Magda Szabó's "The Door" set to debut at National Theater of Szeged

The theatrical adaptation of Magda Szabó's renowned novel "The Door" is set to debut at the National Theater of Szeged on February 2. During an event held for the audience at the REÖK Arts Center on Tuesday, January 24, the play's director and managing director of the theater, László Barnák, along with actors Gizi Fekete, Annamária Szilágyi, and Tamás Borovics, discussed the performance.

"We are not simply staging the novel itself. This production aims to explore a variety of themes rather than adapting Magda Szabó's novel 'The Door' as it is," stressed the director. Simultaneously, he mentioned that akin to the novel, the Szeged stage adaptation emphasizes the housekeeper Emerence and her relationship with the writer Magda.

Barnák also highlighted that this performance differs from previous productions in that the playwright Róbert Vörös tailored the play specifically for the actors from Szeged, for the two main characters — Gizi Fekete and Annamária Szilágyi. The focus of the performance will be strongly on the actors, therefore the play will not have a built set, primarily they will try to make the production more lively with light and acoustic effects, added the director.

The mysterious character of Emerence will be brought to life by Jászai Award-winning actress Gizi Fekete. Drawing parallels between the novel and her own life, she pointed out residing in Debrecen and later working in the Zalaegerszeg theater as significant connections. Reflecting on her time in Zalaegerszeg, she recalled herself and her husband working full-time thus having to rely on a nanny to care for their child. Fekete remarked that there are actually sentences in the play she could have said in real life.

The writer Magda Szabó is played by Annamária Szilágyi, who highlighted ruthless honesty as the main similarity between her character and herself. The actress also talked about how she and Gizi Fekete have been wanting to play together on stage for a long time, which is now finally happening.

In the stage adaptation, the character of Magda Szabó's husband, Tibor Szobotka, played by Tamás Borovics, gets a significantly more prominent role than in the novel. The multiple award-winning Borovics talked about the main struggle of his character, Szobotka, who was living his life in the shadow of his wife's success.

Magda Szabó's novel, The Door (Az ajtó), written in 1987, has been translated into nearly 40 languages since its publication. A movie adaptation, directed by István Szabó, came out in 2012 with Oscar and Golden Globe-winner Helen Mirren in the role of Emerence and Martina Gedeck playing Magda. Adaptations made from the novel have been performed successfully in several Hungarian theaters in recent years.

Note: the language of the play is Hungarian

Photos: Szegedify / Szilvia Molnar