Northern Theatre Harag György Company

Between 21and 29 of August was held the XXXII. Hungarian Theatres Festival at Kisvárda in which the performances of the competition program were selected by dramaturge Tibor Balogh, theatre critic and art consultant of the festival. Among the selected plays was the performance of the Harag György Company, the fictional historical drama of Szőcs Géza entitled Rasputin, directed by Sardar Tagirovsky. The Company performed on August 27 in Kisvárda, at the House of Arts. The performance of the company was a great success among critics, Judit Ungvári was the first to publish an article about Rasputin in the Kisvárda Newspapers.

“(…) The performance presents an astonishingly grandiose vision to the viewer, in which Rasputin’s controversial figure admires almost in a Christian role, in the light of the madness which we call the twentieth century.. (…)The visual world deserves a separate study, from the lights to the puppet-like masked actors almost resembeling masks of commedia dell’arté, designed by Anna Kupás, with costumes stylized by a strong brushstrokes.. The excellent musical outline of Dászid László Bakk deserves a separate analysis. Separate odes could be sung about the impressive acting performances of the Company, but it is definitely worth highlighting Rappert-Vencz Gábor, who shaped Rasputin and had an overwhelmingly strong stage presence.

The performances of the competition program were evaluated by a five-member Professional Jury (aesthete Gulyás Gábor; Kozma András dramaturge- National Theatre; director Naszlady Éva, chairman of the jury; actor Mészáros Blanka - Radnóti Miklós Theatre; actor Sztarenki Pál, director). Based on their decision, the performance of the György Harag Company entitled Rasputin received two - shared - prizes.

Rappert-Vencz Gábor, who played Rasputin, received the prize for The Best Male Lead, sharing it with Sebestyén Aba, who played the main role in the performance of the Miklós Tompa Company of the Târgu Mureş National Theatre, The Enemy of the People.



„It is a great honour this professional award, for which I have to thank many: to God, to Szőcs Géza, to Sardar Tagirovsky, for the trust, to the members of the company for their work and support, and last but not least my family. . This role was a lucky encounter during a lucky constellation, one of the most important performance of my theatrical life.” –Rappert-Vencz Gábor said.

The Harag György Company received the award of the Ministry of Human Resources for The excellent cooperative work in an ensemble, sharing it with the performance entitled Gusztáv is at fault for everything by the Dezső Kosztolányi Theatre in Subotica.

The excellent cooperative work in an ensemble award was accepted by the director of the play Sardar Tagirovsky, whom in a recent interview spoke about his work with the Company: It was one of my most enjoyable jobs, I’ve never worked in such harmony with an ensemble. It’s always hard for me because I work with very different tools than usual, but in this case, we were able to tune in on each other very well.”



„The awarding procedures has or may have a variety of criteria, but these two awards now indicate that there are values that are unavoidable. Gábor may have had to wait too long for such an honourable professional recognition, which I believe he deserved decades ago, with several important performances. However, this role-shaping is arguably one of the highlights of his career so far, and it would have been difficult to leave it unseen. I was at least as pleased with the justification for the award for the company work, as Rasputin is a teamwork based on the protagonist of the centrally structured drama, but it moves a huge cast so that every gear in the performance has to work perfectly, both artistically and technically. This enormous teamwork, which could have resulted in a much more asset-rich, visionary, and ambitious performance than that obviously offered by the dramatic text, would not have been possible without the work of a director who sees the text in such a fertile reading. Thanks to him and his staff that the performance and style unity is so markedly in action in the play.
That’s why I asked Sardar Tagirovsky to take over the teamwork award for me - because in my reading, it’s at least as much a director’s award as a cooperative award. Sardar's unique way of working, his director's vision and the well-known legendary professional humility, talent and work ethic of the artists of our company together gave birth to this joint performance, in which Sardar remained an active participant throughout - in the sense that he returned to every performance organizes, rethinks and rethinks, he takes care of the performance in the noblest sense of the word, even like a richly growing garden. In this sense, it had a particularly strong symbolism for me to have this joint award taken over by the director and the lead actor of the play together on behalf of the whole company. It was a pleasure for everyone, and we can be especially glad that it did not go unnoticed,” says company director Bessenyei Gedő István