Ildikó Gáspár

Andrea Tompa’s novel begins in 1944 in the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca, as the city’s Jewish residents were being forced into a ghetto, and ends in the early 1990s, when the region’s inhabitants were finally liberated from dictatorship. The plot focuses on a woman who, as an infant, is entrusted by her Jewish mother to a housemaid in order to rescue her from a terrible fate. The child grows up in this new family with a new name and eventually becomes an actress whose career and life are both haunted by her search for her own identity. Our production, developed by a multilingual, multinational creative team and incorporating the various languages and complicated ethnicities of the characters involved, seeks its own answers to the questions of silence and how we face the past.

“There were three major themes I was exploring: the question of fate and origin, issues surrounding adoption, and how the theatre allows us to learn things about ourselves by immersing us in the lives of others. (...) A very important starting point was how the past was lost. A black hole was created by the fact that tens of thousands of human beings were dragged out of this city. It’s not just this child’s parents who disappear, many others go there without a trace. The desolation is so great that it affects everyone: the past of many of the characters is one of obscurity, lies, role-playing, identity changes, and everything else. So what’s gone is gone, this is a fact that we have to live with, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

The show is partly live-stage, partly live-video transmitted from the original rooms as a site-specific surroundings. So, we use as scenes among others the wardrobes, the theatre-buffet, the big auditorium, the street before the entrance, the storages for props and set, the basement with its original metal door with the inscription “Shelter for 41” person. The performance is an international cooperation between Örkeny Színház, Budapest, Hungary and Theaterhaus Jena, Germany.

PERFORMED BY Szandtner Anna, Takács Nóra Diána, Szaplonczay Mária, Friedenthal Zoltán, Ioana Niţulescu (Theaterhaus Jena), Florian Thongsap Welsch (Theaterhaus Jena)

MUSICAL COLLABORATOR Matisz Flóra Lili

ON VIDEO RECORDING Pogány Judit, Ficza István

DIRECTOR Gáspár Ildikó

based upon Michael Ende’s novel “Momo”

Music composed by Tamás Matkó

Set: Lili Izsák, Costume: Luca Szabados, Video design: András Juhász, Choreographie: Veronika Szabó, Light Design: Jürgen Kapitein, Dramaturg: Bassam Ghazi, Johanna Rummeny

“You should take your time for this MOMO.”

KÖLNER STADT-ANZEIGER

“With a lot of humor, but also serious undertones, the Cologne ensemble brings Michael Ende's children's book classic to the stage of Depot 1.”

KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU

“At the heart of the story is Momo (played with nonchalant ease by Maddy Forst), an orphan who lives in an abandoned amphitheater outside the city.”

KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU

“The real special effect remains the fantastic ensemble.”

KÖLNER STADT-ANZEIGER

“The ensemble, which played and made music with great joy, elicited many hearty laughs from the premiere audience.”

KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU

“At the end, after the thunderous applause, there is even time for a song. According to the program booklet, 5400 seconds have passed, and the Grey Lords won't get them back.”

KÖLNER STADT-ANZEIGER

“But despite all the charm and humor, the story still has a serious undertone. The ensemble picks up on this once again in the final musical number: It is worthwhile to simply spend your time consciously with beautiful things and together with the people you love. The audience gave a well-deserved round of applause for the successful performance.”

KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU

An adaptation of Molnar’s Liliom for Dailes Theatre in Riga

The show is showing different kind of agressions as normal part of communication in every day life and as the tool of gain power over others. It is dealing with the theme of “how to love”.

Set design: Lili Izsák Costume: Luca Szabados Light design: Oskars Paulins Video design: András Juhász Music: Flora Lili Matisz Choreography: Veronika Szabó, Ildiko Gaspar Director: Ildiko Gaspar

ALBERT CAMUS: Caligula

With MARTA ANDERSSON-LARSON, ANNA BJELKERUD, HANS BRORSON, LASSE CARLSSON, ANDREA EDWARDS, PER-ANDERS ERICSON, LUKAS FEURST, EMIL LJUNGESTIG, BENJAMIN MOLINER, ANNA WALLANDER , JONAS FRANKE-BLOM

Composer FLÓRA LILI MATISZ ChoreographyVERONIKA SZABÓ Set LILI IZSÁK Costume- andmaskdesign LUCA SZABADOS Lightdesign TAMÁS BÁNYAI Videodesign ANDRÁS JUHÁSZ Adaptation and Director: ILDIKÓ GÁSPÁR

