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The piece is based on the music of Bach and the novel The Resistance of Melancholy by the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai.
Dávid Márton has become one of the most sought after directors in Europe in just a few years time. The pieces he brings to the stage are an unconventional mix of music and acting. He calls them ?projects? - theatrical adaptations of literary or musical works, but not in the sense that the one compliments the other; they are rather an artistic alternative showing the influence of his German peers Frank Castorf and Christoph Marthaler.
Márton studied piano at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in the mid-90s. In 1996, he studied for a semester at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin. He decided to continue his studies in the German capital because of the opportunity to perform.
?They squeezed us into a little hall to play at the Music Academy twice a year, while in Berlin we could play in many places in public,? he said.
Márton first worked as a musician in the theatre. Among the venues he played was the Volksbühne, where he found ?genuine? theatre.
He said it wasn?t the style of the directors that grabbed him, but the entire way of thinking, the ?degree of freedom? involved with bringing a piece to the stage as well as the actor?s relationships with themselves, with each other and with the world. Later he learnt that the kind of freedom to be had at the Volksbühne was not the rule for the rest of German theatres.
Márton has directed at the Volksbühne, the smaller Sophiensaele and at a number of other well known German stages. He does not work regularly with a single troupe, but works frequently with the same actors and musicians.
Márton has been invited to direct in Hungary by such theatres as the Örkény and the Bárka, but he has declined because of the scale of the task.
?Theatre is entirely different in Hungary than in Berlin, it?s much more theatre-like,? he said.
Márton brought a production of Harmonia Caelestis, based on the book of the same name by Péter Esterházy, to Paris a year ago. The piece created a stir among French audiences and in the press.
The director returned to Paris a month later with Wozzeck and brought a piece based on Mozart?s Don Giovanni to the stage in the autumn.
?It?s as if the people in Paris are starving for something that is different,? Márton said.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
