Performances / Szigligeti Company / 2024-2025

István Tasnádi

Public Enemy

Musical incitement based on Heinrich von Kleist’s short story

Translated by:: -

Balázs Urbán, a drama critic, made the following statement in connection with the premiere of Public Enemy in Katona József Theater:

“The piece rewrites Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas, having the two stolen horses as the main characters, who relive the drama in an animal shelter. Public Enemy was written purposefully as a performance text, moreover, it gets its ultimate form through the realized performance.

What makes István Tasnádi’s drama unique is the transition between the dramatic play and the stage play. When printed, the reader is presented a seemingly final text, however what gives this an individual internal dynamic is the fact that the actor` performance and the text are in a strange contrast, also there are several underlying structures in these works, so what is presented is not necessarily the truth. From here results the wide variety of interpretations emphasized by the fact that these pieces themselves are playoffs, allusions, postmodern texts.

Almost a quarter of a century after the publishing of András Sütő’s Egy lócsiszár virágvasárnapja, which is known as a contemporary classic nowadays, another Hungarian writer, István Tasnádi, wrote a stage work from Mihály Kohlhaas's narrative. The possibility of comparing the two is tempting: the comparison of the assumed intentions of the creators, the plot arrangement, the narrative perspective and the analysis of the differences in the unfolding worldviews would tell a lot not only about Sütő and Tasnádi, but also about the differences between the creators’ aspirations and their methods in the two eras.”

Balázs Urbán: “A lovakat levágják, ugye?” (“They Slaughter Horses, Don't They?”) Színház periodical, September 1999.

István Tasnádi is a playwright, poet and writer born in 1970 in Budapest. He graduated in Veszprém with a degree in Theatre Studies. He publishes regularly since 1992 (poems, theatre criticism, drama). He was a founding member of Bárka Theatre. Between 1996 and 2001, he works as a playwright in Bárka. From 2001 he is member of Krétakör Theatre. He is the winner of Ernő and József Attila awards. In 1999 he received the Theater Critics’ Award in the best new Hungarian drama category for Public Enemy.

Csaba Tasnádi, István Tasnádi's brother, is a Jászai Mari award-winning (2008) Hungarian director, theatre director. He completed his university studies at ELTE between 1979 and 1984. Between 1984—1987, he studied at BTK and got a degree in aesthetics. He studied at the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in 1990—1993. He was the external assistant at the Hungarian Television. He then worked as an assistant director at Józsefvárosi Theatre and at the Budapest Operetta Theatre. After that, he became a director of Operetta Theatre and then became a freelancer. Between 1997 and 1999, he was the director of the Szentendre Theatre. Since 1999 he is the director of the Zsigmond Móricz Theatre in Nyíregyháza.

Cast:

Mare: Tóth Tünde

Stallion: Kiss Csaba

Mihaly Kohlhaas: Kardos M. Róbert

Herse: Dobos Imre

Castellan: Csatlós Lóránt

Vencel Tronkai: Dimény Levente

Siegfried: Pál Hunor

Günther: Varga Balázs

Lisbeth: Firtos Edit

Lawyer: Szotyori József

Kallheim: Hajdu Géza