PHOTO: Ola Kjelbye

Author: Henrik Ibsen

Translator: Ildikó Gáspár

Actors: Pál Mácsai, Mária Szaplonczay, Gabriella Hámori, Judit Pogány, György Bajomi Nagy, Emőke Zsigmond, Csaba Polgár

Visual design: Luca Szabados, Video: András Juhász, Gergely Pálos, Music: Flóra Lili Matisz, Dramaturge: Barbara Ari-Nagy, Assistant: Heni Kovács, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Judit Horváth

“Magda Szabó's novel The Door, directed by Ildikó Gáspár at the Örkény Theatre, is a sensitive unity of surreality and ironic, life-smelling reality, falling from the sky, creating a theatrical language about what is lost and what remains forever in a passing century that tears lives and souls apart.” https://potszekfoglalo.hu/2022/04/rendithetetlen/

“The writer Magda is played with strong mannerisms by Anna Szandtner as a diva. At the same time, in this performance, the constant, routinized posturing is able to exist simultaneously with the sincere shock, and this takes place on stage as a kind of real-time self-reflection. It is even a glimpse here of how bizarre, as a fiction, the public memorial as atonement for a crime committed against the pubic is.

Judit Pogány hardly moves, with her posture, her rigid facial expression, her whiplash accents, she creates this old woman who is stern and unyielding on the outside, but who wants to feel, to connect and to love despite her best efforts.”https://www.es.hu/cikk/2022-04-01/gergics-eniko/az-urkorszak-elmult.html

THE DOOR

Szeredás Emerenc memorial concert

Text based on the novel by Magda Szabó: Ildikó Gáspár

Music composed by Flóra Lili Matisz

Players: György Bajomi Nagy, Máté Borsi-Balogh, István Ficza, Bence Mátyássy, Bettina Józsa, Tünde Kókai, Márton Patkós, Judit Pogány, Anna Szandtner, Milán Vajda

Musician: Flóra Lili Matisz

Set: Csaba Antal, Costume: Luca Szabados, Video: András Juhász, Coreographer: Barnabás Horkay, Veronika Szabó, Light: Sándor Baumgartner, Dramaturg: Barbara Ari-Nagy, Musical Director: Árpád Kákonyi, Assistant: Diána Laky, Stage Manager: Áron Dávid

A busy young writer struggling to cope with domestic chores, hires a housekeeper recommended by a friend. Stubborn, foul-mouthed and with a flagrant disregard for her employer's opinions she may even be crazy. She allows no-one to set foot inside her house and is equally guarded about her personal life. And yet Emerence is revered as much as she is feared. As the story progresses, her energy and passion to help becomes clear, extinguishing any doubts arising out of her bizarre behaviour. After an unpromising and caustic start, benign feelings develop and ultimately the writer benefits from what becomes an inseparable relationship. Simultaneously we learn Emerence's tragic past - Hungary’s past in the 20th century - which is revealed in snapshots throughout this book.

Dailes Theatre Riga Latvia, 2021

Latvian Theatre Award for BEST VISUAL DESIGN 2021 (Set, Costume, Video)

“A visual adventure, taking the audience into the comic and horrifying depths of the absurd; for the filigree fusion of video art and set design, creating a single-stage space.”

“Rhinoceros is a theatre adventure. Amazing, flamboyant, rowdy, funny, topical, and obviously expensive.” Līga Ulberte, “Diena.lv” 20.09.2021.

".... scenic action transformed into a kaleidoscope of hilarious impressions” Toms Čevers, “Kroders.lv” 13.09.2021.

“The performance extends not only into all the planes and levels of the stage, but also backstage and even into the digital dimension, ensuring an almost continuous transmission of what is happening on the stage on a bar on the end wall along its entire length, or else on a transparent curtain.”

