With One Percent Indian, with a text created during the rehearsal process by the actors and the director, the company has found a very special, condensed theatrical language that is able to grab the essence of daily life among middle-class people struggling with midlife crisis. Not surprisingly, text is an important ingredient: the wording is extremely precise, every sentence sounds natural. And this type of small talk, as well as little conflicts and happenings during the plot, reveals what is tragic in our everyday life. Intimacy is also essential: the performances are played in front of a small audience, on a small stage, and with only some casual set pieces – like a few chairs, a table and a sofa. For this reason, when you watch It’s Not the Time of My Life, Kálmán’s day, and the newest piece, One Percent Indian (together they make up a trilogy), you have the feeling that you are watching your own life. And it is such an elementary feeling, that it hurts.

While the first piece was about children and the second about (the lack of) sexual intimacy, this last one brings gender roles into focus. The situation is quite simple: three couples meet after the funeral of the men’s friends. The couples are on different levels of emancipation; there is a girl who is regularly beaten up by her boyfriend who thinks men have to teach women where they belong. Another couple is made up of highly intellectual people who are even able to reflect on themselves and (kind of) discuss their problems. What is common in all of them is that they are not happy floundering in the roles they inherited or tried to change in vain. One Percent Indian exposes the extremity and invisibility of these structures.

Andrea Rádai, Színház

Played by
Erika Tankó, Kinga Ötvös, Orsolya Török-Illyés, Imre Gelányi, Szabolcs Hajdu, Domokos Szabó, Szabolcs Vereb

Director’s assistant: Borbála Rezek
Lights: Csaba Bántó
Sound and lighting technician: Szabolcs Vereb
Music: Szabolcs Vereb
Production manager: Fruzsina Eszes

Supported by NKA, B32 Galéria és Kultúrtér, Hold21 HPS KultSzalon

Photo: Csaba Bántó

Duration: 01:25

Gallery