16 July 1992
It is the curiosity of the
1991-92 season that the collaboration with director László Lantos from Novi Sad
is continuing. It is a paradoxical period since he leads a tough and sometimes
maybe even useless actor training seminar which’s results are not always and undoubtedly
positive. The results of the drawn out improvisational rehearsal series is
Pöszmékör and Skulltower. One of the defining traits of the production is its
precision and the calculated concept that Lantos set up even before starting
the rehearsal process. Due to the staggering amount of recorded sound the
length of the play is tremendous. It is a variation according to Lantos on
Beckett’s Endgame by the title of Skulltower. The insanely consuming production
divides opinion regarding the guest performances from Marosvásárhely… “They
beat the drums… the percussionists at front stage and the tam-tam kept at it
for four hours without pause as if we were witnesses to a primitive tribe’s
marching music accompanied by the movement of rhythms or the rhythm of
movement… below the percussionists two figures clad in black and adorned with
skulls moved incessantly while two figures in trash cans showed up as well all
the while the beckettian libretto gurgled, whined, agonized all around..
Maybe it was a very good
production, maybe our parochial thinking isn’t able rise to the elevations
where the end of the world remained to be the spirit and body of a handful of
decomposing people giving off foul odors, Krónikás admits he didn’t understand
one single thing of it all the while complementing the relentlessness of the
percussionists. Maybe we should have seen something big, but it’s just that
most of the audience went home during the play and those who remained were in
no mood to applaud.”
Bálint András: Skulltower of the Figura
(Hargita Népe 1992.07.24.)
Directed by: Lantos László (Triceps)