Eguene Ionesco: The Rhinoceros

With: Toms Velicko, Lauris Dzelzitis, Anete Krasovska, Juris Bartkevics, Girts Kesteris, Vita Varpiņa, Arturs Skrastiņs, Indra Brike, Ieva Seglina, Juris Strenga, Dainis Gaidelis, Aldis Silins

Set/Costume: Krista and Reinis Dzudzilo, Video: András Juhász, Choreography: Veronika Szabó, Music: Bernadett Tarr, Light: Tamás Bányai, Dramaturg: Justine Klava, Assistant: Laura Upeniece, Production Manager: Ildikó Ságodi, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: András Juhász, Marko Rass

The first performance of Lukas Bärfuss’ original play “Luther” on 16th July 2021, Nibelungenfestspiele, Worms

“Ildikó Gáspár and the rousing ensemble burn down a great spectacle in front of the cathedral. The porous world of the 16th century is read through bright, high-spirited contemporary glasses. The world of the princes, who entrenched themselves in their principalities and enjoyed their sovereignty, already slightly blown by the wind of change and clinging to their old, hereditary power. The greedy, corrupt clerics and oh, the women: battered, used, robbed, abused. Julischka Eichel and Jan Thümer, Elisabeth and Joachim, make a completely futile couple from the start, he first completely submissive, then completely submission, she first high pride, then big fall.” Nachtkritik, 17.07.2021

With Julischka Eichel, Jan Thümer, Jürgen Tarrach, Veronika Szabó, Barnabás Horkay, Johannes Klaussner, Anna Szandtner, Sunnyi Melles, Matthias Neukirch, Máté Borsi-Balogh, Barbara Colceriu, Iringó Réti, Ervin Pálfi, Konstantin Bühler, Katrija Lehmann

Live Music: Flora Lili Matisz, Live Camera: Jonas Lenz, Máté Bredán, Set and Costumes: Lili Izsák, Video Design: András Juhász, Music: Tamás Matkó, Lights: Tamás Bányai, Choreography: Barnabás Horkay, Dramaturgy: Thomas Laue, Assistent: Ildikó Ságodi, Lena Roth, Valerie Junker, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: David Baltzer

Here is the result of our work we decided to do in the quarantine after interrupting rehearsals of Racine's Andromache in the Budapester Orkény Theatre on the 11th of March. Then - after a couple of days of apathy - the idea came to try to rehearse and play on Zoom and to record it. By then, there weren’t any similar production online - yet. So, to experiment with this form was a real challenge without having already a picture about know-how of this new genre in advance. The result is a mixture of different genres but mainly the documentation of these four days (20-23 March - on 19 we did not work); how we got familiar with this way of working while everyday life in the quarantine is part of each moment, spontaneously.

“The work or rehearsal film - possibly theatre-like film or film-like theatre - (as the creators somewhat loosely call it: quarantine-videoconference-online-rehearsal-documentary) takes the form of a videoconference. The genre boundaries of theatre, long stiffened in our country, have finally melted away - who knows where they will stop. The aim: no longer to produce theatre mechanically (who knows why?), but to connect with each other, with the audience, here and now. And here and now it can be. Call it what you will.” Noémi Herczog, es.hu

WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES:)

ÖRKÉNY THEATRE BUDAPEST HUNGARY, 2020

“One of the central ideas of the performance is the all-destructive impossibility of communication. Love as a source of madness and frenzy is eternal. All we need to do is forget the antique myths and the pathetic 17th-century obsession with passion, mix a good dose of humour and grotesque playfulness into the text, the subject matter and the acting, and we have before us a quite excellent and evocative performance of Racine's Andromache. The beauty of a well thought-out concept lies in the small details.” György Karsai, revizoronline.hu

“A collective sleight of hand, as this riverside text comes to life in the Örkény actors' mouths.” Katalin Gabnai, szinhaz.net

“Present time, living, pulsating theatre. A hopeless, yet precisely felt, passionate emotion.” Katalin Kállai, Art7.hu

With: Gabriella Hámori, Máté Borsi-Balogh, Márton Patkós, Bettina Józsa, Béla Dóra/Barnabás Horkay, Milán Vajda

Set/Costume: Luca Szabados, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Choreography: Barnabás Horkay, Light: Sándor Baumgartner, Assistant: Diána Laky, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Judith Horváth

GÖTEBORG STADSTEATERN GÖTEBORG SWEDEN

A play by Lukas Bärfuss

Watch online on the site of Göteborgs Stadsteater!

https://stadsteatern.goteborg.se/pa-scen/2019-2020/blandat-bandat/veckans-forestallning/

“The artistic team has worked out a distinctive aesthetic that frames an expressionist drama about globalization, power, and gender.” Aftonbladet

“About the transgender Schmitz who is forced to work for an unnamed company to undergo a series of gender transformations to tap into the company's global interests. In Hungarian guest director Ildikó Gáspár, this becomes a laughing stock of contemporary grotesqueries, a Twin Peaks farce, and an expressionist all-around work.” dn.se

