We recently covered
what fans of fine and applied arts can look forward to in the coming weeks at the B32 Galéria és Kultúrtér but don’t forget that
in the heart of Újbuda's cultural flagship, there’s a stage alongside the
exhibition halls, where many independent theatre companies and bands have trodden
the boards.
Compared to last year's quieter autumn, life is now bustling anew
at the B32, so theatre shows and concerts, presentations and productions, as
well as other exciting attractions, await at the cultural citadel of lively Bartók
Béla út.
Theatre
Never an empty stage
“There’s almost never an empty stage,” says Róbert Farkas, responsible for theatre programming.
“Rehearsals are ongoing as there are several presentations on the calendar. We have already staged the first, on 12 September, Pál Göttinger excelling in the monodrama Black & White, adapted by Gergely Légrádi from Stefan Zweig’s last work, The Royal Game.”
The next performance on the B32 stage, on 7 October, will be a play by Nézőművészeti Kft, starring Péter Scherer, Nóra Parti and Róbert Marton. Frigyes Karinthy’s Journey Round My Skull, a modern Hungarian classic, will be staged, with powerful live music inserts.
The Látókép Ensemble, the
theatre company overseen by famed actor/director Szabolcs Hajdu, is preparing another
big event in the autumn with a new performance, along with pieces entitled
Kálmán-nap and One Percent Indian.
The story should be a real surprise, which to
indicate that Hajdu is now staging a positive, perhaps real-life play for the
B32 stage. In addition to the usual members of the company, the new performance
also features young actors, Fanni Wrochna and recent graduate Adrián
Samudovszky.
Music
Sold out
“Our first music performance sold out straight away, much to our great delight,” says Péter Bársony-Németh, music programmer at B32.
Krisztián Szűcs, once
of Heaven Street Seven, and Zoli Beck of 30Y, appear several times for a joint
evening of pieces by revered Hungarian writers Tamás Cseh and Dénes Csengey on
13 October. The starting point is a number of unperformed songs, stored in a
finished or semi-finished state by the Tamás Cseh Archive. The pair created the
musical tragicomedy Mélyrepülés in 1986, but the political turmoil of the late '80s and the early death of Csengey prevented these songs from being recorded by
Tamás Cseh and performed on stage. Until now.
Lovers of jazz and
contemporary music will also find cultural delights on stage at the B32. In November,
there’s Debussy NOW! Certainly, Debussy would have welcomed the idea of
having his works interpreted by challenging artists a century and a
half later, as he himself sought to do as a forerunner of musical
impressionism. Harpist Anasztázia Razvaljajeva, singer Veronika Harcsa and
guitarist and sound designer Márton Fenyvesi have made contemporary transcripts
of the most beautiful songs by Debussy, in which everything is made possible.
Festivals
The first Újbuda
Children's Book Festival will be held on 25 and 26 September, put together by B32,
where in addition to children’s concerts, the organisers are also preparing
puppet shows, such as Zsombor Barna and his figure László Vitéz.
Bremen’s musicians
appear from the Donkey Ear Project and the Marica Puppet Theatre present
revered classic A Kis Gömböc. The series closes with a puppet show entitled Egy kupac kufli, adapted
in finer detail from András Dániel’s highly successful books by the Kolibri
Theatre in Újbuda.
Concerts add colour to the book festival, thanks to the
Hahó Együttes, Réka Farkasházi and
Tintanyúl, as well as Bori Rutkai and her band.
At the Budapest Autumn Festival, within the framework of Kultuniverzum, the B32 will also be putting on free outdoor events. On 8 October, at the mushroom building on Móricz Zsigmond körtér, Éva Duda’s Company present Prizma, whose central theme is the changing worldview during the pandemic.
On 9 October, commissioned by B32 for the festival, members of Soharóza are preparing a special catwalk concert, an outdoor pop-up version of their most successful production, Dalok a kamrából. This time, the runway will be Bartók Béla út itself, where songs will be performed in poetic attire outside the restaurants and culinary outlets apt for each musical episode. In addition, the Kollár String Quartet will appear on Bartók Béla út with flashmob concerts.
Venue information
B32 Galéria és Kultúrtér
1111 Budapest, Bartók Béla út 32
