre in Romania up to date with Western European theatrical trends, which we have missed for historical and political reasons that have also determined theatre creation.