“Together, light builds scenes; sound, and music create an enclosed world where everything runs on repeated routines. Costume and mask are hard-driven for each of the eight characters. The ensemble pads on with expansive body language. The body is changeable and can increase the individual's utility. Reflecting on the relationship in the work collective is revealing. We become what we are judged to be. But after what criteria? What does gender matter?” Lis Hellström Sveningson kultur@gp.se

“Themes include national stereotypes, climate debate, and work management. Mostly, though, it's about identity, of course. It's about adapting and, if you like, fitting in too. "Who is Schmitz?" thus contributes a lot worth thinking about over.” SVD-Kultur

“The answer to who Schmitz is, and it takes the form of a passion play, where rebirth takes on both secular and religious meaning. So who is Schmitz? A classic answer: Anyone. Everyman.” Christian Swalander, Boras Tidning

With Karin de Frumerie, Fredrik Evers, Emilie Strandberg, Ylva Olaison, Victoria Dyrstad, Jesper Söderblom, Carl-Marcus Wickström, Josefin Ljungman

Set & Costume: Lili Izsák, Video: András Juhász, Music: Tamás Matkó, Light: Tamás Bányai, Dramaturgy: Joel Nordström, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Olya Kjelbye, Ines Sebalj, András Juhász

An adaptation based upon the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Örkeny Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

“Ildikó Gáspár has given a very unusual setting to this classic, essentially costume story. All the characters in Macbeth are brought to life by four actors who, as museum workers on a guided tour, conjure up the story of the Scottish monarch's accession to the throne and his downfall as a kind of "amateur theatre troupe. … The director has used every corner of the Örkény Studio, with actors performing on stage, in the auditorium, in the lobby, and at the front door. But the audience plays too because from the very first moment we become part of the story because we are treated not as theatre-goers but as visitors to a museum. In the second act, we take on a new role, we become part of the story of Macbeth, and as participants at a ball, the actors join in the fun and the events.”

https://deszkavizio.hu/shakespeare-hatartalanul/

“Ildikó Gáspár's Macbeth is a hopeful, positive story of overcoming a tyrant, performed for us by cultural (public) employees - an usherette, a janitor, a security guard, a tour guide - in a traveling exhibition of the Hungarian Holy Crown. The brilliant casting proves that an actor can play anything. Is it worth considering whether such-and-such a role is right for an actor of this age and build? It would be a completely silly consideration.”

https://ketlampas.blog.hu/2019/03/25/macbeth_639

With Máté Borsi-Balogh, Tamás Fodor, Nóra Diána Takács, Judit Pogány

Set&Costume: Ilka Giliga, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Light: Tamás Bányai, Dramaturgy: Barbara Ari-Nagy, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Judit Horváth, Alexandra Bernschutz, György Jókuti

A play by Tennessee Williams

Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, Germany

With Antonia Mohr, Sonja Viegener, Jens Koch, Alexander Küsters

Set & Costumes: Lili Izsák, Video: András Juhász, Music: Tamás Matkó, Dramaturgy: Judith Heese, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Felix Grünschloß, András Juhász

Based on works by Franz Kafka written by: Ildikó Gáspár

Örkény Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

With:
Eszter Csákányi, Imre Csuja, Béla Dóra, István Ficza, Zsombor Jéger, Éva Kerekes, Tünde Kókai, Zsolt Kovács, Máté Novkov, Márton Patkós, Csaba Polgár, Hella Roszik, Nóra Diána Takács, István Znamenák
Set: Lili Izsák, Costume: Sremac Marina, Video: András Juhász, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Tamás Matkó, Dramaturg: Barbara Ari-Nagy, Sára Gábor, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

In his short story “The Metamorphosis”, Kafka returns to ancient forms such as fables and Biblical parables, but their realm of meaning is often inexplicable. Mysterious as the world of dreams and nightmares, it offers a glimpse of where tales are born, in the subconscious.

Photos: Judit Horváth

A play by Ödön von Horvath

A small danse macabre in five scenes

Örkény Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

With Tünde Kókai, Márton Patkós, Zsolt Nagy, Eszter Csákányi, Sára Bohóczki, István Znamenák, Árpád Kákonyi, Dávid Katona, Péter Tóth

Set & Costume: Zoltán Gelsi, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Dávid Katona, Dramaturgy: Barbara Ari-Nagy, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Judit Horváth

From the Novel of Thomas Mann written by Ildikó Gáspár

Örkény Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

Nominated for the Hungarian Critic’s Award for

BEST PERFORMANCE

BEST TEXT ADAPTATION

"Since the days of Adam and Eve, since the time when one became two, nobody has been able to live without wanting to put himself in his neighbour's place and explore his situation, even while trying to see it objectively. Sympathy is an indispensable means of self-preservation.”

