12. Madách International Theatre Meeting

Few places, still silent or empty, are the theater itself, with capital letters and without any other need of the visitor than to be there, immerse themselves in a sacred and perfect space, the true peak of human creation and reverence for the millenary art of Melpomene and Thalia Andrea Palladio imagined it so at the end of the sixteenth century in the conception of the Olympic of Vicenza masterfully drawing space between the ancient walls of an old prison, and thus receives us today, with a greatness that does not overwhelm, but envelops, with a display harmonious classical forms that become the ideal cornice, the perfect framework for the theater and dance, in all its forms and styles, demonstrate their will to survive, to teach us the mirror path of the arts and its enduring value, its spokesman of the news and the farce, the tragic and the comedian. It is thrilling to think that some of the lamps of the ghostly illumination that Scamozzi designed for the Oedipus premiere in the sixteenth century have survived in part.

„Puppets Don’t Cry...”– an exhibition of Zsolt Szász in the foyer on the third floor and a photo exhibition by Zsolt Eöri Szabó In the lobby on the first and second floors: Dreamscapes.

The first voice is that of hope. After two years of worry, compensation and finding the way, the Madách International Theatre Meeting – MITEM can again become what it was intended to be: the free encounter of theatre companies and audience where people can get to know each other and have a glance at the most beautiful faces of other cultures. It is neither a festival nor a competition, but a meeting. This simple but perhaps currently better appreciated social occasion allows us to experience theatre as a celebration.

The cultural history of the donkey reaches back to Greek mythology and the biblical times: the legend of Silenus’ donkey is well known; the New Testament gives an account of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey; Sancho Panza rode his own donkey; in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream the weaver Bottom turns into a donkey before he falls in love with the goddess Titania. Nevertheless, the donkey is often associated with stupidity, stubbornness, but also humility.

The working relationship over the past two decades and the close friendship between the legendary Russian director Anatoly Vassiliev and Mari Törőcsik are well known among Hungarian theatre lovers. The period spent with Vassiliev's company and the in-depth work that took place there was captured in this documentary by Gyula Maár, providing a glimpse into the operation of a unique theatre from behind the scenes.

The title of our series is borrowed from Eugenio Barba and Nicola Savarese’s dictionary of theatre anthropology. This lavishly illustrated publication by the Károli Könyvműhely [Károli Book Workshop] and L'Harmattan Publishers is the fruit of many years of the authors’ research which, unlike most Western investigations, provides an empirical approach to the performing arts.

The Theatre olympics are one of the most prestigious, professionally and socially significant events in the world of theatre, founded in 1994, on the initiative of the renowned Greek theatre director Theodoros Terzopoulos. It shows an outstanding recognition of the Hungarian theatre life and of the Madách International Theatre Meeting (MITEM) that the Professional Committee of the International Theatre olympics has awarded Hungary the right to host the next, 10th (jubilee) games in 2023, on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Imre Madách.

The workshop is an introduction to the renowned and influential method of Theordoros Terzopoulos that is being taught in International Drama Academies, Drama Schools and Universities, and has inspired actors all over the world.

“Ah, in this tumult wild, What shall become of that self locked in me.” – It has a powerful message that this time the organisers have not chosen a new motto for the Madách (Imre) International Theatre Meeting, but kept the quote chosen before the pandemic.