The production, a revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical based on the book by Hugh Wheeler and inspired by the Ingmar Bergman Film Smiles of a Summer Night, features Mari Törőcsik as Madame Armfeldt. Törőcsik plays her character in such a way that every sentence uttered carries with it a bit of wisdom underpinned with irony.
Eszter Nagy-Kálóczy, in the role of Désirée Armfeldt, invokes an actress from the pen of Chekhov, one whose sordid soul is cloaked in beauty.
Bergman had in mind, the operetta of Central Europe, that is, of Vienna and Budapest, when he made Smiles of a Summer Night, and Sondheim?s pleasant, poetic music also has traces of Hungarian operetta in it. There are certainly no Mediterranean temperaments in this production, rather it is about northern music, about the state of things and their passing.
Let?s not worry about the production being a revival. As Törőcsik?s character says in the musical, Solitaire is the only thing in life that demands absolute honesty. The Central Theatre?s A Little Night Music is exactly that: honest Solitaire, and that is what makes it so good.
Author: Tamás Tarján / Photo: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