(Thomas Mann) 

  With: Imre Csuja, Béla Dóra, Attila Epres, László Gálffi, Gabriella Hámori, Zsombor Jéger, Éva Kerekes, Tünde Kókai, Zsolt Máthé, Zsolt Nagy, Máté Novkov, Márton Patkós, Csaba Polgár, Nóra Diána Takács, Réka Tenki/Kata Pető, Milán Vajda, István Znamenák, Emőke Zsigmond

Set: Lili Izsák, Costume: Júlia Szlávik, Video: András Juhász, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Dramaturg: Barbara Ari-Nagy Director: Tamás Ascher, Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Judit Horváth

City Theatre of Subotica, Serbia

With Ervin Pálfi, Attila Szőke, Csaba Ralbovszki, Attila Baráth, Tamás Hajdú, Csilla Pámer

 Set: Zsófi Mocsár, Costumes: Marina Sremac, Composer: Géza Kucsera, Puppeteer: Péter Bercsényi Péter, Dramaturgy: Kata Gyarmati, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Florian Zeller: The Father

Belvárosi Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

Translated by Ildikó Gáspár and Csaba Mikó

With Andor Lukáts, Gabriella Hámori, Zalán Makranczi, Sára Bohoczki, Gusztáv Molnár, Kati Lázár

Set and costume: Lili Izsák, Eszter Kálmán, Video: András Juhász, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Coreography:  Viktória Jaross-Light: Richárd Kehi, Producer: Tibor Orlai, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Csaba Mikó: The Fatherless

Örkény Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

77– Tomi '80– Doda '81– Laci '83– Josa. '86– Feszter '87– Simon

“We live in a four-room house with a large garden — this is our kingdom, our REALM, as my father always says. “Father’s so funny, constantly smiling, and he always has serious plans. He’s always saying how now it’s finally possible. ‘There’s a future! There’s freedom! You’ve just got to want it, and you can achieve anything, son, anything!’ And I believe him. I love my father.”

In 2013 the play won the Best Hungarian Play Award.

With Éva Kerekes, Zsolt Nagy, Réka Tenki, Csaba Polgár, Nóra Diána Takács, Márton Patkós

Set: Lőrinc Boros, Costume: Izsák Lili, Video: Géza Szöllősi, Ákos Bánki, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Dramaturgy: Barbara Ari-Nagy, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Eszter Gordon

Friedrich Schiller: Mary Stuart

Based upon the translation of László Kálnoky adapted by Csaba Mikó

Örkény Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

Winner of the Hungarian Critic’s Award for

BEST LEAD ACTRESS

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Nominated for the Hungarian Critic’s Award for

BEST DIRECTING

BEST SET DESIGN

“History is written by the winners.

Masterpieces are inspired by the losers.”

With Anna Szandtner / Lilla Sárosdi, Gabriella Hámori, Csaba Polgár, Milán Vajda, Judit Pogány, Nóra Diána Takács, István Ficza, István Znamenák, Anna Spiegl, Árpád Kákonyi, Péter Bercsényi

Set and Costume: Lili Izsák, Eszter Kálmán, Video: András Juhász, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Dramaturgy: Barbary Ari-Nagy, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

Photo: Eszter Gordon

Daniel Danis: Kiwi

Budapest Puppet Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

With: Péter Bercsényi, Anna Spiegl

Set and Costume: Eszter Kálmán, Music: Árpád Kákonyi, Dramaturgy: Szaida Khaled-Abdo, Director: Ildikó Gáspár

A play by Pierre Notte

Translated by Yvette Jankó Szép and Judit Ágnes Kiss

Örkény Theatre, Budapest, Hungary

With: Nóra Diána Takács, Sára Bohoczki, Csaba Polgár, Árpád Kákonyi / Tamás Matkó

 Set and Costume: Lili Izsák, Music: Pierre Notte, Árpád Kákonyi, Tamás Matkó, Coreography: Zsófia Murányi, Dramaturgy: Barbara Ari-Nagy, Director: Ildikó Gáspár