Highlights of the 2023 Theater Olympics in Szeged
The 10th Theater Olympics, hosted by Hungary between April 1 and July 1, 2023, featured a wide array of performances, including plays, experimental theater, dance, puppetry, and more. This year's Theater Olympics didn't just focus on the host city, Budapest, but featured numerous street theater and puppetry performances throughout the 3 months of the festival in major cities Hungary-wide.
In this post, we'll look back at the event series that brought world-famous artists to Szeged and review some of the highlights that made the biggest impact on the audience.
World Festival of Puppets
The World Festival of Puppets, an accompanying event of the 2023 Theater Olympics was held between April 9 and June 30, with the participation of 13 Hungarian puppet theaters. The country-wide event was organized by the Association of Hungarian Puppet Artists and featured 9 workshops, 3 exhibitions, 6 creative projects, 53 foreign, 57 national, and 7 transborder puppet and street theatres, and a total of 332 performances.
Companyia La Tal performing Carilló at the Tengerhab Gyereknap puppet festival in Szeged. Photo: Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify
The following performances were all hosted by Kövér Béla Puppet Theater Szeged as part of the World Festival of Puppets and the Theater Olympics, and were attended by the writer of this article.
Yael Rasooly in Szeged
Yael Rasooly opened the Theater Olympics event series in Szeged with her award-winning show Paper Cut. The Jerusalem-born multidisciplinary artist is a theater director, puppeteer, and singer who has performed in more than 30 countries worldwide.
Paper Cut, a solo performance about the story of a lonely secretary, blurs the boundaries between imagination and reality, transforming a mesmerizingly romantic tale into a Hitchcockian nightmare. Yael's captivating and passionate play invited us to discover and accept our own feelings and vulnerabilities, illusions, and heartbreaks and taught us a hell of a lot about self-worth and self-love.
If you thought this was just another good show, think again. It was THE opening performance — and Kövér Béla Puppet Theater opened the Olympics in style. We were encouraged to arrive dressed in 20s-30s outfits. After entering the puppet theater on a red carpet like proper movie stars, we were greeted with champagne, and we were surrounded by glamorous decorations and details to match Paper Cut's vibe. An exhibition of Super 8 machines and a three-item wine tasting served as the perfect backdrop for a lively chat before we could immerse ourselves in the funny, loveable, serious, sad, and tension-filled story of Paper Cut.
Photos by Dániel Szügyi, via Kövér Béla Puppet Theater
Read more about Yael's motivations, work, and shows, including Paper Cut, in our in-depth interview:
Panorama Kino Theater by Tom Greder
The unique vision of Tom Greder's Panorama Kino Theater — one of the most awaited Theater Olympics performances in Szeged — transported us into another dimension. Tom Greder, born in Switzerland and raised in Australia, is known worldwide for his interactive contextual physical comedy, and his ability to involve the audience. His world helps us step out of the ordinary, question and realize things we hardly ever question and realize anymore, and be ourselves like we very rarely can. His interactive theater not only invites us to play, but it also takes us on a journey to rediscover ourselves and the world around us.
Sitting in his rotating box, watching the streets around us fill with life like we never experienced before, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, that we, who were lucky enough to try it, will cherish for a very long time. The performing artist, theater director, workshop teacher, and arts advocate performed with an international team of artists in Szeged during the Tengerhab Gyereknap, a grandiose 3-day puppet festival at the end of May, that featured 20 productions from 5 countries.
Photos by Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify
Firebirds Circus
The spectacular performance of the Firebirds, a new circus group based in Hungary, was definitely one of the highlights of the Theater Olympics in Szeged, attracting a huge crowd at the Tengerhab Gyereknap Puppet Festival.
We were blown away by Firebirds' show titled Freak Fusion Cabaret, a time travel that immediately dropped us into the world of the last century's mystical traveling circuses. The jaw-dropping juggling — including fire juggling — acrobatics, burlesque, and aerial acts were equally popular among all ages of the Szeged audience.
Formed in 2000, the Firebirds circus group showcases street performances, fire shows, cabaret, contemporary circus, and children's theater in their repertoire, performing both in Hungary and abroad.
Photos by Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify
A Zeppelin flying over Szeged
A Zeppelin — quite a rare sight these days — was spotted over downtown Szeged during the 10th Theater Olympics. The street performance of La Baldufa Theater combined elements of visual storytelling and physical theater to transport audiences into a whimsical world of wonder and adventure. We could celebrate with the crew as the Zeppelin was launched, assist when the machine broke down and the pilot had to be brought back to life, and also help when the Zeppelin had an accident and had to be inflated again.
With their unique artistic vision and boundless creativity, the Catalan La Baldufa Theater enchanted spectators, leaving a memorable mark on the Theater Olympics event series, as well as on the heart of the Szeged audience.
Photos by Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify
Although not impossible, it is hard to feature the full list of exceptional artists and productions — both Hungarian and international — we had the privilege of meeting here in Szeged in one short post. To read a bit more about the event series, check this article, where Ágness Kiss, the director of the Kövér Béla Puppet Theater shared valuable insights about the puppet theater's season, including her thoughts on the Theater Olympics.
