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IMRE KERÉNYI: STEPHEN THE KING, 1985
anthem (creating a frame with Beethovens Overture to King Stephen) was
played on an electric keyboard and sounded not bombastic at all, while a
shabby and faded red-white-green flag rose high at the back.°°* In spite of
the low-key use of the elements of national identity, far from stirring up
loud patriotism, some disputed the aesthetic character of this stage effect.°°®
However, as Stephen was raising up the child at the same time, the sound and
the image were as fully rooted in the dramatic situation as they had been at
every moment before.
ACTING
Instead of hosting the cast of the 1983 production that seemed paradigmatic
in terms of voices, the National Theatre relied almost entirely on its own
resources to produce the rock opera. The composer, Levente Szörenyi
was coaching the actors throughout the summer of 1985,*°° and they were
“working with unprecedented hardness and intensity (at least on this stage)”
during rehearsals.**’ In addition to the mostly young members of the company,
the National Theatre signed a single guest: Gyula Vikidal, who had played
Koppany in the City Park two years before. “Uniting spontaneous elements
of folk dance and rock culture into a coherent composition of movement”,®**
the choreography was based on “some simplified, rhythmic gestures” that had
been transferred “from the effects of the monumental scenes full of dance”
on King Hill.*°° It was executed by students of the College of Theatre and
Film Arts as well as the actors’ studio of the National. Singing did not sound
as the imitation of the movie soundtrack, and the not-specifically trained
voices created “a new Hungarian singing style [...] from the contrast between
the strange emphases of rock music and the singing of folk songs in dance
854 Cf, “The Anthem, which had been played previously with a huge apparatus at the end of
the play and overemphasized by a mass of large tricolors and flags, is sounded on keyboard
now, exquisitely and only as a reference to the centuries of history following Stephen.
The overwhelming national tricolor is replaced by a faded, slightly tattered flag, worn in the
storms of centuries.” Takacs: A döntés drámája, 6.
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Istvan Bélcs mentioned “forced and precarious devotion”, since some of the audience stood
up, when they heard the Anthem, others remained seated, but felt forced to stand up still a
bit later. (Gondolatjel, Kossuth Radio, at 11:00 a.m. on 29" September 1985. Transcript for
the Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute.) According to Tamas Koltai, “this Olympic
moment of announcing cathartic victory is aesthetically dissonant. It is breaking the style
and harming the skin of music drama. Unexpectedly, we get excluded from the theatre
event, we get outside of the theatrical consensus. Spectators immediately sense that they are
expected to demonstrate so they stand up." Koltai: Történelem kontra Magyarország, 13.
Fábián: István, a király, 9.
Takács: A döntés drámája, 6.
Koltai: Történelem kontra Magyarország, 13.
Fodor: István, a király, 2.
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