class="">Gábor Tompa, running a theatre for a quater of a century

October 23^rd

He shaped up an ensemble; he brought it on high level and maintains it there. He directs plays at the theatre he’s been running since 1990, but also invites important theatre makers who do create referential works here. It’s Gábor Tompa!

An interview by Maria Sârbu

Maria Sârbu:  You’ve been running the Hungarian State Theatre Cluj since 1990- for 25 years- that’s also the age of the National Theatre Festival. And it’s hard to imagine the festival without this ensemble, especially over the past few years. How can one build up performance, Mr. Gábor Tompa?

Gábor Tompa: By constant risk taking, along with exceptional artists, be they established or young, artists who have something to say about the world we live in, by their uninterrupted curiosity and humbleness, by the refusal of getting satisfaction from what they’ve managed doing so far…

How did you manage to impose this sort of aestethics, so tipical for your theatre?

25 years ago I have committed to a long term artistic project. The core of this program is permanently revising the relations between tradition and innovation and between particular and universal. We tried to put together a young and strong group of actors, ready and willing to accept with maximum openness the challenges coming from directors, set designers, composers proposing various styles of theatrical language, aiming at continuously renewing our means of artistic expression…

At the 2015 NTF, your theatre will bring two productions: „#swansong” and „The Visit” / you directed this second one. How will these performances impress? What characterizes them?

We’re talking about two very different performances that represent the way of thinking of two directors belonging to extremely different generations. „The Visit” is a play become a classic, still without losing its value in these times, when provincial communities, apparently preaching their perfect, immaculate morale, can be in reality so very easily corrupted and can betray in extremely short time the ideas of human solidarity, that we all so badly need nowadays. „#swansong” is a very novel view of the actor’s condition, a tragi- comical essay on the topic of aging, of the ephemeral, of the relationships between generations inside the theatre, about „off-stage” living.

You have brought Magda Stief back to the theatre in Cluj- she plays the lead in „The Visit”. What is it that connects you to this wonderful actress?

First of all, the wonderful performances directed by Vlad Mugur in Cluj- Magda Stief returned after more than 20 years to this theatre where she had started her artistic career and constructed exceptional creations in “The Chairs”, “The Cherry Orchard”, “Right You Are (If You Think So)”…We also worked together on a play by Matei Vişniec “Old Clown Wanted”, that we staged in Vienna in 1997. She is not only a collaborator and a warm hearted supporter of the Hungarian Theatre, but also a lifelong honorific member of the company.

At this 2015 edition, there is one more staging of yours – „Ubu Slammer!”, an adaptation of “Ubu in Chains” you did with the Cluj- Napoca National Theatre. What features recommend this performance to the Bucharest audiences?

Jarry’s texts are anyhow more present than ever. Aside from that, there is the strong cast: Marian Râlea, Anca Hanu, Cristian Grosu, Cornel Răileanu, Ionuţ Caras, Cătălin Herlo and their colleagues are a really homogenous team. I think the great attraction are the original music and verses composed by Ada Milea, as well as the brass orchestra lead by the actress& soloist  Sânziana Tarţa- in my opinion she shines in a sort of Brecht- like hypostasis.

What plays are you going to direct this year?

A short while ago, a production of „The Cherry Orchard” opened at Maribor, at the Slovenian National Theatre- it was such a joy for me to work there together with George Banu, this time acting as literary advisor to the production. I spent a few unforgettable weeks there, together with the set designer Carmencita Brojboiu, exploring the play, inspired by George Banu’s book.  Now when I am writing these lines, I am in rehearsals with „Toys” (Jucării) by Saviana Stănescu, at the Hudson Theater in Los Angeles, with a premiere scheduled for November 6^th.

What new shows will open at the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj this season?

On October  9^th , we had the premiere of „Julius Caesar”,  by Shakespeare, directed by Silviu Purcărete,  designed by Dragoş Buhagiar and with music composed by Vasile Şirli. Now they are in rehearsals with „America” by Franz Kafka, under the direction of Michal Docekal, the manager of the National Theatre in Prague, opening of November 27^th. In March, director Dominique Serrand, one of the eminent disciples of Jacques Lecoq, will finish a performance based on several musical „Requiems”-uri, titled „Too All Eternity”,

Felix Alexa will come to Cluj in January and February, to stage Strindberg’s “The Pelican”. The well known film director Szász Jűnos will do a first staging of the play  „Rubber Boots ” by Dragomán György. There will also be a performance for children: „The Clumsy Wizard” by Békés Pál, directed by Béres László. Yuri Kordonsky will start rehearsing at the end of the season / we will agree together on the title. And finally, we are retaking the series of performances of Andrei Şerban’s complete trilogy: „Uncle Wanja”, „Cries and Whispers”, „Hedda Gabler”.

You direct a lot, inside and outside Romania…you teach in the US…you run a theatre…you run a wonderful bi-annual festival in Cluj. It’s not easy at all. How do you manage?

I miss my children a lot… But  to answer, let me quote from a great Hungarian poet, Tandori Dezso, in rough translation: „ So that you never come back, you can’t leave her for good/ you keep bits of her/ that force you to constantly run away/”

The festival you run under the umbrella of your theatre, „Interferences”, offers the inhabitants of Cluj  the opportunity to see high class foreign performances. What is this theatre event? How was it created?

The festival takes place under the umbrella of the Hungarian State Theatre Cluj, a member of the European Theatre Union (UTE). From the very first edition I tried to bring international theatre, representing various European cultures, to the multiethnic and powerful, students- populated city of Cluj- Napoca, a candidate for the European Cultural Capital in 2021. The festival thus became a collaboration and cooperation platform for the UTE.

We then extended the area of this approach by creating spatial interferences between Europe and other continents or inside the city of Cluj. We left the intimate space of the theatre building and included other cultural spaces: Fabrica de Pensule, Casa Tranzit / a former synagogue, The National Arts Museum, The National Theatre, the Transilvania International Film Festival, a film event with a European dimension, a brand of the city of Cluj. In 2012 we focused on the dialogue between music and theatre, in 2014 we chose „Mărturiile corpului / The stories of the body / Les récits du corps” as our topic- we owe the name to George Banu, who has also become our artistic advisor in 2014.

What do you wish at this moment, after 25 years of running a theatre? What do you wish the NTF at its 25^th anniversary?

Real theatre, that powerfully confronts us to ourselves and to the realities we live in!

Photo credit: Istvan Biro

October 23^rd