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REMEMBRANCE OF A LANDMARK
IN THEATRE HISIORY
TAMÁS ASCHER: THREE SISTERS, 1985
—to>
Title: Three Sisters. Date of Premiere: 6* December, 1985. Venue: Katona
Jézsef Theatre, Budapest. Director: Tamas Ascher. Author: Anton Chekhov.
Translator: Dezs6 Kosztolanyi. Dramaturg: Géza Fodor. Set designer: Istvan
Szlávik. Costume designer: Györgyi Szakács. Company: Katona Jézsef Theatre,
Budapest. Actors: Tamás Végvári (Andrey), Dorottya Udvaros (Natalia
Ivanovna), Erika Bodnár (Olga), Juli Básti (Masha), Ági Szirtes (Irina), László
Vajda (Kulygin), László Sinkó (Vershinin), János Bán (Tuzenbach), Géza
Balkay (Solyony), József Horváth (Chebutykin), Erzsi Pártos (Anfisa), Vilmos
Kun (Ferapont), Sándor Gáspár, Péter Blaskó (Fedotik), Frigyes Hollósi (Rode).
CONTEXT OF THE PERFORMANCE IN THEATRE CULTURE
The context of a really paradigmatic theatre production of the 1980s and
“one of the longest series of Hungarian prosaic theatre” ever,*”* is determined
by two factors. Firstly, the socio-political stagnation of the decade before
the regime change and the total loss of credibility of the socialist salvation
history, and secondly, the questionable productivity of Hungarian theatre and
the problematic nature of its productions at that time.?”? The former could be
not reflected by Hungarian reviewers, but they noted that the production was
“a mere urge to face our age, face ourselves”,®** that it “argued with ferociously
honest acting for the lost human fulfillment”,°®! and that “it showed the story
of Three Sisters [...] in its intense topicality”.*’ Foreign critics, on the other
hand, were much more outspoken in their claims that “anger glows red” in
§78 Tamás Mészáros: Egy korszakos előadás emlékére, Színház, 27:4 (1994), 1.
87 We can agree with the statement that by the time of the Katona’s Three Sisters “Hungarian
theatre, at least as far as the average quality of its shows was concerned, had disintegrated,
diminished or become dull in its companies — let us think of the deteriorating quality in the
countryside -, [...] so it was more and more declining.” Ibid.
880 András Barta: Három nővér. Csehov színműve a Katona József Színházban, Magyar Nemzet,
Vol. 49, No. 21, 25 January, 1986, 9.
881 Tamás Mészáros: , Hát hova tűnt minden?" A Három nővér a Katona József Színházban,
Magyar Hírlap, Vol. 18, No. 301, 24" December, 1985, 11.
882 László Ablonczy: Csehov most - és nálunk. A Három nővér két változatban, Film Színház
Muzsika, Vol. 30, No. 1, 45 January, 1986, 6.
+ 177 +