The Most Beautiful Night of the Soul is a dense and unsettling show of two performers staged by the actor-director Csaba Polgár. The performance is based on short stories of Sándor Jászberényi, acclaimed Hungarian writer and photojournalist who has worked in dangerous conflict zones of the Middle East and Africa. Told from the perspective of a Cairo-based Eastern-European war correspondent The Most Beautiful Night of the Soul is about some of today and the recent past most pressing political and social issues (i. a. globalism, the Arab Spring, religious terrorism, immigration, gender roles, prostitution and poverty) and a troubled middle-class man, who is struggling with his own demons, marriage crisis and addictions. With his collection of short stories Jászberényi won in 2017 the Libri-Award for outstanding achievement in contemporary Hungarian literature.

„Jászberényi makes Hemingway or Ryszard Kapuściński seem fat and soft.” (Tibor Fischer, The Guardian)

„In Polgár’s stage direction the figure of Daniel Marosh comes to pieces, his voice is duplicated and embodied by two actors. The failure of Marosh’s own life is mirrored in the crisis of the patriarchal Middle-East societies afflicted by Western intervention. This submergence corrodes and deglorifies the image of the potent macho. The stage is full of objects defined by the life of a war correspondent and a soulless metropolis: old TV screens, disposable cups, empty packages of sedative drugs, plastic garden chairs and neon tubes. In this alienated atmosphere every story gains its own theatrical language enriched with colourful ideas.” (Andrea Rádai, Magyar Narancs)

„What happens, when the civilization-membrane of our world ruptures? When the order regulated by European law and tradition expires – because of wars, unbearable climate, poverty and social inequality? As we watch the performance all of these are experienced as our present time or a very possible future.” (Edit Domján – Panni Puskás, Színház)

Played by
István Ficza, Zsolt Nagy

Textbook: Ármin Szabó-Székely
Set and costume design: Lili Izsák
Music: Tamás Matkó
Media design: András Juhász, Dávid Maruscsák
Assistant, stage manager: Csilla Mészáros
Prompter: Anikó Sütő

The performance includes photos and videos of the author.

Supported by the City of Budapest.
Special thanks to Nóra Diána Takács, Tünde Kókai, Emőke Zsigmond, Dyssou Bona and Noémi Vilmos.

18+

Photos: Judit Horváth

Duration: 01:30

Gallery